Edit for clarity: I'm not asking why the Tankie/Anarchist grudge exist. I'm curious about what information sources - mentors, friends, books, TV, cultural osmosis, conveys that information to people. Where do individuals encounter this information and how does it become important to them. It's an anthropology question about a contemporary culture rather than a question about the history of leftism.

I've been thinking about this a bit lately. Newly minted Anarchists have to learn to hate Lenin and Stalin and whoever else they have a grudge against. They have to encounter some materials or teacher who teaches them "Yeah these guys, you have to hate these guys and it has to be super-personal like they kicked your dog. You have to be extremely angry about it and treat anyone who doesn't disavow them as though they're literally going to kill you."

Like there's some process of enculturation there, of being brought in to the culture of anarchism, and there's a process where anarchists learn this thing that all (most?) anarchists know and agree on.

Idk, just anthropology brain anthropologying. Cause like if someone or something didn't teach you this why would you care so much?

  • TheDoctor [they/them]
    ·
    6 hours ago

    I wouldn’t say anarchists are a monolith in this regard. There are multiple networks which have some overlap, but aren’t necessarily the same. Like someone who gets radicalized on Reddit is going to be different from someone who gets radicalized because their sister volunteered for Food Not Bombs a lot. But both may have read the bread book.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      5 hours ago

      yeah my experience has been that anarchists online and anarchists working at the food bank might as well be two separate ideologies. The organized anarchists on the ground, at least in the US where I've been, are gonna be a lot more idiosyncratic in what makes them an anarchist. I've known a lot of self-described anarchists who, when pressed, will admit they're some type of Christian nationalist. I've known anarchists who are UFO cultists. I've known a bunch whose primary political animus was ending vaccinations and promoting alternative medicine.

      And yet none of that mattered when it came to handing out food together, or helping raise money for the shelter, or helping out migrant families. The common denominator ends up being the desire to build a better world out of mutual interests, with our collective powers. I would take a thousand real life anarchist comrades who might have odd beliefs about crystals or UFOs over a single internet forum anarchist whose every post contains the word "tankie."