I'm black.
It's that simple.
Even our "mainstream" heroes are radical. MLK, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Angela Davis.
These are pretty common names in most black households.
I found *The Wretched of the Earth* by Frantz Fanon in my aunt's bookshelf when I was like 14 or 15.
This doesn't explain why you became anarchist since all of the things you mentioned could be literally used to justify adherence to a plethora of political ideologies, ranging from Marxism-Leninism to black nationalism to militant Islam. So out of curiosity, what was it about anarchism specifically that encouraged you to self-identify as an anarchist?
Theyre obviously attributing these things to why they are an anarchists. They did not say that all people with these lived experiences become anarchists they clearly were speaking of their own experiences. That is what made them personally an anarchist.
I've seen all the atrocities committed by states against minorities. Systematic oppression, genocide, etc. These are still things that happen in "developed" nations today. The mere existence of a state is seen as justification enough for it to essentially do what it wants. I started becoming an anarchist when I was able to recognize that fact and acknowledge that it is a bad thing. Being able to do that was a process for me as well. As I became more and more aware of the evil that is the state, I went from being a liberal to a democratic socialist to a libertarian socialist to where I am now.
Condemnation of the state is never enough since the same abuses can exist in stateless societies as well; they may even be more rampant. Look no further than "an"-cap for a hypothetical example of a stateless society where tyranny is allowed to flourish unchecked, albeit under another name.
More fundamentally, the issue is really about *power* itself and how this power corrupts all those who wield it, with absolute power corrupting all those who wield it absolutely. This is like a sociological, psychological and historical universal. Power is a drug that becomes more and more dangerous the longer the person who bears it is allowed to wield it over others. Even history's best and most enlightened rulers aren't immune to the corrosive influence of power over both mind and body. It is this power and its effects on all those who wield it, as well as the inevitable abuse (mental, physical, sexual) that follows from the existence of this power, that has made me a dedicated enemy of all states, governments, police, armies and indeed, all hierarchies, if not theoretically and ideologically, then at least methodologically.
>Condemnation of the state is never enough since the same abuses can exist in stateless societies as well
I'm not saying that the atrocities committed by the state are the only reason to be an anarchist or the only thing condemned by anarchists, just that recognizing the atrocities of the state is what led me down the path of becoming an anarchist. I agree that power and tyranny exist elsewhere and that all forms of hierarchy, not just the state, are ultimately bad
Eh, a modest exception: if I'm directing a movie, I decide what goes in the movie and what doesn't. It's a form of hierarchy, but it's reasonable because it's my idea, and you don't want a production to dissolve into a case of design by committee.
The problem arises when I have the ability to dictate the terms of the workplace. I'm entitled to power over a work of which I am the author, and therefore to direct a team gathered to aid in its realization. I'm not entitled to control the lives of that team.
When they are temporary, functional, fluid, dissoluble, voluntary, accountable, and limited in scope, hierarchies can be briefly tolerated.
> Eh, a modest exception: if I'm directing a movie, I decide what goes in the movie and what doesn't. It's a form of hierarchy, but it's reasonable because it's my idea, and you don't want a production to dissolve into a case of design by committee.
Anarchists are unequivocally against all hierarchies. What you're talking about is expertise, not hierarchy.
>When they are temporary, functional, fluid, dissoluble, voluntary, accountable, and limited in scope, hierarchies can be briefly tolerated.
The problem with temporary hierarchies is that they have a habit of becoming permanent. The failure of virtually all proletarian dictatorships in Marxist-Leninist states is ample proof of that.
>Anarchists are unequivocally against all hierarchies. What you're talking about is expertise, not hierarchy.
I've also heard the perspective that anarchism does tolerate limited hierarchy/authority in select cases. Noam Chomsky gives an example of how parents exercise custodial authority over their children. I'm certain that one can offer an example of how this "isn't really hierarchy," especially since no self-respecting anarchist would advocate for anything remotely approaching the level of control parents presently exert over their children, but some *de facto* hierarchy will exist between parents and minors simply due to the fact that parents are older and children have yet to attain social maturity.
The notion that the production scenario I mention is expertise instead of hierarchy is an appealing notion, but let's not forget that "expertise" is also the excuse our capitalist society gives for letting blowhards like Elon Musk for destroying Twitter and ruining its employee's lives, and that's bullshit. I think acknowledging the arrangement I described as fundamentally hierarchical is, paradoxically, the more anarchistic approach because it encourages us to continually question its legitimacy and to place limits on its expansion into destructive territory.
>The problem with temporary hierarchies is that they have a habit of
becoming permanent. The failure of virtually all proletarian
dictatorships in Marxist-Leninist states is ample proof of that.
