Direct democracy would be less hierarchical than what we have currently, but it’s still a hierarchy of the majority over the minority. So long as government exists, the decisions of the majority will be violently enforced upon the minority.
Unless of course you’re referring to direct democracy without law enforcement, but I wouldn’t exactly call that a government.
I agree that things would be better without shareholders, but wouldn’t government corruption still be a problem? For example, shareholders aren’t profiting from mass deportation or tariffs. These sort of abuses would still happen without shareholders because they aren’t motivated by profit, they’re motivated by racism and nationalism. The way I see it, we need to get rid of all coercive hierarchies, government included.
If all the loops are properly closed, chainmail is actually quite comfortable.