This is why I don't understand the politics of the Zoomer college kids. They're all either into weird leftcom bullshit or they're tankies. Being a radical in school, naturally you drifted toward the SI. Its been the de facto milieu for student radicals for decades. https://twitter.com/Marusya_1312/status/1312900777229398016

We used to go on prole stroles or "psychogeographical studies" which basically meant getting fucked up on drugs & alcohol, wandering the city's red light districts, & committing small crimes like theft, vandalism, & hooliganism.

It wasn't a particularly revolutionary event as it was a transgressive act of rebellion against (ahem) "the poverty of student life." I'm from the era of folk punk, Tiqqun, & the Arab Spring. That 08-14 era of the Western Left. Informed by desire for a "New Sixties"

The university was bogged down by the stuffy bureaucrat politics of the student unions, the conservative administrations & the Bush era purges of left academics. The only campus "left" that existed was this vague social justice tendency, the shit the assholes whine about today

The Neo-Situationism we embraced was a ruthless critique of all of this. It was a militant attack on the bureaucratic center while a tactical critique on the social justice crowd. Unlike the anti-wokes, we didn't reject feminism or race theory but sought to de-liberalize the

behavior of students. We participated in OWS, 15M & Arab Spring solidarity. We experienced violence first hand that the SJ students did not. We sought to bridge that gap & show them that they could achieve their goals thru direct action. Also during this period, the Pink Tide was

still well respected. Tankies didn't exist, but everyone rooted for Evo, Hugo & admired Cuba. Still, you wouldn't find a single Stalinist or even apologist for the USSR. All state-centered socialism was Latin Amer Pink Tide demsoc based. ML shit was thoroughly shunned.

The best comrades we had were these five VZ exchange students. They agitated for school worker unionization & joined us in the shit stirring. Remember this is in the context of the 2009 UC tuition hike protests, the subsequent occupations, & the broad embrace of that tactic in

other struggles such as Title IX fights & anti-sexual violence protests. Taking over school buildings was a huge thing in the 08 - 14 era. And it was reflected in broader society with the square movements.

I graduated before BLM coalesced, before Gamergate popped up, before rape culture discourse bled out from the campus & into the mainstream. I don't know what became of student leftism after that. Maybe it became more ACAB. All I know is I'd hate to be in college right now.

The biggest opposition we had were frat bros, honory societies, & public safety officers. I can only imagine the introduction of white supremacist student groups exacerbated tensions & antifa organizing on campus probably banned. Again, a generalization but folks really don't get

how conservative, apathetic & just "not open to radicalism" university culture was. I don't have hope for the students anymore. The point of plastering Crimethinc posters over campus & spreading the SI gospel was to get people to fundamentally challenge the underlying forces.

The SJ students talked about race, class & gender. We wanted them to talk about white supremacy, capitalism, & patriarchy aka material forces. We wanted them to be anti-militarist, anti-assimilationist, anti-prison (Against Equality was big during this time too).

Its important to note that as people age they learn more shit & grow better. I'd like to think the lib students we challenged grew. Some became anarchist/antifa, others became DSA Bernie types, still others became Hillary loyalists & centrist Dems.

Still to this day, when I meet up with old college friends we joke about how we essentially invented the Dirtbag Left before it was even a thing. Mixing transgressive attitudes with radical politics. But it was different than today's Dirtbags in that we were transgressive toward

the forces that are actively repressive & destructive. I.e. it meant fighting frat bros & ROTC kids. It meant attacking rapists. It meant being ruthlessly mean toward rightwingers & conservative tendencies. It was not a wink & nod to those forces like the dipshits today do.

We knew who are enemies were. As I'm now well beyond those coming-of-age years, I've recognized problematic tendencies we had. But also I realize what we were doing was different, it was out of solidarity for the oppressed classes, not their exclusion.

So yeah, I think The Poverty of Student Life will be ur-relevant as long as the fundamental structure of the university remains. It'd be nice to know how campus politics have evolved since but at the same time, I really fucking hate that school shit & could care less. /end