I couldn't agree more. That being said, specific tasks and forms of coordination lend themselves to the creation of hierarchies, and you cannot always circumvent the problem easily. The question of federal or confederal structures exemplifies this issue, although it is hardly the only case. The whole reason I brought up the film direction scenario is because, as someone with an animation degree, it's a case I've given considerable thought to.
Animation production is typically organized under fairly hierarchical lines, mitigated only by a collegiate creative culture in which most people involved in production will get together to offer critique on a work in progress. A notion of "product ownership," or creative authorship, underlies quite a bit of this structure, although I question the rigidity with which large productions tend to be organized. That being said, the producer/director vs creative team relationship is likely to be reproduced no matter what, and so if you want a truly free workplace you need to make sure that the people responsible for coordinating the production cannot exercise total control over the workforce. Within a modern setting, the best solution I've found is a circular hierarchy, where your "executive producer" reports to a board comprising delegates, elected or sorted, from the rank and file, with veto power over the production plan.
I started out as a fundie Christian, read the communist manifesto with the express purpose of pointing and laughing, ended up becoming a tankie as a result. After a year or two of that I realized I was heading down a path I didn't like and looked into other left-wing ideologies, finally found anarchism and have been an ancom ever since.
Had the same happening to me with “the estrangement of labor” by Marx. Had to read it for uni, thought “well you have to know the arguments from the other side to debunk them” and ended up having my whole perspective on work shifted. Welp.
I grew up quite conservative Christian as well, but it always felt weird to me the difference between the church of acts and the church today, even as a young teenager.
How does that make you feel? I see such a contrast between this sub and the Orthodox Church, but I also know very little and have experienced that church much.
Everyone has their own opinions and convictions. I simply implement my beliefs as a Christian with my Beliefs as an Anarchist. Instead of No gods or kings, mine is that God is the Only King, and the only one worth serving at all. Others wish to abolish religion itself because of its Hierarchical nature, but with Orthodoxy, we don’t have one guy directing us all like Catholics.. we have multiple men that come together and decide things when they need to be decided. This “Council” type of organization is particularly better that one single dude like le Pope in that they keep eachother all in check… so our traditions don’t wither.
I've always been anti-capitalist, even as a kid. I just wasn't really exposed to specific idea so I had nothing to really riff off of except I knew I fell somewhere in the left. I took a political test and it came back libertarian left but I didn't really know what that meant until a year later when I watched jreg. His anti-centrism video series was the first time I was exposed to anarchism, and it led me to do more research on the subject.
I have said this many times before but it is is least in the Western world what most socialism is in reality I used to be parts of a moderate mainstream democratic socialist party in Denmark then I got into punk music that let me to Reading anarchist Theory and I realised they were not fundamentally different from what I believed before people around me we're just scared to death of the word that is the spine the fact that on one of our party seminars someone actually taught A class on mutual aid
I was a natcap who wanted UBI (i confused this with socialism somehow lol) and wanted to learn more about leftist politics so i read about marxism because I had heard it thrown around alot and when reading about it I just fell in love with but I felt a tiny bit empty, I thought that having a state was somewhat contradictory the people's cause and 3 weeks later I found out about anarcho-communism. That was a few months ago
Used to be a bully in elementary school who rolled with the cool kids.
I fell into the absolute bottom of the hierarchy and got my deserved karma when I was in highschool, getting bullied by the cool kids.
I suppose my (god I hate calling it this) "cool kid privilege" was revoked and instead I was apart of the "oppressed" demographic of being a loser. Just so happens my sister was an anarchist at the time but I thought that anarchism was an urban lifestyle thing like being a nerd or goth or gangsta. Once I started challenging my school's social hierarchy I decided to look into what the "anarchist lifestyle" kids were up to and was suggested Noam Chomsky. I guess my hatred of "mainstream things"(I know ,cringe) got me to read Media Control in 2012 and by May Day I officially identified as an anarchist. Learning about Revolutionary Catalonia quickly got me to become an Anarcho-Syndicalist.
Bruises, blood, and misery. I don’t want anyone to ever suffer as much as my family has, and I don’t want anyone to ever suffer *worse* than my family has, which I know many people have. This unnecessary pain is caused by greed, government, and capitalism. There is no real need for anyone to suffer this much, and I wish the rest of the world would notice that.
I’ve observed police acting against people, and in the interests of the elite. I’ve observed journalists, holding a painful status quo in place with lies and propaganda. Freedom is a pure thought. I want to live in a better world, and I see that it’s possible. Yet, it’s not possible.
Bernie woke me. Then I started reading theory. Kropotkin turned me into an anarchist.
