That’s a low hanging fruit.
It’s funny in that internet niche knowledge of beefs kind of way, but I’m not sure how much it elucidates about political tendencies and schools of thought. MLs criticize anarchism not because it “hasn’t done anything”, but because both the design of it and historical fact demonstrates its inability to build a vanguard and defend against the reaction on any kind of broad scale, and because once you start getting into the level of organization needed to transition broadly from one system to another, you end up with what is essentially a state project, whether you’re calling it one or not.
I get the impression from how some rarer anarchists talk that there are some nuances to what they believe in that complicate it a bit beyond this framing of it. But nothing I’ve seen that justifies a different framework for dealing with an imperialist world. I just know that if we look at large scale projects that have succeeded in dramatically increasing quality of life and transitioning away from heavily exploitative systems while weathering the siege of imperialism and reaction, we are invariably looking at socialist states led by a communist vanguard party; not projects that are calling themselves anarchist.
Not to mention that the projects that Anarchists list either: 1. Do not call themselves that, or even hate it. 2. They were just U.S. supported opposition to actual Anti-Imperialist projects (or atleast in circumstance). 3. They failed horribly, which can apply to point two. Had a peek at Leftypol for a minute, and saw some Anarchist listing both the EZLN in southern Mexico and the SDF in eastern Syria.
Idk but it’s a pretty funny comment
you will never find anarchists outside of twitter
do federal agents count?
I have once and they were like a walking Twitter poster in the way they spoke
I stayed at a campsite run by anarchists in El Chalten, Argentina, so go figure.
They were very cool
http://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/
I’m not an anarchist, but this is plainly wrong, and a poor response even if it applies to twitter anarchists. There’s plenty to say here about how anti-imperialists should view imperfect leaders in states being actively targeted by imperialists. Ham-handed leftist infighting misses the mark.
Everybody wants to be a part of a socialist state, but nobody wants to build a socialist state.
That’s the end of this discussion. Like what else can one say? This has been talked to death for decades at this point, can we stop flinging shit at each other and wasting time doing measuring contests?
Our brains typically like following patterns, the more you do something the harder it is to stop doing it. It’s like the quote attributed to Lenin: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” You have to keep re-examining your own behaviors constantly or it’s so easy to fall into a conditioning chamber, of your own making.
Building the revolutionary vanguard by flailing our fists around a room of only other strains of leftists. Thanks Bad Empanada! Very cool!
Compatible left ain’t the left. Read Rockhill.
Do you have any recommendations on where to start on Rockhill’s work? I know of him for clowning on Žižek—which is extremely funny, and correct—but I haven’t read much further than that. I obviously have some fundamental differences in ideology with anarchists, but they’ve been nothing but good people any time I’ve ever worked with them on real things.
Keep in mind my French is conversational at best, and only if I’m talking about World of Warcraft or the locations of public restrooms.
Articles
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Liberalism &Fascism: the good cop and bad cop of capitalism.
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Foucault, Anti-Communism & the Global Theory Industry: A Reply to Critics.
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An Insider Critique of the Imperial Theory Industry: Gabriel Rockhill Interviewed by Michael Yates.
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The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discreetly Internationalized It.
Books
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Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?
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Requiem pour la French Theory
Interviews, Talks, and Podcasts
Thanks. I’ll dig in this week when I have some time to myself.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
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Link 5:
Well, if they care not for a revolutionary program beyond just militant overthrow of the old state and its apparatus of power, what use are they in the long struggle forward? We’ve seen the spanner-in-the-works that the Socialist Revolutionaries caused during the Bolshevist state in Russia. They provided nothing but flagrant chaos to the socialist project. They have power only during the militant stage of revolution against the bourgeois order, but beyond that, they have no theoretical and scientific framework (dialectical materialism) to guide and defend a socialist society against the eventual retribution of the old order.
Their hearts are in the right place, I’d say, but their eagerness to learn and adapt to material development within society for the sake of people’s liberation? They have much work to do. Not to imply that Marxist-Leninists don’t. As part of the struggle, staying sharp, critical, and receptive to valid, well-reasoned scrutiny is paramount. The scientific revolutionary path towards liberation of working people is a far more arduous one than that of the reactionaries and bourgeois democracies.
Well, wake me up when we accomplish the overthrow of the old state and its apparatus of power. This is just Internet slapfighting between a bunch of nerds who think Praxis is a planet in Star Wars, but otherwise agree on 99% of their goals. Dunking on people on X: The Everything platform is not “the long struggle forward”.
