Thank you for telling me. I was wondering why genz had those posts about Fidel from there. This is highly amusing.
EDIT: Although to be honest I'm not sure this was the right move. While obviously funny I don't think it's going to help anarchists grow out of that dead end, it's just going to foster more resentment. And while amusement is nice, ultimately I think the thing to strive for is to help anarchists move beyond anarchism to Marxism. I get some percentage are hopeless liberals, die-hard-imperialists, anti-communists, and generally stuck in loops of bad logic types, but there are definitely many who just are uneducated or rather were miseducated by the west so it was easier to go to anarchism and retain their propaganda about AES.
At the same time, perhaps portraying Marxism as an objective evolution of Anarchism is in and of itself misguided. While there was some anarkiddie content there, it is not always pro-imperialist, often siding in critical support with current transitionary states. Anarchism is its own school of thought, adjacent and important to synthesize into Marxism.
I wouldn't say it's an objective evolution (and didn't use that language). Lots of people have never had an anarchist phase for one and many anarchists don't go on to become Marxists nor is there a logical path of progression from anarchism itself. It's more that anarchism is so often baby's first anti-capitalist ideology and many cling to it because becoming Marxists requires rejecting propaganda that has hegemony in your society. It is its own school of thought but many anarchists you'll find online despite being able to tell you that wouldn't be able to tell you a lot more. It's just that many such people once they examine things more closely come to the conclusion that anarchism cannot work or succeed and that as such Marxism/Marxism-Leninism is the viable and best path forward.
And I apologize for being blunt but it is an unsuccessful ideology. And that's important to me. Because investing people and time and energy into a bad path results in less people able to get down the good one to get us to where we need to be in regards to revolution and defense of it after success. I will stand with anarchists, I will defend them if given the chance against reactionaries and liberals, and I would work with them in a limited capacity. I will also not go out of my way to slander them or join liberals in doing that (which unfortunately cannot be said for them as beyond just online hostilities you have anarchist groups projecting "fuck tankies" onto the Chinese consulate in SF, ML's would not waste resources on such foolish divisiveness in the face of the enemy). However their obsession with hierarchy (and tendency towards seeing all hierarchies as equally bad and thus prone to believing imperialist propaganda against China or other AES states or indeed the notion that China/other-AES-states are themselves imperialist) is damaging and detrimental to any revolutionary effort. There is a reason there have never been any successful anarchist societies and that is because they are crushed by the bourgeoisie.
All this said, my point remains, this is not a good way to win people over. People close their minds over acts like this. This whole ordeal was not helpful and I would go so far as saying it was counter-productive in my opinion but I don't know all the facts about that sub in particular or its problems so maybe the person who did it had more driving them than simply anti-anarchist animus.
Thank you for telling me. I was wondering why genz had those posts about Fidel from there. This is highly amusing.
EDIT: Although to be honest I'm not sure this was the right move. While obviously funny I don't think it's going to help anarchists grow out of that dead end, it's just going to foster more resentment. And while amusement is nice, ultimately I think the thing to strive for is to help anarchists move beyond anarchism to Marxism. I get some percentage are hopeless liberals, die-hard-imperialists, anti-communists, and generally stuck in loops of bad logic types, but there are definitely many who just are uneducated or rather were miseducated by the west so it was easier to go to anarchism and retain their propaganda about AES.
At the same time, perhaps portraying Marxism as an objective evolution of Anarchism is in and of itself misguided. While there was some anarkiddie content there, it is not always pro-imperialist, often siding in critical support with current transitionary states. Anarchism is its own school of thought, adjacent and important to synthesize into Marxism.
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I wouldn't say it's an objective evolution (and didn't use that language). Lots of people have never had an anarchist phase for one and many anarchists don't go on to become Marxists nor is there a logical path of progression from anarchism itself. It's more that anarchism is so often baby's first anti-capitalist ideology and many cling to it because becoming Marxists requires rejecting propaganda that has hegemony in your society. It is its own school of thought but many anarchists you'll find online despite being able to tell you that wouldn't be able to tell you a lot more. It's just that many such people once they examine things more closely come to the conclusion that anarchism cannot work or succeed and that as such Marxism/Marxism-Leninism is the viable and best path forward.
And I apologize for being blunt but it is an unsuccessful ideology. And that's important to me. Because investing people and time and energy into a bad path results in less people able to get down the good one to get us to where we need to be in regards to revolution and defense of it after success. I will stand with anarchists, I will defend them if given the chance against reactionaries and liberals, and I would work with them in a limited capacity. I will also not go out of my way to slander them or join liberals in doing that (which unfortunately cannot be said for them as beyond just online hostilities you have anarchist groups projecting "fuck tankies" onto the Chinese consulate in SF, ML's would not waste resources on such foolish divisiveness in the face of the enemy). However their obsession with hierarchy (and tendency towards seeing all hierarchies as equally bad and thus prone to believing imperialist propaganda against China or other AES states or indeed the notion that China/other-AES-states are themselves imperialist) is damaging and detrimental to any revolutionary effort. There is a reason there have never been any successful anarchist societies and that is because they are crushed by the bourgeoisie.
All this said, my point remains, this is not a good way to win people over. People close their minds over acts like this. This whole ordeal was not helpful and I would go so far as saying it was counter-productive in my opinion but I don't know all the facts about that sub in particular or its problems so maybe the person who did it had more driving them than simply anti-anarchist animus.
The mod should have had a much lighter-handed approach and simply banned anti-communist posters.