Anarchism

i guess i've followed this thread with a little bit of interest - but not too much, seeing as somewhere along the way it got diverted somewhat. so this is a bit of an attempt to bring it back on track....

yes, i describe myself as an anarchist.

as for indymedia: i'd like to turn that question around and, perhaps, break it down a bit.

what do you think of indymedia?

in fact, when you say "indymedia," what do you mean? the UK indymedia site? the london indymedia site? One of the other sites, or the entire global network - or something else entirely?

do you think indymedia is exclusively for anarchists? or, should that be, "political activists"?

are there things that you think indymedia should be doing, but doesn't?

do you think that indymedia tries to do too much - is there even a role for indymedia given facebook, twitter, flickr and the other corporate websites that exist nowadays, doing a similar thing?

maybe after there've been a few responses, i'll chip in with some of my own thoughts...

solidarity,

  -- d0cA

My main problem with Indymedia: i think it's a great idea but there are soooo many wingnuts (e.g. 9/11 'truth' etc) who see indymedia (and the anarchist milieu more generally) as free spaces to dump all their ramblings, that as some have said, the good stuff becomes associated with and/or hidden by the bad stuff. I find a lot of anarchists to be too tolerant of that kind of stuff. That's not a criticism of anarchism, but of anarchists, who are too quick to judge themselves for 'oppressing' others, when a lot of hangers-on that circulate around the anarchist milieu are in fact promoting rather oppressive ideologies themselves (e.g. preachy, judgey sorts of politics that belittles and berates the good work of others from their comfy ivory tower of conspiracy and intrigue that doesn't actually involve any systemic critique, but instead relies on critique of corrupt individuals)

Although they are less entertaining than reading the garbled ramblings on indymedia, i find sites like Anarkismo to be far better written, reasoned, serious and thought-provoking. I only really use indymedia (and similar sites like infoshop) for teh lulz and some decent pics and reports on events.