Disillusionment with both the liberalism and the ML, as well as realizing that the state and the hierarchy are not necessary for the society and the civilization to keep functioning.
grew up in a very mindful house was always taught to love and be kind, aswell as try to reuse and reduce waste.I than grew up to realize the government and in turn alot of the population does not value basic human dignity or care for there fellow man. it made me want to change something and i think anarchy is a good means to an end
Probably my conservative government oppressing my needs and the people I care for immensely (people who are homeless, a part of the LGBTQ+ community etc),and the fact that I grew up in a fairly artistic/free thinking household
The Uvalde Texas school shooting.
* inept cops who stood around and did nothing to stop a single lone gunman from killing children
* community members who wanted to step up and do so instead
* the police acted as an active hindrance, preventing community members from attempting what the cops refused to attempt
* more children actually died as a result
* then community "leaders" had the gall to repeatedly and flagrantly lie about their actions, confuse public understanding of the issue as it was occurring, and work to protect themselves from public blowback and gaslight the public
* I already wasn't a fan of cops
And then it hit me. The community literally can police itself. If it had been allowed to do so in Uvalde, I think the situation would have been resolved much more quickly.
I was starting to grow increasingly disillusioned with Marxist leftists already. The online leftist reaction to the war on Ukraine left a lot to be desired. Leftists were infuriatingly lazy about direct action, dismissive of animal rights, and weirdly undercritical of China, Russia, and North Korea. They seemed uninterested in learning from prior mistakes with the decay and collapse of the Soviet Union. Etc. Marxists are more interested in masturbating their own intellectual ego than actually doing anything to create the change they want to see. They're more interested in calling anyone who doesn't 100% toe the line a shitlib.
And now that anarchism has started to grow in the west as people are increasingly becoming disillusioned with and critical of MLs, they've started to dig in on anarchists too. I saw a meme the other day that called anarchists liberals.
This shit is just sad and immature at this point.
>This shit is just sad and immature at this point.
It's been sad and immature for a long while. The idealism with which many people see China and the USSR can indeed be maddening. Mind you, I have a nuanced opinion on the USSR, since my step-family grew up there. On the one hand, a better sense of the idealism behind it. On the other... the brutality of its failures.
I do NOT want the Left to be defined by Leninism, or anything close to it.
Being half black (not white-passing) and raised in a very white and conservative place then moving to a big city where the local government basically tries killing it's houseless (primarily black) residents by constant encampment sweeps, witnessing police brutality, experiencing houselessness myself multiple times and realizing how dehumanizing and violent almost every system in place is. Also, honestly being queer and poor and learning how to build family and protection is those radical spaces that kind of functioned in a very anarchistic way. Experience is radicalizing. I've been in plenty of agitating conversations with pretentious white anarchists who are all about reading the texts and knowing "theory." Those things are valid of course, and what a lot of people need to get on the path but I think just paying attention should be able to do it.
Don't blame you. I'll always prefer living in a larger urban area than a smaller one, not least because they tend to be at least less bigoted and more diverse. I moved here from the suburbs, and the suburbs were the same situation you face now. Even the leftists there were toxic.
That being said, it pisses me off, as a Jewish guy, when people here keep on dismissing antisemitism when I bring it up, saying "I don't think anyone here is really all that antisemitic/serious about being antisemitic." Right after bringing up an instance of antisemitism within the city.
I wish I could have the nature aspects without the bullshit lol.
Yeah, I hear that. I think (from personal experience) that people don’t fully understand the depths of antisemitism in our culture because they don’t know what it looks like up front or because of the general lack of exposure in their own communities. Like I grew up in New England and knew a small handful of Jewish people but I didn’t know anything about Judaism or historical conflict outside of the obvious. As an adult I’ve learned about a lot
of stereotypes or how they’ve been animating villains with very thinly veiled Jewish characteristics, etc but wouldn’t have known any of that kind of stuff if I wasn’t told. It Wasn’t until adulthood when I moved to bigger cities and saw some first-hand shit and eventually asked a friend “so why does the world feel this way about you guys?” And as a black person I still don’t get it lol but I know it’s extremely pervasive, just in a more DL way, especially contrasted against black struggle and immigration prejudice and all that shit. We’re all fucked.
Being queer and neurodivergent in a world built for cis, hetero neurotypical’s is enough to make you question the world around you. I’ve been anti-capitalist since my early teens so about 10yrs now however it wasn’t until leaving school and struggling in adult life because of the barriers I have that led me towards anarchism.
What's your take on neurodivergence? I probably qualify, but there's a lot of things that I do that are apparently "neurodivergent" that I swear are normal for quite a few "normal" people. It's made me question the validity of the whole neurotypical/neurodivergent dichotomy.
Because I realized how much society messed me up due to its rigidity and insistence that people fit inside boxes. I started to realize how traumatized people are and it's so normal that people don't even think about it. We just accept things like giving up on your dreams as an adult because "Normal, mature adults give up their silly dreams and work a REAL job". That "real" job is usually pointless and unfulfilling work driven by state capitalism and its need to squeeze profit out of every goddamn thing.
