You’ll see anarchists praising Rosa Luxemburg, who if they had actually read her writings – they would see that she was very clearly one of the “authoritarian” socialists that they rail against so much.
You see them praise the Black Panthers, who were supported financially by the DPRK and aligned themselves with the Juche ideology of Kim Il Sung.
They even praise Thomas Sankara, who purged anarchists and arrested syndicalists.
If these people had succeeded, i have no doubt in my mind that anarchists would call them “tankies,” they would call their experiments “capitalism with a red flag.” And I also have no doubt in my mind that if the October Revolution, Chinese Revolution had been crushed, they would hail Lenin and Mao as proletarian heroes.
Another thing I find hilarious with Anarchists is that many of them are huge EU supporters. Turns out they’re totally fine with centralization and large unelected bureaucracies in practice. These people are just LARPing.
Can’t say I’ve seen this among anarchists… Any examples?
My personal experience talking about the EU with people like @poVoq@lemmy.ml
To be fair he seems to be somewhat unconventional, even most online anarchists are not openly bootlicking imperialist institutions like that.
He’s a bit more honest about it, but vast majority of anarchists support NATO to the hilt right now. When push comes to shove anarchists are just liberals LARPing.
Sure
Yeah, definitely! Once you win a revolution, you have to govern, and that inolves rules and tradeoffs etc.
You might like this essay: Western Marxism, the Fetish for Defeat, and Christian Culture
lmao I literally clicked this thread to post this exact essay
it’s very good 😊
I also think that during a revolution the most intense promises will be made so its the equivalent of judging a candidate on their election promises versus the guy who won and actually got the chance to do not perfect.
Yeah, Anarchists don’t seem to actually want to succeed in anything. They just want to perpetually feel superior about their morals as well as comfortable that nothing will ever change. They want to be cool, contrarian good guys, imagining a world that will only ever exist in books and stories.
That’s why my anarchist phase was short-lived. I was reading about anarchism and I found out that many of them don’t even expect that the revolution will succeed. It’s just a desperate moral opposition to the status quo without any serious intention to change the material reality.
Not a great strategy to make the world a better place lol
I’m very much the same. Had a short anarchist phase, don’t entirely disagree with a lot of the worldview, but feel the situation is too desperate to rely on fantastical situations when there’s already existing theory on how to fix the world.
A Psalm from the Apostle, Parenti: “They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted. Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. NO SURPRISE THEN THAT THE PURE SOCIALISTS SUPPORT EVERY REVOLUTION EXCEPT THE ONES THAT SUCCEED.”
another parenti W
They’re pretty much more liberal ultras. They bang on about this wonderful utopia and tear down any attempts at socialist revolution or maintaining a workers state. And not only that, but they don’t put in the needed work into building towards revolution or increasing class consciousness among the working class. They’re entirely fine trying to build cooperative farms or doing performative mutual aid.
Most self professed leftists don’t actually have a plan for what happens if they get the revolution they want. I guess they think the point of the ideology is just killing people and burning shit, not creating a better society.
Aside from the what it is to be said by the already recomended text on western marxism and christianity by Jones Manoel on RedSails, which I find very fitting here, I have found out by experience that anarchists usually have a very strong tendency to romanticize the act of revolution in general, of sublevation to overthrow the existing hierarchies, and very little focus on what comes after, which is the organization of the new society that is to come.
Chances are that this lack of focus is the result of the development of an anarchist’s conceptualization of a post-capitalist society falling an overwhelming majority of times in one of two fields: either authoritarianism (most of us have witnessed an anarchist accidentally developing the idea of vanguards in their search to defend their revolutions) or the most bizarre and impractical modes of production and self-defense that could be concieved, such as the idea that medicines and other highly complex products could ever be produced by individual people as a form of pastime.
This is, overall, too much hassle for the average western anarchist, who doesn’t find the need to concern themselves with that simply because, for them, anarchism is just an aesthetic used as a form of expressing one’s identity and individuality, and not as a project to work towards.
Edit: Grammar.
It is easy to support failed attempts because then they can imagine that this time those folks would have done things “perfectly” or in other words, the way the person imagining it would have done things. Without any of the messy details of having to work in the real world with real conditions.
for the revolution to succeed, youll need some sort of mechanism to oppress the oppressors. Most anarchists seem to want the revolution, but dont want to secure it cause oppression /authoritarianism/hiearchies is bad. A problem with being an absolutist.
This article is a must read imo: https://redsails.org/western-marxism-and-christianity/
yeah. that part about how Che is seen by the western left, in comparison to Castro, rings true
Online anarchists are a flandering version of the ideology they preach.
Noob Q: why is it always anarchist vs authoritarian? Surely there’s a middle ground?
If you’re ok with a longish read, I think this lays it out pretty clearly:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1906/12/x01.htm
The short answer is that anarchists and ML’s don’t have the same goals, and don’t have the same chosen methods to reach them. The only thing we agree on is (roughly) who the enemy is: capitalism.
