I really appreciate the reading list provided by the 🔗 Justice for All quest, but it's very USA centric (by design). I would love to expand my knowledge beyond the US—does anyone have recommendations for similar social justice-based books about other countries/regions? I'm particularly interested in France (or the EU more broadly), but I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you 🩷

"Conan. Yes, that is a really wonderul name," Shimada said as he raised his arms behind his head. He was using the alternative reading for the characters kawa and minami to read the name Kawaminami as Conan.

So clearly a Detective Conan reference, right? Well actually, or by extension, an Arthur Conan Doyle reference and a smart way to give this new character a Western Mystery Writer Nickname like the others without him being part of the island crew.

EDIT: I just looked at the publication dates, definitely not a Detective Conan thing but a direct Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reference, my bad!!

I’m struggling with this bit on how individualist societies are “impelled in the direction of communism” mostly because, modern life seems to discredit it. The direction for most of my adult life seems to have been to further entrench individualism. My grandparents, farmers, were certainly more invested in the well-being of their neighbours, than my parents or I are (even as I really am trying and practicing to improve this).

But it makes me curious why we don’t have more of a drive toward or expansion of communism (as seemed self-evident to Kropotkin at the end of the 19th century).

I think a LARGE part was McCarthyism, and the attacks of most Western states on any form of communism after working class/leftist victories early in the 20 century that won things like universal healthcare (in some countries), the 40 hours workweek, etc. So many of the anarchist and leftist biographies I’ve read in the past year have included those leftist figures literally being deported for promoting any kind of collectivism. I think this was compounded by significant attack on unions (and co-opting and fragmentation of them).

Second to this has been the elimination of shared public spaces. Growing up it used to be very normal to spend whole afternoons in a coffee shop, but now the only public space I’m alllowed to spend time in without spending money is the library. It’s very hard to build community bonds when every interaction is a transaction.

Which brings me to my third theory, which is neoliberal capitalism, that has been slowly turning all of our hobbies, interactions and activities into transactions. It’s so insidious. Even little art groups that used to be a great way to build community seem to only exist on Patreon for a monthly fee now.

Which also points to why Page bound feels so exciting and radical: it’s a free space where no one has to pay to participate. It creates public space that we can hold together where we can interact and share ideas. And it’s full of folks who are already anti-AI (and perhaps already invested in ideas about collective care).

It makes me wonder how I can create more spaces like this in my community?