Horizontalism strikes again.
I’m not totally sure how to address this but apparently I’m getting kicked out of ICE rapid response for the moment because I’m allowing press ridealongs, with an extremely strict condition that no other observer be identified. Lots of observers have allowed ridealongs and they benefit us.
January 29, 2026 at 10:15 PM
Horizontalism strikes again.
February 3, 2026 at 2:44 PM
April 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
If the Supreme Court goes big on obviating Chevron — as seems likely — the United States is about to be reminded that the alternative to a modern bureaucracy is not democratic horizontalism but the tyranny of thousands of little lords and petty fiefdoms.
Should we have a post-19th century state? Justices appear skeptical. 🧐 www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/u...
Conservative Justices Appear Skeptical of Agencies’ Regulatory Power
Discarding a seminal precedent could threaten regulations in countless areas, including the environment, health care, consumer safety, nuclear energy and government benefit programs.
www.nytimes.com
January 17, 2024 at 9:37 PM
If the Supreme Court goes big on obviating Chevron — as seems likely — the United States is about to be reminded that the alternative to a modern bureaucracy is not democratic horizontalism but the tyranny of thousands of little lords and petty fiefdoms.
Chauvin was indicted and convicted, Illinois ended cash bail, Trump ate shit.
Plenty of lessons to learn around issues with horizontalism but these good things happened due to public protests.
Plenty of lessons to learn around issues with horizontalism but these good things happened due to public protests.
If you saw 2020 as anything but a miserable failure, I don’t know what to tell you, your brain is broken.
January 11, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Chauvin was indicted and convicted, Illinois ended cash bail, Trump ate shit.
Plenty of lessons to learn around issues with horizontalism but these good things happened due to public protests.
Plenty of lessons to learn around issues with horizontalism but these good things happened due to public protests.
give me horizontalism or give me death
December 27, 2025 at 1:25 AM
give me horizontalism or give me death
It’s a good time to revisit this piece on why protest movements must be ready to seize power and have a clear vision of what they actually *want* from @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
April 1, 2025 at 8:33 AM
It’s a good time to revisit this piece on why protest movements must be ready to seize power and have a clear vision of what they actually *want* from @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
and i'd just assumed since it was a critique of horizontalism it would include the alter-globe era in its scope but instead it starts in 2011 apparently. which, if so, seems to be missing an era when horizontalism was very organized and international in scope. but maybe the book addresses that.
May 19, 2025 at 7:41 PM
and i'd just assumed since it was a critique of horizontalism it would include the alter-globe era in its scope but instead it starts in 2011 apparently. which, if so, seems to be missing an era when horizontalism was very organized and international in scope. but maybe the book addresses that.
Anarchists everywhere denouncing Hideki Naganuma's "Da People" for saying 'organize' in its lyrics for violating horizontalism.
January 1, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Anarchists everywhere denouncing Hideki Naganuma's "Da People" for saying 'organize' in its lyrics for violating horizontalism.
but it FEELS unbelievable to people that the crm was not a "grassroots spontaneous mass movement," because we've spent decades guzzling fake history about how grassroots spontaneous mass movements are the only way to win. and yet:
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:48 AM
but it FEELS unbelievable to people that the crm was not a "grassroots spontaneous mass movement," because we've spent decades guzzling fake history about how grassroots spontaneous mass movements are the only way to win. and yet:
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
this is the right-wing mirror to the left's problem with horizontalism--the problem of the social media age--the inability to do politics via the old mechanisms of party and bureaucracy--the recourse to larp recreations of structures that no longer function.
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
September 3, 2025 at 6:09 PM
this is the right-wing mirror to the left's problem with horizontalism--the problem of the social media age--the inability to do politics via the old mechanisms of party and bureaucracy--the recourse to larp recreations of structures that no longer function.
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
but equally, you can't ignore the power of mass mobilization (which is of course often also driven by--ideas!). a genuinely successful political movement manages to blend both of these together
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:42 PM
but equally, you can't ignore the power of mass mobilization (which is of course often also driven by--ideas!). a genuinely successful political movement manages to blend both of these together
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
I suspect a toxic person gaining unearned authority because of horizontalism.
the dominant "rapid response" group in DC is deliberately discouraging the use of whistles and offering no alternative system to alert people who are in immediate danger. wrecker behavior at best, at worst infiltration.
January 18, 2026 at 2:55 PM
I suspect a toxic person gaining unearned authority because of horizontalism.
