From Synchronized Chaos
October 15, 2024
A memoir by Josh Fernandez, reviewed by A. Iwasa
What’s it like to be an antifascist college professor facing termination for “soliciting students for potentially dangerous activities” while military recruiters have free range on your campus?
If you’re generally critical of academics, one thing you’ll have to understand about Josh Fernandez is that he’s hated teachers his whole life. If you have any doubts, in this book Fernandez will take you back from fighting the community college bureaucracy he works for over their Campus Antifascist Network, Bash Back! and an off campus Antifascist Fighting Club he hosted, to the kindergarten classroom of a certain Mrs. Clark. Though Clark maybe a changed name or composite character, you’ll get the drift.
Like many anti-authoritarians forged in post-industrial schools and equally dysfunctional families, Fernandez lays it all out going back and forth in time from his adult struggles to his wild upbringing. Many people say one or both of their parents were crazy, but Fernandez’s biological father actually was. I’m not trying to imply this an inherently bad thing, just a reality people frequently don’t take for the actual weight of the situation.
You’ll steadily follow Fernandez down what seems to me the well trodden paths of juvenile delinquency, but I think they’re largely the only ways to have any agency when you’re 12-15 years old or so in our society.
Skate boarding and punk rock fandom start to balance things out a bit for Fernandez, along with some relatively healthy family life aspects as a well intentioned step father enters his life.
The adult narratives move around in time also, back in time in the case of the day of Trump’s selection by the Electoral College when Fernandez attended a comically bad conference on diversity and education that day in 2016.
The youthful account contains a first hand telling of the show a Nazi stabbed Aragorn from Little Black Cart at. I was shocked to read Aragorn’s roommate at the time, Paul, died the next day from a Nazi inflicted stab wound at that show.
A lot of young people seem to think this kind of brawling is all fun and games, and need to know these sort of stories. Aragorn told me once he considered this part of his life to have been a waste of time, though I didn’t know any of the specifics until after he died.
The Hands that Crafted the Bomb is full of brutal truth that frequently borders on Too Much Information. Though some accounts like this strike me as bragging or bravado, I’m strongly under the impression that Fernandez is just being painfully honest. From the lows of physically fighting his bio father to trying speed, to the highs of becoming a father himself or punching bigots in the face; all the cards are laid out, good and bad alike. Frankly, if Fernandez or his editors held anything back, I DO NOT want to know what it is!
Eventually working out in general, running in particular, college and 12 Step Meetings come into play as Fernandez gets it together in a somewhat conventional manner, without selling out. But staying sober (and possibly employed or sane even) continues to be a daily struggle.
By Part 13, a part of the Investigation narrative at his work named “How to Say ‘Fuck You,'” Fernandez recounts one of the more recent and infamous antifa action in California, and a talk he had with Aragorn at the time. Like talking with me around then, he told Fernandez it was a “Waste of time.” Knowing what I know now about Aragorn’s youthful antifascism, it’s a conversation I wish I could have been a part of.
Later Fernandez ponders the bitter irony of being threatened with heavy charges for militant antifascism, when really people should be getting awards for it.
I don’t want to spoil it all for you, so please pick it up if you find this at all interesting. I’ve sometimes wondered if hooliganism is simply baked into the coming of age of most young men. If it is, I suppose at least some of us got on the right side of the barricades back in the ’90s and it was nice to read a lengthy, personal, and perhaps most importantly self critical account of someone who stayed true to their youthful, antifascist roots.
You can read more about Aragorn here: https://crimethinc.com/2021/02/13/remembering-aragorn-a-poem-and-a-zine
You can order Josh Fernandez’ book from PM Press here: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1544
Comments
I read the book, ain't worth
anon (not verified) Wed, 12/04/2024 - 17:42
I read the book, ain't worth the time. Mostly about him doing drugs . Outta 10 probably give it a 3.
No you didn't.
anon (not verified) Wed, 12/04/2024 - 19:13
In reply to I read the book, ain't worth by anon (not verified)
No you didn't.
