Prison abolition is like communism, a goal we all want. But in the medium-term we want to jail war criminals, Wall Street lackeys, right-wing militias, fascists, and billionaires who will otherwise shoot all of us if we try to take power.
For all the (justified) energy this community spends pushing back on propaganda like "Stalin sent 6,589 kabillion to gulags for thought crime!!", you'd think this point would be self-evident. You can't laugh about the futility of debating reactionaries or fascists in the marketplace of ideas, praise MLs for realizing that and acting upon it, then turn around and argue that all prisons everywhere, for any reason, should be abolished abolished. That's an incoherent position.
For all the (justified) energy this community spends pushing back on propaganda like "Stalin sent 6,589 kabillion to gulags for thought crime!!", you'd think this point would be self-evident. You can't laugh about the futility of debating reactionaries or fascists in the marketplace of ideas, praise MLs for realizing that and acting upon it, then turn around and argue that all prisons everywhere, for any reason, should be abolished abolished. That's an incoherent position.