It is cute, but the birds are sideways? You are triggering my... my... horizontalism!
!!!
!!!
August 8, 2026 at 10:29 PM
It is cute, but the birds are sideways? You are triggering my... my... horizontalism!
!!!
!!!
Street activism was always fractious and prone to strife (see: Freeman, Jo), but with social media's unique combination of self-soothing, individualism, political purism, the valorisation of assholes, horizontalism, and call-outs stacked upon call-outs, it made the problem much, much worse.
May 26, 2024 at 11:10 PM
Street activism was always fractious and prone to strife (see: Freeman, Jo), but with social media's unique combination of self-soothing, individualism, political purism, the valorisation of assholes, horizontalism, and call-outs stacked upon call-outs, it made the problem much, much worse.
I thought this was really interesting and I also think the answer to how do you fix this is “unions” (sorry for being one note but as orgs they solve many of the problems observed here) www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 4, 2024 at 8:38 PM
I thought this was really interesting and I also think the answer to how do you fix this is “unions” (sorry for being one note but as orgs they solve many of the problems observed here) www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
IDK man, there are things that benefit from the decentralization and horizontalism of the moment, and then there's meme campaigns putting everyone on their back foot to respond to whatever demand they slapped together on canva, and confusing people genuinely trying to meet the moment.
January 29, 2026 at 6:20 PM
IDK man, there are things that benefit from the decentralization and horizontalism of the moment, and then there's meme campaigns putting everyone on their back foot to respond to whatever demand they slapped together on canva, and confusing people genuinely trying to meet the moment.
I've long banged the drum on the idea that social media driven, horizontalist protest fails to achieve durable change, but I find this thread pointlessly defeatist and corrosive to morale. It's not "the hard truth," it's a pessimistic reading of this history. Here's a better analysis:
April 5, 2025 at 10:03 PM
I've long banged the drum on the idea that social media driven, horizontalist protest fails to achieve durable change, but I find this thread pointlessly defeatist and corrosive to morale. It's not "the hard truth," it's a pessimistic reading of this history. Here's a better analysis:
anyways. the point is that if we're going to beat trump we need to continue thinking clearly about what we're trying to do and how we're trying to get there. the chaos of horizontalism isn't enough. we need strategic clarity and tactical acumen.
November 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM
anyways. the point is that if we're going to beat trump we need to continue thinking clearly about what we're trying to do and how we're trying to get there. the chaos of horizontalism isn't enough. we need strategic clarity and tactical acumen.
yeah i don’t think it’s an uprising so much as horizontalism, neighbors connecting with neighbors. kind of a tidy split between communist and anarchist styles of organizing, eh?
January 6, 2026 at 7:43 AM
yeah i don’t think it’s an uprising so much as horizontalism, neighbors connecting with neighbors. kind of a tidy split between communist and anarchist styles of organizing, eh?
--and that class is especially important, i think, in this era when so many spontaneous mass protests have failed in their aims. putting millions of people into the street just ain't enough!
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 15, 2025 at 2:49 PM
--and that class is especially important, i think, in this era when so many spontaneous mass protests have failed in their aims. putting millions of people into the street just ain't enough!
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
I think this gets missed in like 90% of the discussions about centralization vs horizontalism, etc. Like the shift away from more centralized formations wasn't based on obscure doctrine, it was a very real response to what was happening on the ground.
Like the '60s and '70s centralized radical groups were crushed, bribed or became abusive cults.
Yeah, people understandably shifted up what they were doing after that. Of course they did.
Yeah, people understandably shifted up what they were doing after that. Of course they did.
May 19, 2025 at 10:09 PM
I think this gets missed in like 90% of the discussions about centralization vs horizontalism, etc. Like the shift away from more centralized formations wasn't based on obscure doctrine, it was a very real response to what was happening on the ground.
There's a lot of worthwhile thinking in this piece about exactly that:
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
Why Movements Fail
Horizontalism and its discontents
www.liberalcurrents.com
August 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
There's a lot of worthwhile thinking in this piece about exactly that:
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
i really cannot emphasize enough how much it's a shibboleth in leftieland to even say out loud that past movements have failed and how fundamentally destructive this is to any kind of tactical thinking for the future
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
June 19, 2024 at 7:56 PM
i really cannot emphasize enough how much it's a shibboleth in leftieland to even say out loud that past movements have failed and how fundamentally destructive this is to any kind of tactical thinking for the future
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...