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"Anarchism is not about [...] class or opposing archists"

Are Lemmy anarchists okay? How does this person have 24 upvotes? In what universe are anarchists NOT doing class analysis, (therefore) don't want to abolish capitalism, and don't want to fight archism?

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I suspect this is just because libs absolutely DESPISE comrade @Cowbee@hexbear.net and will upvote anything smart-sounding that supposedly addresses whatever is being discussed?

Also, gotta love the whole "I have this opinion and many anarchists will disagree and that's what anarchism is about". Like, buddy, you haven't read one book or talked to one anarchist IRL, let alone organized in your entire life.

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  • Anarchism has a much lower "barrier for entry" than communism. A communist is generally expected to have read communist theory and have a basic understanding of capitalism and its contradictions.

    A person can describe themselves as an anarchist without any sort of reading or understanding of class structure or hierarchy.

    So you get these "no vegetables, no bedtimes" anarchists (often called "anarkiddies") who vaguely understand something is wrong with the system, but haven't actually bothered to look into proper solutions, so they just declare "what if we get rid of the bad things I don't like?" and act like that is somehow political analysis, and not just a substitute for political theory, but is actually a better outlook than it.

    I'm sure quite a few people here had a phase like that when they were younger, it does seem to be much more common to teens and young adults, people tend to grow out of it once they start to recognise how pointless it is (unfortunately most of them just grow into bog standard liberals, not actual leftists).

    Of course, since it works as a barrier to prevent people from actually seeking genuine leftist thought, it's usually the only acceptable kind of "leftism" allowed in larger online spaces, since the feds who run them don't want people getting any ideas. I don't know if lemmy's mod team is actually full of feds, but they are trying to be exactly like reddit, so that includes anti-communist temper tantrums disguised as leftist thought.

    • I never grew out of it. I am an anarchist and a communist. Opposing all illegitimate hierarchies means opposing capitalism first and foremost. Here anarchists and communists are pretty much indistinguishable from each other and they're doing the work of organizing mutual aid and raising awareness of the class war and marxists ideas. What you're describing exists in some point but to me it sounds is an online phenomenon.

      He's using words wrong, but what he's describing is simply organizing workers - in word, you know, unionize.

      • I probably should've been clearer that I was talking about pointless online squabbles and not IRL. You're right that out there, where it actually matters, all this online infighting melts away, and anyone trying to act like a Twitter leftist is quickly chased away. I've worked plenty with anarchists as a communist, because we both want to abolish capitalism, it's only online that you see this smug sort of "NATO anarchist" type actively declaring that all other forms of leftism aren't "real leftists" because that would mean leftism involves going outside and actually helping people instead of just getting into fights on twitter.

        I should've clarified that this is an online phenomenon, mainly working as a way to keep people away from actually organising IRL and waste all their time falling deeper into a smug self-satisfied twitter coma.

    • i know plenty of communists who never read theory.

      They just remember the family members they lost in proletarian revolts of the past

280 comments