this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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Anarchism
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Discuss anarchist praxis and philosophy. Don't take yourselves too seriously.
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The self-described anarchists who engage in actual work tend to be better informed and know what anarchism is and organize accordingly. Most people who self-label as anarchkst on the internet do nothing at all outside of comment and post. They also don't read, not even about anarchism. They are not anarchists, they are left liberals that confuse each other and the wider public online.
Occasionally they do pop up in organizing spaces, usually as new members. They are the ones wasting time trying to make an anarchist org "more horizontal" by which they mean "I get to be on every committee and speak for 20 minutes at every meeting". I cannot tell you how many times my anarchist comrades have had to explain the difference between (situationally) just and unjust hierarchy to such folks.
that's some really dedicated gatekeeping for anarchism...
The gatekeeping of knowing the basics of anarchism and doing real-life organizing work? Is that not the bare minimum?
yes. and no, it's not the bare minimum. You perceive a very specific definition of anarchism, and act like anything that's not exactly what you know/do is just not anarchism anymore and is just wannabe edgy liberals.
How can you even fence so hard a term such as anarchism? just let people be and believe what they want.
you're now just this conservative guy screaming in fear because the world is not what is used to be when you were at your 20s.
cool down. It's okay to be an anarchist just online, and it's okay to take "irl actions", as you call it, and not see yourself above everyone else.
I don't, actually. I accept a wide variety of how people approach what it means to be anarchist. But a person does need to actually know what it is in order to self-label as such. Otherwise you will find yourself surrounded by status quo-reinforcing liberals, even capitalists, using the term and confusing everybody.
If there is no threshold then the term means nothing. Trump could not call himself an anarchist and be correct.
I don't think I'm being a very big stickler to say that to call yourself of an anticapitalist political tradition you need to know the basics of what it is. Of course anyone can believe and say what they want, and anyone can be wrong, and anyone can be counterproductive. It is better to become a critical participant that understands their claimed political tradition, at least at a basic level. And it can be harmful to claim to be of a political tradition and then act in full opposition to it, which is easy to do when you don't know what it is.
I'm screaming in fear?
It is cool to be an anarchist just online, but you will find it very difficult to become one unless you know the basics of anarchism and have done practice.
This is why online "anarchists" are often counterproductive. Getting hyped for NATO. Saying that someone is a cop because they asked another person to not pick a fight with someone right this second. Going all-in on capitalist electoralism for the greatest empire on the planet. Being a billionaire grifter that sells electric cars.
Rather than assign those reactionary things to anarchist, it is more correct to understand them as not anarchist at all.