Why Do Anarchists Burn Ballot Boxes?

Ballot box on fire

From https://raddle.me/wiki/burning_ballot_boxes by ziq

Anarchists have been burning ballot boxes for generations because anarchists have a keen understanding of the way the act of voting, and the system of democracy more broadly is used to destroy our agency and rapidly shrink the range of acceptable discourse that is tolerated by the government in the public sphere.

When the act of casting a vote for a politician is offered up by the state as the only permissible form of resistance against its rule, voting has shown itself to be a clear and present danger to anyone who cares about anarchy or self-determination.

Voting is a cruel and vicious ritual whereupon the winning group of voters are able to force their party's agenda and the personalities of their leaders on everyone else for half a decade, and then safely ignore the needs of people outside their group, either because they were outvoted or chose not to vote at all (sometimes under the threat of imprisonment in countries where it's illegal to not cast a ballot).

We're always being told by our gracious and benevolent rulers and their high-paid propagandists that actions we take outside of the representative democracy system to resist their authority, no matter how milquetoast these actions are, no matter how minuscule of a threat these actions really pose to their power, are improper and illegal.

As far as government is concerned, voting is the only acceptable, legal avenue to social and economic change the populace can be allowed to exercise. And if we refuse to participate in the vote, we're told by members of the voting population that we don't have a right to criticize the government since we refrained from participating in selecting it and granting it our individual and collective power to use as it sees fit.

We live in a world where even peaceful protests are violently dispersed by the ruling party's enforcers for being "disruptive" and unsanctioned by the state. We witness graffiti artists and wheat-pasters get beat up and thrown in prison for putting non-state-sanctioned messages in public spaces, while billboard companies are given free reign to spread the grotesque messages of capitalists and candidates for public office far and wide.

Voicing dissent outside of the ever-shrinking lines demarcated by the state for engagement with the public, taking action that would undermine the government's ability to rule, or offering any kind of alternative to the democratic, statist, capitalist status quo has effectively been criminalized.

Both representative and direct democracy (like the Brexit vote in the UK) are used to force minorities to submit to the whims of the majority, and by proxy, to the whims of the ruling class who control the majority through the intricate systems of propaganda they construct with their vast looted wealth.

Thanks to a perverse combination of the 24/7 media machine and meticulously-crafted marketing/brainwashing practices that have been long-proven to strongly influence all our thought processes and decisions, the desires of the voters and the desires of the people who rule them have been rendered virtually indistinguishable.

The voters do the bidding of their rulers more than any time in history - they hate and fear the things they're told to hate and fear, support and buy the things they're told to support and buy. Few of them are able to resist the constant stream of propaganda expertly manufactured to feed delicious dopamine to the human brain.

This monopoly on propaganda that government/capital has been granted by millions of hapless citizen-voters needs to be contested by anarchists just as much as their monopoly on violence, since their fine-tuned propaganda systems are a large part of how they legitimize and enable their violence and the wholesale transfer of wealth to the rich.

Every time an anarchist or a group of anarchists take it upon themselves to fight back at the system that crushes them by burning their neighborhood ballot box, a slurry of petulant rage immediately comes spewing out of all of the state's propaganda systems, and even from a lot of our fellow travelers, who feel the need to loudly denounce this form of direct action and the anarchists who practice it for (lightly grazing) the hallowed democracy-machine. Never mind that the machine's paint-job hasn't even been scratched thanks to its massive wall-to-wall bumper, the bootlickers in radical garb will still cry foul.

The ardent critics of direct action and adherents of democratic government who take up so much space in our discourse - the Chomsky, Bookchin and Graeber acolytes - are showing us they're unwilling to honestly confront the most pervasive, oppressive and deadly system of authority in history, as it continues to dig its hooks in, giving it more and more leverage to crush any dissent that bubbles up against Leviathan anywhere on the face of the planet.