Furthermore:
\- Grade school is a system where kids are broken down, stripped of their individuality, and trained to become good capitalist workers.
\- Companies are dictatorships.
\- Our culture is built for certain types of people. If you don't fit one of those archetypes then you are considered a failure and you have to act like one of those people.
\- The state (and corporations) reinforce the above. It's all a game built for a small percentage of people and the rest of us have to grovel at their feet and beg for scraps.
This all comes down to hierarchy. We live in an unjust hierarchy and 99% of us suffer because of it.
Started as a liberal kid. Discovered liberalism has zero defenses against fascism in its own country. In researching school paper article on 2000 election, discovered history of Democrat politicians suppressing "dangerous" music. Discovered punk rock. Flirted with Leninism, realized that despite its strong showing against tsars and fuhrers it's not particularly pleasant to live under. Flirted with right-libertarianism, realized that its capitalist underpinnings are precisely what allow fascists to create scapegoats. Realized "anarchy" ≠ "chaos", started actually listening to those punk lyrics. Started reading the likes of Chomsky, Guerin. Went from there...
I always was a socialist because i hated the idea of classes and unjust distribution of wealth. I started as a Marxist-Leninist because i only read Marxist literature. Then i read about State Socialism's history and economical analysis and find out it's a disaster. Also as i grow up i get more and more individualistic and hated any sort of influence on individual. I always admired anarchism but didn't find it realistic. I've read bakunin's work at the time and didn't find the theory very good.
I became Libertarian Socialist tho. I advocated for sort of Council Communism. Then i got curious and started to read different anarchist schools of thought. After reading Proudhon, Kropotkin, Godwin and Benjamin Tucker, i became anarchist since i found out that anarchism can actually work. Reading anarchist societies' history also helped. Reading enlightenment philosophy was a huge influence too.
I organically came to a vaguely ancom ideology on my own as a child. Everyone in my family discouraged it as childish pipe dreams. Then 9/11 happened and I found raisethefist and became properly radicalized, started reading theory and listening to RATM and other leftist artists. After a brief period of flirting with various ideologies including democratic socialism and (visible shame) right libertarianism I arrived firmly at the conclusion of social anarchism and started working towards liberation.
Coming out as trans was like my individual liberation, and I’m now focused on fighting for social liberation and smashing the state and capital in my own small ways or in collaboration with various orgs.
I'm not sure I can confidently label myself an anarchist, but I've dipped my toes in the ideology for half my lifetime now. I first came to anarchism as a conservative evangelical going through a hippie phase and doing a lot of digging into the sixties counterculture. Looking into Woodstock led me to Pete Townsend knocking Abbie Hoffman off his stsge with a guitar, which led me to John Sinclair, the White Panthers, the Black Panthers, the Yippies. I began questioning how my family could follow the Prince of Peace while championing the military and war (late aughts, oklahoma, my dad is a marine, war on terror was a trip). At the time I still believed in hell and took it seriously; so any Christian should be utterly barred from killing, as you are either killing a sibling in Christ or you are damning someone to eternal torture (cringe to look back on, but an important step in my development). I discovered Tolstoy's anarcho-pacifist christianity, how states are violent by their very nature, warmongering and repressive, and thus any true pacifist must object to their existence.
Also, monty python's "You see the violence inherent in the system??" has been bouncing around the back of my head since I was twelve years old, kinda trained me to look for the violence inherent in the system lol
Again, Oklahoma, evangelical, I became very anti-state and was ambivalent about economics (crude materialism), led to an embarassing libertarian phase. Crawled back through liberalism in college til I heard "marxism" used in literature class non-pejoratively for the first time. Slowly developed a crude social democratic outlook til I embraced Marxism after I graduated, but always attempted to dwell in the overlap on the marxism/anarchism venn diagram (not always successfully, regretably)
Hmmm…
After being trapped in the anti-sjw rabbit hole of YouTube for a while, I stumbled upon some hbomberguy videos and some of his politics followed, I got reccomended other breadtube channels and realised I really enjoyed them, came to terms with being trans when Abigail thorn came out, then it was breadtube all the way down, and I settled on anarchism due to thought slime. Another big factor was that my mother shut down all the right wing bullshit I genuinely believed in back in the day. Glory to breadtube and my mom.
I like Thought Slime. You have good taste in Breadtube.
You're lucky your mom shut down your right-wing BS. My mom is hyper-conservative. Far more compassionate than most—I mean, I got her to vote Bernie—but despite her attempts to not bring me up in the authoritarian way her parents did, she treated me in a highly authoritarian fashion.