But I read the book, definitely worth the time. Mostly about the antifascist life of remarkable people. Outta 10 probably give it a 9.9.
Potential future VP pick of
anon (not verified) Wed, 12/04/2024 - 23:31
In reply to No you didn't. by anon (not verified)
Potential future VP pick of the US Anarchist Party
Not sure if even less
anon (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2024 - 09:00
In reply to Potential future VP pick of by anon (not verified)
Not sure if even less comments would be worse than occasional one-liner useless comments.
I also wonder where the apparent exodus of intelligent people with a taste for good conversation has went to... not just "offline"?
Nah, you're right on the
Petty anarchis… (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2024 - 12:07
In reply to Not sure if even less by anon (not verified)
Nah, you're right on the money. The people are logging off.
This is low hanging fruit for people who still harbor discriminatory biases against drug users/addicts.
The topics ought to be discussed and the effects, the habit of the drugs, as it is an unavoidable part of all cultures, especially for those who have seen destruction and who face pain and are seeking escape. We have to talk about it. It's not just baseless hedonism yall.
It's good to know though for those of us on the sober-train, to have gotten a heads up about how in depth it goes. Let's keep going! Let's get more brutal honesty because obviously it agitates people (well, and good editors, hopefully!)
I think that was a reference
anon (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2024 - 14:29
In reply to Not sure if even less by anon (not verified)
I think that was a reference to JD Vance writing hillbilly elegy?
I don't see any reference to
anon (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2024 - 17:03
In reply to I think that was a reference by anon (not verified)
I don't see any reference to that couch-fucking Thiel puppet here. But he's got such a fantastic neckbeard for a virgin!
After the exodus of the
anon (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2024 - 19:37
In reply to Not sure if even less by anon (not verified)
After the exodus of the anarchs from this site, the regulars remaining are those who are the most seething with ressentiment concerning the existent, just saying.
I don't mean to blow your
anon (not verified) Thu, 12/05/2024 - 20:05
In reply to After the exodus of the by anon (not verified)
I don't mean to blow your mind but... this site IS the existent and those who remain have sold their daggers for a meted morsel of the putrid pie.
But,,,antifa is about doing
anon (not verified) Wed, 12/04/2024 - 18:00
But,,,antifa is about doing drugs,,,
Can we get some more memoirs
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 00:37
Can we get some more memoirs from contemporary anarchist women & nonbinary peeps? Seriously. This book does sound interesting but can't help but notice a pattern
Don't talk about it, BE about
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 10:58
In reply to Can we get some more memoirs by anon (not verified)
Don't talk about it, BE about it.
Maybe go and do something worth remembering and writing about instead of just whining to the internet about wtv.
I would prefer not to.
Bartleby (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 14:23
In reply to Don't talk about it, BE about by anon (not verified)
I would prefer not to.
There are around 300,000
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 02:55
There are around 300,000 openly trans people in the US. So what pattern are you talking about? The one where a tiny, miniscule section of a society is a wedge issue that people won't shut the fuck up about? Everywhere you look it's trans this, trans that. Just leave us the fuck alone. Literally all we're asking for
0.00079% of the population
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 02:57
In reply to There are around 300,000 by anon (not verified)
0.00079% of the population
love the implication that
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 04:10
In reply to 0.00079% of the population by anon (not verified)
love the implication that women anarchists don't write books cuz dumbass can't find one
get it together ladies!
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 06:28
In reply to love the implication that by anon (not verified)
get it together ladies! talkin all that shit, when you gonna take up arms and ride? clearly men can't save us
Gonna get a chastity belt
anon (not verified) Fri, 12/06/2024 - 21:55
In reply to get it together ladies! by anon (not verified)
Gonna get a chastity belt with a combination lock on it, that's my revolution against teh toxic manarchist monetary/matrimony hegemony!
PS. I'm a crass identarian trans dude ;)
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