I have no friends.

I made a strike of anarchy in my life since I came back to Mtl, that will last as long as anarchists around are too lazy and centered on their communal bubbles to be considering me seriously as a friend. In other words, you wanna keep being idiots and assholes? Good for ya, but forget about my contribution to this struggle (which WAS, anonymously, quite big over the recent years).

I find it quite painful and depressing to end up without friends after all these adventures through the years. I know you don't care. But so do I about you. Because nobody cares anyways.

See ya later, maybe. Or in another life.

I don't use social media so normal people are out. I dress and look pretty normal so the tats/piercings/my appearance is my radical identity crowd are out too. But animals love me. I think if you don't spend a lot of time in one place you have to adjust your expectations. I understand people gravitate towards cliques and bubbles but what a turn off

Hi Kate. I have no friends too. I'm easy to talk to, but hard to relate to. When I do connect with someone, I am bad at staying in touch.

Is that how you are? Or is it different for you?

If i had any friends i wouldn't be on Anarchist News. Obvs

much of this totw is potentially much more interesting than most i see posted by thecollective. but this here:

" Is our anarchist lexicon specific enough to define the multitude of associations that we have, or wish we had?"

points to a certain way of constraining thought that i find completely unappealing. "our anarchist lexicon"? cliquish and insular much? and why do you need a lexicon to describe your personal relationships? what is with this need to frame everything within prefigured boxes?

FWENDS! How maybe ubb uss habb them -- FWENDS --- How meney ubb uss habb demm...

The great burning issue of our day: how can we find our fellow passive, sheepish subculture duds to bond with over our shared inadequacy? And maybe some intramural dirty laundry sniffing contests, too, while we're at it...

The linked essay brings up a lot of issues.

Friendship, comradship, affinity, acquaintances however we say that half of the equation, is not easy for any of us. Some of us have other deficits, syndromes, quirks, habits that make all this even harder.

For instance, I have only recently realized that I am on the autism spectrum and this accounts for a lot of my clueless behavior. Like, it is hard for me to guage facial expressions sometimes, or tone of voice, or if/when someone is joking.
And, the abuse I endured in my family of origin damaged my ability to form non-toxic relationships.

Trying to mend these breaks while also trying to be the most, best anarchist, have the ins and outs of the latest theory down pat, well I can't do it. Maybe that is my flaw, or maybe these are just so different they can't be done together. Maybe I am too damaged to be in real solidarity with others.
Either way, I am still an anarchist and at the very least that means certain things vis a vis the state, right? For now, that's where you'll find me, perhaps alone, perhaps with others.

Basically friends are people you don't have sex with. This is the existentialist-nihilist position.

30. No real friends, besides a partner and acquaintance. Unless you count screens.

Would like to move away from screens, while others go farther in. Maybe it'll make me unhirable, unrelatable in the long run.

I was always too passionately interested in activities, learning. Weirds most people out. Cinephile, avid reader, guerrila musicologist into lifestyle sports. Never played video games. Play lysergic influenced loop music (favorite masks being 'hip hop' 'jazz' 'math rock')

It's hard to remain interested in humans and their anthrocentric beliefs and pursuits.

Would rather put intuition before Thought and roam on a walk with my pup, engulfed in bird song.

Mental gated communities are going up quick (including with anarchists), and activity seems to be confined to fragments of lives count the most. The conversations framed primarily as protests, or its. No one around me seems interested in anarchy. Maybe after us... How to while away the now?

Even if i were the last anarchist, i'd still shit on the dominant narrative, no matter if i were then shot against a wall by some idiot with a god complex. Because none of this current belief system provides enough openness, joy of becomings.

It seems that where people espousing anarchism could go is like weeks pushing through the pavement, undoing the illusion of human control and its implications.

This is from the perspective of someone that regularly rents rooms and works in a place they've lived for a while, but I think similar assessments can apply for squatters, travelers, and etc. Probably not for richies.

For the most part, because surviving this beast is hard and tears people apart. Then again, I have rarely witnessed community, solidarity, lifelong affinities, friend... even attempt to make money together. Seen it a bit with bands, artist collectives, publishers; but those I've known that either try to live without working, or develop some sort of trade on their own become separated from 'friends' as they get older: work, monogamous relationships, children, needing to fall back on family. Part of the price we pay for our resistance to this world is that we mostly go our own way, win or lose.

For all of the emotional, intellectual, and 'political' depth that may develop between so-called friends, remaining relevant in the lives of other people often means mutual aid; and mutual aid to an extent that can be a real burden when you live paycheck-paycheck: it could be rides, cash, a spot for someone to sleep. The relationships that come out of making that burden an adventure and knowing your time is spent with people who are the real deal, will go an extra mile for you (and vice versa), and who you can actually imagine a future with are what I think of as friendships. As an individual, that means creating a lifestyle that can actually include others in it to begin with. Not fleeting drug/drinking acquaintances or dating. An actual accounting of one's own time/energy/resources that can be put towards friendships ...among other relationships.

I don't think it's a lack of a lexicon. Not really. I think it's a lost sense of what it means to live with others that yeah, the internet has helped to take from us. Some of this is gentrification, too. Even though long-distance friendships happen, I still think some sort of mutual participation in someone's life is necessary: letters, honoring important events, helping with big decisions, personally keeping one another updated and not just expecting their attention over social media.