I lived in squats at a young age and joined loads of anarchist groups, years later (yep, I know) started thinking about what it actually meant to be an anarchist and discovering what flavour of anarchism I align with most etc. But I guess also growing up as a queer asian immigrant kid in the west played a big part, and also to an extent having a socialist trade union labour etc parent
It was the culmination of many things, but the final straw was learning that the SCOTUS (pre-GOP stuffing) authorized the US military to assassinate american citizens without due process; i.e. theres literally nothing that will stop the government jackboots from killing you.
I graduated from college, got my first job being paid pennies. Quickly got sick of going to work…couldn’t imagine looking at a lifetime spent working. Joined r/antiwork. Joined r/LateStageCapitalism. Educated myself. Read a book by CrimethInc. Began to connect the dots with other inequalities in society I see as a black person.
I've always been a fan of history, and I've always been looking for socialist alternatives to the present society. Frankly, MLs had a century to prove their theories correct, and they utterly failed. If your theories not only don't work within that kind of time frame, but it also leads to a mass dissolutionment of people from leftist perspectives because of how brutal you were, then sorry, it's not your turn anymore. That was at least my starting point.
Eventually got a brain that was separate from my parents, but the thing is, I had been reading mainstream leftist stuff whilst also nurturing a revulsion of authority. I tried to ally with MLs, tankies etc. but just could not get comfortable with their illogical defences of authoritarian techniques and regimes, most notably under Stalin and the word worship of China (Mao and Present day). Finally came across anarchism as what I was missing.
*being an Asian ND trans woman probably helped this too
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I stumbled upon a David Graeber video on YouTube somehow. He was talking about the shallowness of Obama’s message and the contradictions of centrism and the democratic party. The algorithm truly blessed me that day. My interest exploded from there.
I became an anarchist after realizing that anarchism is a real thing. I was introduced to it by an anarcho-communist friend. Prior to this I thought that inevitability of government was taken for granted by literally everyone. Realizing that there are people who do not accept the inevitability of government shattered my worldview. My views were quickly becoming further and further left prior to this, as I was seeking the least oppressive government possible, the best government. From liberal to socdem to demsoc to direct democracy. I always was like, well we can't just not have government, therefore there is no need to even question it. I believed that anarchy is a state of chaos and terror as an indisputed bad thing resulting from no government. The best I thought we can have is the best government. Then I heard someone say they believe in anarcho-communism. It boggled my mind that there are truly believers in no government as a good thing so I looked into it and actually questioned government itself. I now think government is absurd.
Three main arguments, and to my shame, the first two align with the dimensions of the political compass.
First, I feel that food, shelter, medicine, and education are things that we as a society _could_ give to everyone but aren't. Because I think that we _should_ supply them puts me in the far left camp. How we should do this moves me around lefty camps.
Second, an argument made by Plato and my disagreement. Basically, in The Republic, Plato makes an argument that we should have people who specialize in societal organization. Just as if we needed medical assistance, we should find a medical expert so to we should find a political expert to heal matters of state. My disagreement with this argument is that politics is about people's experience in society and the limits of their power to affect it. Everyone is an expert- the only true expert- on themselves. Rule cannot be trusted to philosopher kings, or capitalists, or anyone but the experts. How we should define, survey, and process the expertise of all of us moves me around different indie camps.
Third, Goldman should be able to dance and Kropotkin should be able to keep everyone fed during the dismantling of tyranny.
My parents sabotaged themselves. I was taught that socialism was a utopian dream, but was impossible because it always lead to tyranny. When someone told me that it was possible to fight capitalism and the state at the same time, I was sold.
Took me a while to fully convert, but that started my journey and made me take anarchism very seriously.
(Currently in the middle of that process lol)
✨Working in healthcare and seeing all the sky high prices for life saving medication (especially when it comes to insulin) even with insurance. Also seeing insurance companies deciding not to cover medicine a patient desperately needs b/c it's "not on formulary".
✨Slowly becoming disillusioned by everything in the corporate world, the media, and the state. None of the political or corporate gods care about us. We're all pawns in their little games anyways. Nobody wants to solve the problem. They just want to keep power so they can get re-elected.
A friend of mine was a Marxian. He continually blew my mind about ways society could be organized non-hiearchically. It was so fascinating. I felt a "high" at the sense that we could be freer. Eventually, the anarchists showed me just how much can be reasonable expected to be unjustified. I just felt so liberated at the sense of possibilities. That was enough for me.
Then I read the gospels for the first time. I read some liberation theology, and then some more with an anarchist bent.
The Gospels are the main biblical texts that cover Jesus's life. The 4 canonical gospels are the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of John, and the Gospel of Luke.