Instead, they'll continue to cling to and enable the system with the excuse that it isn't exactly the same as 1930s-style fascism, so it's preferable to letting a Hitler superfan win the election and send them all to concentration camps (never mind all the migrants their fave politicians actually send to concentration camps everyday, that's on the migrants for not voting harder).

These proponents of the sanctity of the polling place demonstrate they're tools of the ruling class just as much as any of the hate-fueled Murdoch poison lining the newsstands and monopolizing the airwaves.

The left-wing voter will always have culpability for the system they willingly participate in upholding, especially when you take notice of just how many hours of their life they pour into sermonizing for their preferred party on Facebook, Reddit and Twitter.

Yes, I know, they totally swear they're only voting for "harm reduction" and aren't actually that big of a fan of the neoliberal they put in office, but somehow that doesn't stop them from working to shun and villainize the anarchists they rub shoulders with for not voting for their guy, even going as far as to accuse us of supporting fascism and of wanting trans / disabled / (insert other marginalized identity here) people to die because we refuse to participate in their little democracy fetish or buy into the notion that the government protects people.

Every time I hear them use the phrase "harm reduction", it honestly makes my skin crawl. The absolute fucking nerve of these people to conflate safe injection sites and needle exchanges (you know, actual harm reduction) with helping put career war criminals and sex pests like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton in office. But I digress.

Self-proclaimed lesser-evilists insist they only vote to get the nice tyrants elected, who promise they'll smile at the screaming brown kids as they snatch them from their parents arms and cram them into cages, but the honest voters will openly tell you what they're really concerned with when they vote is things that affect them more directly...

Both candidates will snatch kids, genocide indigenous people to take their land and water, bomb schools and hospitals, imprison entire generations of black people and drone-strike goat herders across the world to seize their oil, sure. But one of the candidates promises they'll give them a break on their student loan debt, or on their taxes, or on the price of health care, and that's what they really mean by harm reduction - their personal monetary benefit - the preservation of their own privilege.

Democrats are a wonderful people, truly. So moral and compassionate, reducing the harm done to their annual income. If only they'd be honest and call it what it is, instead of pretending they're voting for the politer murderous tyrant because it will supposedly keep x marginalized group safe from original-flavor fascism.

After the failed experiments of fascism and Marxism-Leninism in the 20th century, representative liberal democracy is the system that has proven to be the most successful at maintaining the joint tyranny of government/capital and to further the expansion of the police-prison-military industrial complex. It displaced the previous tyrannical systems because it was the best equipped to get the people (voters) on its side by promising them an (inconsequential) say in the direction of the empire via the ballot box.

So, the ballot box, being the tool from which the entire democratic-state system is granted its legitimized power, is perhaps the most compelling target for attack of all. Together with the closely-related media/marketing behemoth, the ballot box makes up the holy trinity that democratic government depends on.

Before the state can unleash its police and military arms on the dwindling number of people that haven't yet been co-opted by the system, it needs that ceremonial ballot box to legitimatize the whole rotten affair and ensure the rest of the population won't bat an eyelid when any potential revolt is brutally put down and every last person is forced to submit to the government's power and cease any resistance to the horrors of state hegemony.

The ballot box serves to convince voters that the atrocities their government commits against them and citizens of other nations is being done with their full approval, so as to smother any potential resistance from people who might not have been so accepting of the state's misdeeds if they hadn't gotten to personally participate in putting their "team" in control of the state.

After another grueling election year that monopolizes every conversation they have, after smugly accusing every non-voter they encounter of wanting to genocide trans people (seriously, I have receipts), all the lesser-evilists can shift to post-election mode and spend the next several years defending (or ignoring) every awful thing the government they voted for then does on their behalf.

Can't risk taking responsibility for their part in those rapidly-accumulating atrocities by actually admitting the guy they decided should rule the world because he promised them money and protection is a fucking monster.

When they find out their party of choice actually spends millions of their campaign donations funding the most reactionary, bigoted candidates from the other party to make their own candidates look more reasonable by comparison, they simply shrug and keep voting.

