this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.
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The phrase "anarchist phase" struck me because I would assume they mean in the teenage "chaos is cool" way. Which I had as a kid, too. But then I find that my ideals are literally anarchistic on the political compass so... Was it really a phase? ๐ค
Political compass doesn't describe any actual political realities; a society where every oligarch is a totalitarian dictator is considered more "free" than a dictatorship of the proletariat where the capitalist class is less free to exploit the working class, a racist who supports a welfare state is somehow in the same quadrant as communists.
Who do you organize with?
Nobody.
If someone's ideals haven't had any effect on reality, would you even say they're an anarchist or communist or whatever in anything but theory?
Yeah, any extant human influences reality in some way.
If their anarchism has never been observed in reality, in the form of action or organizing or trying to build a mass movement, is it meaningful to call them an anarchist? I guess you could call them an anarchist thinker or even anarchist poster because they probably post about it online and talk to people IRL about it?
I guess what I don't like about the compass is it makes no real attempt to relate to actually existing political movements and the factors that determine their character, and instead does the idealist thing of pretending society is just a bunch of people with different ideas that battle on their own merits.
Yes. If their anarchism drove them to adopt a puppy or eat a sandwich, that's affecting reality. Being an anarchist and doing anarchist things has the exact same relationship as being a volunteer firefighter and actually fighting a fire. Maybe you never get to actually respond to a fire, doesn't mean you're not a volunteer firefighter.
Anything else is gatekeeping, although 'm sure there's tons of "no true Scottsman" types in the anarchy camp.
wtf? A political movement doesn't just happen at random, and hopefully there's enough volunteer anarchists around to respond. We have to build any movement ourselves.
Your error here is thinking that political ideals must be a part of some movement, organization or group.
They don't.
Why? If someone's political ideals exist only in their head and aren't part of any movement, organizations, or actions, how are they relevant to anything?
Have you not heard of voting?
You vote for anarchist candidates or are part of an organization that promotes a candidate in exchange for supporting anarchist policy?
I vote for whoever I think would best represent my ideals, yeah.
I've got something you need to read.
A Scotsman has to have some connection Scotland, its hardly a 'No True Scotsman' to be confused when a chinese guy declares himself a Scotsman, but also says he has no connection whatsoever to Scotland or its people, he just likes the idea of Scotland.
Sure, but this person does have a connection to Anarchism. It might not be what you want, but that doesn't matter. You don't get to decide.
You're the type of person who needs to just fuck off. I don't know if you're an Anarchist, but all you're doing is gatekeeping, and keeping people from coming into the movement. Someone may interact with you, decide Anarchists are a bunch of assholes who only care about titles, and then never engage further. Best case, people ignore you.
I know you're just doing this to make yourself feel better. We all need that sometimes. Find a better outlet though.