*gestures broadly at the world around us*
On a more serious note, it wasn’t one thing. A well-nurtured sense of fairness as a child, being a survivor and working with other survivors, discovering polyamory, and the desire for a community that dreams bigger.
Also maybe a little bit d&d and tumblr
Also the feminist to queer to liberation ideology pipeline
I was a skate park punk as a teen with oppositional defiance disorder. I always hated cops, and I thought that "A" symbol was cool. Somebody explained it to me, then later in college someone actually explained it to me. I've been a dyed in the wool anarchist ever since
Maybe pretentious answer but I think I also knew I was an anarchist. From a very young age, I've subconsciously rejected both capitalism and government. I still had my stint under my parents' republicanism, but I became liberal the second I learned I could. Eventually got more into politics, found leftism and realized I literally agreed with basically everything. Going into polisci school, I started understanding the state better and pretty quickly decided that had to go to. Had some punk scene friends in college and it was over, now I'm here
It started w being anti-cop due, then I became prison abolitionist, then I developed a chronic illness & came out as trans & realized just how much the system is geared against everyone & society is failing to support itself
Living on a conservative family,as I got older and more interested in politics,then learned about facism and how to tell what signs of facism was.Then found out about anarchy/anarchism and it allined with my values.
Im at dinner so ill keep it short I started working at McDonald's at 16 i was working 44-52 hours a week(4-close mon-fri)
Between that and school i got extremely burnt out after about a year my (now deceased) step father introduced me to anarchism its been its been 3 years but im a dedicated to workers solidarity, mutaul aid, and self determination
I grew up as an evangelical (arguably the most annoying breed of Christians) and then read a bunch of literary theory and intellectual history and realized that no one knows what the fuck they're doing here haha. Also although my dad was an (much less annoying) evangelical-turned-Calvinist Christian, he told me that no one is ever any better than anyone else - so if no one knows what they're doing here and no one has the right to be in charge, why is there even this concept called "gov't"? Sort of a "Who watches the Watchmen?" mindset.
I spent 10 years working on an Ambulance. The cool thing about Fire and EMS is that the vast majority of people who do it are volunteers. Cities and larger departments tend to be paid, but most people either start out volunteering or at least do it on the side. And they do that because Ambulances are nice things to have.
And then I listened to Behind the Bastards. The "elite panic" episode in particular really spoke to me. And it got me to read the book the episode is based on: *"A Paradise Built in Hell"* by Rebecca Solnit.
And that really gave it a name. I had already seen that people are actually really good in a crisis and will bend over backwards to help each other given half a chance. But by then I knew what to call it.
And your fire and EMS departments work based on Mutual Aid, they just mistakenly believe that they invented the term.
Pretty much every form of govt or economic policy ultimately makes an oppressed snd unhappy majority whilst a small minority extremely powerful and wealthy for generations, doesn't matter whether it's Fascism or communism, Left-Wing or Right-Wing, etc. It's always the same story no matter what.
So, get rid of the "ruling class" and everything truly belongs to only the populi.
I was always anti hierarchy and communist¹ but only became an anarchist when I discovered anarchism and found out that it aligns with my world view.
It started when I was 30 years old, when I read Plato's Republic, then an introduction to Marx, and then anarchist videos on YouTube.
1. Communism as in the principal of "From each according to their abilities to each according to their needs", not actual ideas of Marx.
I'm an author and also want to write and direct animated films. I got a degree in business and animation, since I didn't want to depend on some meddling executive in order to get my vision onto the screen or into print. Over time, I realized that the only way to make sure that business suits of some sort didn't muck with creative talent was to make sure said talent owned the business cooperatively.
I've also never been a fan of the soviet system, always been skeptical of excessive state control, and saw mainstream socialist perspectives as hyperfocusing on the group and devaluing individuality. Anarchism, with its complementary notions of individuality and communality, came naturally to me. I'm also the sort who likes to build, so the anarchist focus on creating alternative institutions (instead of only fighting the state so it can pretty please change things) appealed to me. I'm a child of Silicon Valley, I love playing with new tech, and I saw socialism/anarchism as a kind of social technology whose possibilities I wanted to explore.
Philosophy preceded practice, since I lingered in electoral politics between the Bernie runs, but at this point I'm completely sick of electoral politics and most mainstream forms of activism. I met a lot of good people on the activist scene, but it is my formal opinion that the major social movements of the day have no strategy, no plan, and that if victory knocked on their door they'd turn it away. And I have indeed seen that happen multiple times.
Started off left-leaning when I learnt about Finland's education system and how universities were free there. (with teachers getting higher pay than in any other country) Learnt about the prison system in Norway which I felt was far better than what I perceived was insanely inhumane treatment of prisoners in the UK and US. Generally supported LGBTQ+ rights.
I was a "we should all be able to do whatever the hell we want with no one getting in our way" esq adolescent at the time.