It goes back over 100 years to the Bakunin/Marx split in the first international. It’s been going for a while!
I doubt very much that they have ever read Rosa Luxemburg. The most they pick up on is the nonsense that Luxemburg had something against the Russian revolution, which is not true.
Anarchism lacks a materialist basis. Above all, an understanding of the role of the state.
The differences between anarchism and Marxism were decided well over 100 years ago. Those works are still relevant, so it is enough to read them.
SMH. I can’t wait until Hexbear federates so sectarians can have the sectarianism bullied out of them.
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
The sectarianism is annoying (inshallah for Hexbear federation to bully the sectarians), but the narrative about MLs regularly teaming up with anarchists only to stab them in the back turns out to be bullshit when investigated.
Btw an anarchist from blahaj coming here and complaining about sectarianism is mighty rich when a 80% of entire lemmy modlog bans are people banned from there for being “tankie” - specifically interesting since their comments for which they are banned are not specified, that is, they haven’t been banned for anything concrete.
Also preempive fishing for a ban, lol, how old they even are?
I’m 26 years old. And I’m used to being banned from spaces like this. Honestly talking here at all is extremely depressing, I was legitimately hoping that I would be banned, so I could easily differentiate in the future leftist communities that will not spread misinformation about my political beliefs from ones that will.
Can you just spare yourself an utter embarrasment and block us or better yet, create an account on instance which have defederated from us if that’s so important to you?
that will not spread misinformation about my political beliefs from ones that will.
That’s incredibly hypocritical of you to say after what you wrote in this thread.
I have blocked this place, but i keep coming back for more lol. We’re on a post spreading misinformation about my political beliefs 😂
I’m also not embarrassed about anything I’ve said. I stand by what I’ve said, I just do not have the energy or the desire to argue with several people at the same time about it. This thread blew up pretty fast so, it got pretty quickly out of hand. And I’m just an impoverished trans woman by myself against an entire server of people rearing to have a go at telling me I’m stupid for being an anarchist.
All in all id rather argue with people who pretend to care about my rights than conservatives who actively hate me
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
“NOOOO, LENIN JUST LET THESE SAILORS BREAK AWAY IN THE MOST STRATEGICALLY VALUBLE NAVAL LAND WHILE THERE’S CURRENTLY 13 FOREIGN NATIONS INVADING YOU. THEYRE MORE IDEOLOGICALLY PURE!!!”
I’m sure mass murder was the only solution.
i dont want left unity. also, “misinformation?” you’re telling me that no anarchists praise the black panthers? that no anarchist praises rosa luxemburg and sankara?
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
where are these ‘anarchist territories’ that are here today?
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
the zapatistas do not claim to be, nor have they ever claimed to be, anarchist.
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
Cracker take: “these native people don’t get to choose what they are. I do”
they do have a state, though.
and they use this state to enforce their laws, such as their total ban on alcohol and smoking, which (correct me if im wrong) is not usually considered an anarchist principle
edit: bruh they deleted all their comments
Left unity isn’t real, and we don’t share a common cause
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
You almost certainly support regimes who would have me executed for being queer
The final battlecry of the faux-“leftist” who refuses to actually engage with revolutionaries who actually do things.
If you engaged with us in good faith whatsoever you would realize that a disproportionate percentage of us are LGBT+. We’re also scientific socialists and believe in something called nuance.
I am certain that you believe RFA nonsense regarding LGBT rights in AES nations. You should have seen the resolute joy permeating this site when Cuba passed the new family code. Vietnam will hold a similar referendum in 2024 and I have a ton of hope the Vietnamese people will make the correct choice. Being a worker’s democracy, I believe they will.
How does it feel knowing the AES world is progressing at 10x speed the capitalist world ever has? How does it feel to see successful socialism in action while you can’t even name a successful anarchist territory, yet claim the Zapatistas do not have the right to differentiate themselves from western “anarchism”?
I respectfully await Blahaj’s self-inflicted demise, and for you to study.
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
Yes. Retreat and have le epic last word. We will continue to fight for LGBT+ liberation in reality while you waste time owning the tankies online. Enjoy.
I’m not arguing with 10 people at once, none of whom are interested in any actual discussion. Please tell me how because I’m an anarchist i don’t read books and must be a racist lmao. Good bye 👋
u forgot somethin homie
The soviet union murdered gay men and women. China to this day actively pushes back against all gay rights.
But yeah sure
My cause is the welfare of the working class.
Diabetics dying without insulin after the dissolution of industrial society is apparently good for the working class.
I’m always curious about this when I talk to argumentive anarchists. When was the last time you read a book? Like, any book?
Today actually. Reading is almost the only thing I do, besides scroll this website and dilate. Penile inversion recovery takes up most of your free time, and the only thing you can really do during most of that time is read or scroll.