Since the voter is so ready and willing to exchange their agency and mine for the state's monopoly on violence, buying into the big lie that government keeps them safe from crime, disease, debt, litter and all those scary migrants across the sea, the ballot box that fuels the ruling class's entire base of power needs to burn.

Burning the ballot box is a fierce expression of anarchy. It's the loud proclamation that I will not be ruled by you or anyone.

I will not exchange my agency or my autonomy for whatever favors a political party promises me for my support.

I will not put my well-being above the well-being of the government's blood-soaked targets, and thus drench my own hands in their innocent blood.

I will not voluntarily legitimize the system that takes everything from me and you and gives it to the ruling class, who then funnel their vast spoils into the propaganda machine, directing it to select the next geriatric rapist to sit in the big chair.

Crown, flag or ballot box - all instruments of oppression are thankfully flammable. You can call it harm reduction if you like. I just call it anarchy.

There are 8 Comments

Like here I'm often amazed at how much I agree with this author all the while finding his methodology (the more or less intentional use of his own personality cult, as if he matters more than Anon) repulsive. This is more of fronting for bringing legitimacy -or even just legibility- to the liberal/academic audiences out there, on actions that don't really require much explanations. Unless if it's to avoid confusion with the MAGA crowd.

But do kids even care about stupid elections?

The burning of normie cars, on the other hand, is still much more appealing to me, even if of course it might not have the same level of effectiveness.

people complain whether it's anonymous or not. do you oppose both to that a person owns up to their words and that anarchists address non-anarchists in their writing?

"When Anonymous writes without a persona, leaving the byline blank rather than signing multiple pieces with the same pseudonym, she does indeed accomplish the sameness she strives for, and this can be empowering because it erodes the idea the separation between professional anarchist writers and rank and file anarchists. However, I would attach the caveat that there is something to gain from the consistency lent by a persona, whether it’s a pseudonym or not. Not only is it personally satisfying to see a specific writer develop over time, or to see how someone’s works communicate with one another—to see patterns in a coherent body of works, but it can be politically useful to trace how people influence one another and develop over time.

Finally, there is the matter of theft, which I wholly support. But I want to drop a little word that will make our more illegalist brethren shudder: accountability. While it is true that ideas are collectively created, the individuals who do the actual creating should not disappear within this collectivity. If we renounce the separation between beliefs and actions, we acknowledge that people bear responsibility for the arguments they send out into the world—both the good ones and the bad ones. It’s less a question of taking credit, and turning this credit into some kind of ideological capital, and more a question of providing a sort of traceability to ideas: allowing a reader to reference the influential writings where a theme was elaborated in more depth, or in another historical and cultural context. There’s also the issue of taking responsibility for what you write so you can face the consequences if your research is sloppy or if you’re making unfair criticisms and false assertions."

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alex-gorrion-anonymous

The online non-anon behavior of Ziq (and his little gang of supporters) goes beyond these issues you're bringing with being anon or pseudon. I said it's about a personality cult, fronting in the name of, and then claiming some sort of anarchist papacy over the brethren.

...as opposed to someone like Shawn Wilbur, who -like or dislike his style- will avoid fronting while talking in depth about WHO are these "anarchists" he's referring to and what were their motives, and sensibilities.

Also let's not discard the more important question I asked: is voting really that significant in the lives of people we'd rather be outreaching to (kids?) or is this just overhyping a rather mundane, boring aspect of democratic capitalist society, only valued by those who're already firmly set into supporting it... and for whom it also benefits materially?

In the U$, Trump cannot actually win elections, he steals them. Deterring voters who don't vote GOP (e.g deterring POC voters w DeSantis's election police in FL) is one part of that strategy. Selectively impeding access e.g. putting intimidation teams around ballot "drop boxes" in GOP hostile areas is another tactic. Still another is gerrymandering, and finally we have the pro-Trump candidates for state "secretary of state" who promise to just toss the results and certify Trump candidates.

If voting didn't work, they wouldn't invest so much energy in making it illegal, serving warrants on Black people for voting, and finding ways to toss out the count. They plan to make SURE voting doesn't work, and having Trump on both sides of the ballot (like they do gentrification) would be too obvious.