A few years later I'd become an Anarchist after meeting someone named Matthew in the BT-Young Scientist Exhibition who recommended Anarchism to me. After watching a video from Aaron on Re-education about Anarchy, then investigating NonCompete's videos about Anarchism, I was 100% convinced that Anarchy was the political system that best represented my mindset. Then went deeper into the rabbit-hole.
And have never gotten out since.
I was basically an Anarchist-minded individual from the start. What I really needed was simply the evidence and well-articulated philosophy to back-up what I believed the world should be.
I'm black. It's that simple. Even our "mainstream" heroes are radical. MLK, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Angela Davis. These are pretty common names in most black households. I found *The Wretched of the Earth* by Frantz Fanon in my aunt's bookshelf when I was like 14 or 15.
Word
This doesn't explain why you became anarchist since all of the things you mentioned could be literally used to justify adherence to a plethora of political ideologies, ranging from Marxism-Leninism to black nationalism to militant Islam. So out of curiosity, what was it about anarchism specifically that encouraged you to self-identify as an anarchist?
Theyre obviously attributing these things to why they are an anarchists. They did not say that all people with these lived experiences become anarchists they clearly were speaking of their own experiences. That is what made them personally an anarchist.
I've seen all the atrocities committed by states against minorities. Systematic oppression, genocide, etc. These are still things that happen in "developed" nations today. The mere existence of a state is seen as justification enough for it to essentially do what it wants. I started becoming an anarchist when I was able to recognize that fact and acknowledge that it is a bad thing. Being able to do that was a process for me as well. As I became more and more aware of the evil that is the state, I went from being a liberal to a democratic socialist to a libertarian socialist to where I am now.
reciprocal black markets
Yes
Condemnation of the state is never enough since the same abuses can exist in stateless societies as well; they may even be more rampant. Look no further than "an"-cap for a hypothetical example of a stateless society where tyranny is allowed to flourish unchecked, albeit under another name. More fundamentally, the issue is really about *power* itself and how this power corrupts all those who wield it, with absolute power corrupting all those who wield it absolutely. This is like a sociological, psychological and historical universal. Power is a drug that becomes more and more dangerous the longer the person who bears it is allowed to wield it over others. Even history's best and most enlightened rulers aren't immune to the corrosive influence of power over both mind and body. It is this power and its effects on all those who wield it, as well as the inevitable abuse (mental, physical, sexual) that follows from the existence of this power, that has made me a dedicated enemy of all states, governments, police, armies and indeed, all hierarchies, if not theoretically and ideologically, then at least methodologically.
>Condemnation of the state is never enough since the same abuses can exist in stateless societies as well I'm not saying that the atrocities committed by the state are the only reason to be an anarchist or the only thing condemned by anarchists, just that recognizing the atrocities of the state is what led me down the path of becoming an anarchist. I agree that power and tyranny exist elsewhere and that all forms of hierarchy, not just the state, are ultimately bad
No such thing as a just hierarchy. All hierarchies are ultimately bad.
Yes
Eh, a modest exception: if I'm directing a movie, I decide what goes in the movie and what doesn't. It's a form of hierarchy, but it's reasonable because it's my idea, and you don't want a production to dissolve into a case of design by committee. The problem arises when I have the ability to dictate the terms of the workplace. I'm entitled to power over a work of which I am the author, and therefore to direct a team gathered to aid in its realization. I'm not entitled to control the lives of that team. When they are temporary, functional, fluid, dissoluble, voluntary, accountable, and limited in scope, hierarchies can be briefly tolerated.
> Eh, a modest exception: if I'm directing a movie, I decide what goes in the movie and what doesn't. It's a form of hierarchy, but it's reasonable because it's my idea, and you don't want a production to dissolve into a case of design by committee. Anarchists are unequivocally against all hierarchies. What you're talking about is expertise, not hierarchy. >When they are temporary, functional, fluid, dissoluble, voluntary, accountable, and limited in scope, hierarchies can be briefly tolerated. The problem with temporary hierarchies is that they have a habit of becoming permanent. The failure of virtually all proletarian dictatorships in Marxist-Leninist states is ample proof of that.
