Antiwork
Date Created: June 21, 2023
This community supports labor, with an aspiration for it to cease to be required to live our lives. Members of this community want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, want more information on anti-work ideas and/or want personal help with their own jobs/work-related struggles.
Anti-Work Library 📚
Essential Reads
Start here! Some of the more talked-about essays on the topic.
- The Abolition of Work by Bob Black (1985) | listen
- On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber (2013) | listen
- In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell (1932) | listen
c/Antiwork Rules
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1. Server Main Rules
The main rules of the server will be enforced stringently. https://lemmy.world/
2. No spam or reposts + limit off topic comments
Spamming posts will be removed. Reposts will be removed with the exception of a repost becoming the main hub for discussion on that topic.
Off topic comments that do not pertain to the post at hand may be removed if it is deemed they contribute nothing and/or foster hostility at users. This mostly applies to political and religious debate, but can be applied to other things at the mod’s discretion.
3. Post must have Antiwork/ Work Reform explicitly involved
Post must have Antiwork/Work Reform explicitly involved in some capacity. This can be talking about antiwork, work reform, laws, and ext.
4. Educate don’t attack
No mocking, demeaning, flamebaiting, purposeful antagonizing, trolling, hateful language, false accusation or allegation, or backseat moderating is allowed. Don’t resort to ad hominem attacks against another user or insult other people, examples of violations would be going after the person rather than the stance they take.
If we feel the comment is uncalled for we will remove it. Stay civil and there won’t be problems.
5. No Advertising
Under no circumstance are you allowed to promote or advertise any product or service
6. No factually misleading information
Content that makes claims or implications that can be proven false or misleading will be removed.
7. Headlines
If the title of the post isn’t an original title of the article then the first thing in the body of the post should be an original title written in this format “Original title: {title here}”.
8. Staff Discretion
Staff can take disciplinary action on offenses not listed in the rules when a community member's actions or general conduct creates a negative experience for another player and/or the community.
It is impossible to list every example or variation of the rules. It is also impossible to word everything perfectly. Players are expected to understand the intent of the rules and not attempt to "toe the line" or use loopholes to get around the intent of the rule.
9. No posting links to Twitter/X or Meta owned properties
Social Media products such as Twitter/X and Meta Properties (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Threads) are known low quality information sources - they actively spread misinformation without sufficient moderation, hate speech. These platforms each have billionaire owners working actively to eliminate labor protections through direct action, lobbying, performative large scale layoffs and attacks on institutions that enforce labor law.
You are not encouraged to do so, but you may post screenshots from these sites IF THE INFORMATION IS NOT AVAILABLE ON ANOTHER VALID PLATFORM. Screenshots must include info to support a relevant conversation within this community and must show a VISIBLE time/date stamp for posterity. If you are caught manipulating content of a screenshot, your post will be removed and you will receive an indefinite ban from this community at the discretion of the moderator(s)
No pass through/archive services are allowed as they potentially feed traffic back to these services, directly or indirectly (e.g. Services like Xcancel or Nitter)
Antiwork Suggested Communities
Server status for big servers http://lemmy-status.org/
Active stats from all Antiwork instances
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On farming specifically, are you American? American farming is extremely inefficient and unproductive. "Family farming" is not usually an economically sustainable farming model. Throughout history, collective farming with a larger labor pool is much, much more common, and family farms only show up under very specific conditions -- when land is very cheap. American land use programs were purposefully designed to displace indigenous people first and farm second. The government made the land cheap (or free) to entice farmers to move into it. As a result, we've inherited a family farm system that no longer makes sense, and we're struggling to figure out what to do.
Sarah Taber writes about this a lot: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/america-loves-the-idea-of-family-farms-thats-unfortunate.html
On your general point, on how much is true, I've read a lot of criticism of this video, and I think most of it comes down to interpretation. What is free time? A lot of people criticize the video for not acknowledging that peasants had to work outside of the time they were working for other people, but so do we. Our lives are very different from theirs, and it's just really hard to compare.
For example, when I say I spend a lot of my free time renovating an old house I'm fixing up, that sentence makes perfect sense, but I'm implying a very specific idea of "free time" that's actually a little weird, when you think about it. Right now, I'm spending my free time writing this, but to a many a peasant, I assume writing was probably serious work done by serious people with specific training, not something they would consider a leisure activity.