@phillipaald.bsky.social
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If you’re trying to abolish “American carceral norms” or whatever, that’s very different from abolishing “prison.”
November 15, 2025 at 4:39 PM
If you’re trying to abolish “American carceral norms” or whatever, that’s very different from abolishing “prison.”
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This is incredibly vague. What is the mechanism of “regeneration,” and how does abolition (as opposed to reform) prevent those mechanisms from operating?
November 15, 2025 at 4:37 PM
This is incredibly vague. What is the mechanism of “regeneration,” and how does abolition (as opposed to reform) prevent those mechanisms from operating?
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Ok, but that new prison would properly be described as “An American Prison with Norwegian Characteristics.” So American prisons would not in fact be abolished.
It’s not just bad marketing, it’s actively misleading!
It’s not just bad marketing, it’s actively misleading!
November 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Ok, but that new prison would properly be described as “An American Prison with Norwegian Characteristics.” So American prisons would not in fact be abolished.
It’s not just bad marketing, it’s actively misleading!
It’s not just bad marketing, it’s actively misleading!
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“Read theory.” The closest Angela Davis comes to talking about an alternative in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete, is talking about how a white American forgave a Black South African man for killing their daughter during riots immediately prior to the fall of apartheid
November 14, 2025 at 8:25 PM
“Read theory.” The closest Angela Davis comes to talking about an alternative in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete, is talking about how a white American forgave a Black South African man for killing their daughter during riots immediately prior to the fall of apartheid
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Yeah, like.. is it so hard to just praise Norway or something?
That's already like beyond the wildest utopia compared to the current US of A that even milk detainees for just wanting to call their dears
That's already like beyond the wildest utopia compared to the current US of A that even milk detainees for just wanting to call their dears
November 14, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Yeah, like.. is it so hard to just praise Norway or something?
That's already like beyond the wildest utopia compared to the current US of A that even milk detainees for just wanting to call their dears
That's already like beyond the wildest utopia compared to the current US of A that even milk detainees for just wanting to call their dears
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I think the better abolitionists do at least put the vision out there which is valuable, but I think a lot of the work of actually getting us there is done by different people, and/or people who are sympathetic to abolition but don't make it their *policy* focus at this time.
November 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
I think the better abolitionists do at least put the vision out there which is valuable, but I think a lot of the work of actually getting us there is done by different people, and/or people who are sympathetic to abolition but don't make it their *policy* focus at this time.
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"the current system isn't good. it doesn't work & I think we need dramatic changes. but I don't know if your idea of how to fix it will work. how would you deal with, for instance, serial SA?"
"well what if I tell you the CURRENT system isn't good and doesn't work?"
every time
"well what if I tell you the CURRENT system isn't good and doesn't work?"
every time
November 20, 2025 at 7:59 PM
"the current system isn't good. it doesn't work & I think we need dramatic changes. but I don't know if your idea of how to fix it will work. how would you deal with, for instance, serial SA?"
"well what if I tell you the CURRENT system isn't good and doesn't work?"
every time
"well what if I tell you the CURRENT system isn't good and doesn't work?"
every time
But that's all positions that a prison reformist would agree on. It does not help advocate for prison abolition at all. Why are you trying to convince people of something they already agree on?
November 27, 2025 at 7:52 PM
But that's all positions that a prison reformist would agree on. It does not help advocate for prison abolition at all. Why are you trying to convince people of something they already agree on?
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one thing i do think klein is basically right about is that we had a period of progressive discourse where "i don't answer that question" was basically a standard discourse move. we *asserted* our ideas without arguing for them. this was, i think, a huge-ass mistake.
September 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
one thing i do think klein is basically right about is that we had a period of progressive discourse where "i don't answer that question" was basically a standard discourse move. we *asserted* our ideas without arguing for them. this was, i think, a huge-ass mistake.
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"Make immigration work like most Americans think it works" as the far-out radical reform position.
November 17, 2025 at 5:18 AM
"Make immigration work like most Americans think it works" as the far-out radical reform position.
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The community being the one to mete out justice also provides no recourse for wrongful convictions either. Does anyone *really* think that the community deciding what should become of William Heirens would have been an improvement? Because it wouldn't have.
November 16, 2025 at 1:19 AM
The community being the one to mete out justice also provides no recourse for wrongful convictions either. Does anyone *really* think that the community deciding what should become of William Heirens would have been an improvement? Because it wouldn't have.
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I do not, in fact, think an alternative to prisons where the "community" carries out capital punishment is preferable.
November 16, 2025 at 1:09 AM
I do not, in fact, think an alternative to prisons where the "community" carries out capital punishment is preferable.
Trust me, I've read prison abolition things that proclaim to be cookies, they aren't.
November 27, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Trust me, I've read prison abolition things that proclaim to be cookies, they aren't.
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Like, it doesn’t matter if one thinks it’s a good or fair question, there has to be an answer or the whole concept isn’t going anywhere with the public.
April 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Like, it doesn’t matter if one thinks it’s a good or fair question, there has to be an answer or the whole concept isn’t going anywhere with the public.
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And yes, even prison as a punishment *is* that old.
If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.
If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.
December 27, 2024 at 11:14 PM
And yes, even prison as a punishment *is* that old.
If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.
If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.
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I'm not talking about mass incarceration there or the scale; I'm talking about prisons in general. Prisons *are* thousands of year olds - what's changed is the *scale*.
I'm sorry you don't like that fact but it doesn't change it.
I'm sorry you don't like that fact but it doesn't change it.
December 27, 2024 at 11:01 PM
I'm not talking about mass incarceration there or the scale; I'm talking about prisons in general. Prisons *are* thousands of year olds - what's changed is the *scale*.
I'm sorry you don't like that fact but it doesn't change it.
I'm sorry you don't like that fact but it doesn't change it.
Tired of visions, I can read visions in any of the things prison abolitionists have already put out. What I want is concrete answers to the questions everyone asks.
November 27, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Tired of visions, I can read visions in any of the things prison abolitionists have already put out. What I want is concrete answers to the questions everyone asks.
Also, like, come on, that's not what anyone is going to understand prison abolition to mean unless they're already a prison abolitionist in the astrik sense and you don't need to convince them
November 27, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Also, like, come on, that's not what anyone is going to understand prison abolition to mean unless they're already a prison abolitionist in the astrik sense and you don't need to convince them
pointed to when someone asks where the cookies are. Which is not what anyone who isn't already 100% convinced about prison abolition was asking about.
November 27, 2025 at 6:56 PM
pointed to when someone asks where the cookies are. Which is not what anyone who isn't already 100% convinced about prison abolition was asking about.
A vision isn't cookies, it's just eggs and such, or dough at best. It's not an actual cookie batch. What we've got is a bunch of eggs, flour, and such sitting on the table in seperate pots, a bunch of raw cookie dough on the table, and a half-finished batch in the oven that are all ...
November 27, 2025 at 6:56 PM
A vision isn't cookies, it's just eggs and such, or dough at best. It's not an actual cookie batch. What we've got is a bunch of eggs, flour, and such sitting on the table in seperate pots, a bunch of raw cookie dough on the table, and a half-finished batch in the oven that are all ...
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If you’re an advocate for an issue and want to convince people that your view on the issue is right, then when they have the first thought they’re going to have, and express it, giving them the answer you give above is alienating them to feel superior, nothing more.
November 17, 2025 at 10:50 AM
If you’re an advocate for an issue and want to convince people that your view on the issue is right, then when they have the first thought they’re going to have, and express it, giving them the answer you give above is alienating them to feel superior, nothing more.