Obviously the playing field can be levelled. Imagine the impact of a few hundred burned ballot boxes in GOP-heavy areas within a contested state where the GOP has already moved first with the intimidation tactics. They whine, only to be met with the "level chessboard" reply. Won't help if they just toss the count but could make a difference in lesser scenarios.

Why does this even matter? Because if Trump gets back into office w MAGAts in Congress, we could see outright pogroms against LGBTQ folks. We could see abortion banned in all 50 states and contraception soon after. Anything other than "barefoot,pregnant, and in the home" could become a felony. Hell,we've already seen a (for now in jest) bill introduced in Arizona to make church attendance compulsory.

Once this shit starts goes full throttle (it's already started), we may have to fight a war to stop it, and that conflict could last for decades. Folks who have been having barbecues and vegan potlucks while fascists are at the range, gym, and dojo are NOT prepared for this, and if it starts now we are at a severe disadvantage. Even if things will still go bad eventually, a "decelerationist" approach buys us time. Buy enough time, and demographics could put the white supremacists out of contention for good and halt the conflict.

If you think I am talking trash, even the Washington Post (one of the biggest of all capitalist mouthpieces) is now running stories about the risk of civil war. This is not a game or a bunch of cosplaying bullshit. The capitalists know this war will ruin them alongside everyone else, thus the warnings in their publications in an effort to head it off. If this gets going, it will be a Cat 5 hurricane of violence, like Syria in a ten times larger country, and could become the worst war on Earth since Congo, possibly even since WWII.

If you think Ukraine is nasty, there are two main sides there, there could be 5-7 factions here. Also do not be surprised if all the other imperialists on Earth descend on the conflict, seeking to carve up Turtle Island as they did in the 1500's.

Why do you go on and on about Trump? You're always posting about Trump this or that, and how you get into "battles" with Trump fans or the 7 proud boys? Do you watch that Rachel Maddow lady or msnbc 24/7? You must since you seem to take the Washington Post seriously and don't realize it's in their interests to publish zany mongering for advertisement money/maximize profits. All these papers and new channel hosts admit to this, but you still take them seriously. Trump was an incompetent moron and didn't accomplish much other than spamming twitter, eating big macs, saying racist shit like his democrat/republican cohorts and mocking "the libs." He wasn't much of a neocon war monger nor deporter compared to the current presidents and ones before him. Dude, Trump was presented with a perfect and easy way to consolidate power on a silver platter with covid, but he didn't because he was too lazy and incompetent too. He didn't want to deal with it. It interrupted his time shitposting on twitter and trolling people like you.

You keep making these wacky predictions of a civil war breaking out and gulags if your favorite democrat/conservative politicians doesn't get elected with your notions of "lesser evilisms" you preach on here with each US election. Jesus just stop and stop watching mcnbc. POC didn't really vote in the past presidential election and it had nothing to do with intimidation.

In both Nov 14 2020 and Dec 12 2020, there were not "7 Proud Boys," there were 800-1,000 of them, backed by 20,000+ MAGAts. Trump may be an empty vessel but the assholes he brings to the party are deadly.

Nothing manarchist about fighting Proud Boys, plenty of both trans and cis women were in both of those fights. I do not find it worthwhile to distinguish among warriors by gender, as I've seen the toughest missions pulled off without regard for it.

Take the fight to the fash today, or they will bring it to your doorstep tomorrow! That's how it's always been with fash back to the 1920's.

OMG Luke, you're developing a manarchist swagger with all this "fighting proudboys" bragging! Soooo 90's!

Like what I had to wear all over DC in the week leading up to Dec 12 2020 and Jan 6. I had two friend's lives saved by plate armor, yet some of the Keyboard Commandos here seem to think this is all a joke and we can ignore the fash and they will go away. Trump might get disqualified (say by indictment), then we get DeSantis. He's even more dangerous, and he blends fascism with theocracy openly.

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