I'm curious about the validity of the claim that anarchism is an acceptable form of anti-status quo politics in the US because they're not actually a threat.
Is this true? Have anarchist groups not been infiltrated as often as MLs have? Is it easier to take them down?
I only ask because I feel like any form of left wing/anti-capitalist thought would be heavily suppressed here but I don't know
Yes absolutely, this has been well-documented, and pushing anarchism and various other anti-soviet trends was an explicit COINTELPRO tactic. From an FBI memo:
Norton - How the FBI used Anarchism to attack the left.
Another good article about how the CIA actively pushed ultraleft, eurocommunist, and various other anti-soviet academic trends in leftist theory:
Gabriel Rockhill - The CIA reads french theory.
Also another good article, focused on women's liberation movement organizing:
The tyranny of structurelessness - The failure of anarchist-style organizing in the womens-liberation movement.