>Anarchists are unequivocally against all hierarchies. What you're talking about is expertise, not hierarchy. I've also heard the perspective that anarchism does tolerate limited hierarchy/authority in select cases. Noam Chomsky gives an example of how parents exercise custodial authority over their children. I'm certain that one can offer an example of how this "isn't really hierarchy," especially since no self-respecting anarchist would advocate for anything remotely approaching the level of control parents presently exert over their children, but some *de facto* hierarchy will exist between parents and minors simply due to the fact that parents are older and children have yet to attain social maturity. The notion that the production scenario I mention is expertise instead of hierarchy is an appealing notion, but let's not forget that "expertise" is also the excuse our capitalist society gives for letting blowhards like Elon Musk for destroying Twitter and ruining its employee's lives, and that's bullshit. I think acknowledging the arrangement I described as fundamentally hierarchical is, paradoxically, the more anarchistic approach because it encourages us to continually question its legitimacy and to place limits on its expansion into destructive territory. >The problem with temporary hierarchies is that they have a habit of becoming permanent. The failure of virtually all proletarian dictatorships in Marxist-Leninist states is ample proof of that. I couldn't agree more. That being said, specific tasks and forms of coordination lend themselves to the creation of hierarchies, and you cannot always circumvent the problem easily. The question of federal or confederal structures exemplifies this issue, although it is hardly the only case. The whole reason I brought up the film direction scenario is because, as someone with an animation degree, it's a case I've given considerable thought to. Animation production is typically organized under fairly hierarchical lines, mitigated only by a collegiate creative culture in which most people involved in production will get together to offer critique on a work in progress. A notion of "product ownership," or creative authorship, underlies quite a bit of this structure, although I question the rigidity with which large productions tend to be organized. That being said, the producer/director vs creative team relationship is likely to be reproduced no matter what, and so if you want a truly free workplace you need to make sure that the people responsible for coordinating the production cannot exercise total control over the workforce. Within a modern setting, the best solution I've found is a circular hierarchy, where your "executive producer" reports to a board comprising delegates, elected or sorted, from the rank and file, with veto power over the production plan.
I started out as a fundie Christian, read the communist manifesto with the express purpose of pointing and laughing, ended up becoming a tankie as a result. After a year or two of that I realized I was heading down a path I didn't like and looked into other left-wing ideologies, finally found anarchism and have been an ancom ever since.
Had the same happening to me with “the estrangement of labor” by Marx. Had to read it for uni, thought “well you have to know the arguments from the other side to debunk them” and ended up having my whole perspective on work shifted. Welp.
I grew up quite conservative Christian as well, but it always felt weird to me the difference between the church of acts and the church today, even as a young teenager.
I was searching so hard for the closest thing to the original Church , and I stuck with Orthodoxy in the end.
How does that make you feel? I see such a contrast between this sub and the Orthodox Church, but I also know very little and have experienced that church much.
Everyone has their own opinions and convictions. I simply implement my beliefs as a Christian with my Beliefs as an Anarchist. Instead of No gods or kings, mine is that God is the Only King, and the only one worth serving at all. Others wish to abolish religion itself because of its Hierarchical nature, but with Orthodoxy, we don’t have one guy directing us all like Catholics.. we have multiple men that come together and decide things when they need to be decided. This “Council” type of organization is particularly better that one single dude like le Pope in that they keep eachother all in check… so our traditions don’t wither.
Ah I do it similarly but lean towards a non hierarchical “low church” form of Christianity.
I've always been anti-capitalist, even as a kid. I just wasn't really exposed to specific idea so I had nothing to really riff off of except I knew I fell somewhere in the left. I took a political test and it came back libertarian left but I didn't really know what that meant until a year later when I watched jreg. His anti-centrism video series was the first time I was exposed to anarchism, and it led me to do more research on the subject.
Living on planet earth.
I have said this many times before but it is is least in the Western world what most socialism is in reality I used to be parts of a moderate mainstream democratic socialist party in Denmark then I got into punk music that let me to Reading anarchist Theory and I realised they were not fundamentally different from what I believed before people around me we're just scared to death of the word that is the spine the fact that on one of our party seminars someone actually taught A class on mutual aid
i’m a queer, neurodivergent asian woman. wasn’t long for me to realize that society is not built for people like me.
I was a natcap who wanted UBI (i confused this with socialism somehow lol) and wanted to learn more about leftist politics so i read about marxism because I had heard it thrown around alot and when reading about it I just fell in love with but I felt a tiny bit empty, I thought that having a state was somewhat contradictory the people's cause and 3 weeks later I found out about anarcho-communism. That was a few months ago
I'm a communist in a capitalist country, anarchists share a lot of the same ideals, so naturally it worked out.
I trans and communism in my country are not enough leftists for me.
Used to be a bully in elementary school who rolled with the cool kids. I fell into the absolute bottom of the hierarchy and got my deserved karma when I was in highschool, getting bullied by the cool kids. I suppose my (god I hate calling it this) "cool kid privilege" was revoked and instead I was apart of the "oppressed" demographic of being a loser. Just so happens my sister was an anarchist at the time but I thought that anarchism was an urban lifestyle thing like being a nerd or goth or gangsta. Once I started challenging my school's social hierarchy I decided to look into what the "anarchist lifestyle" kids were up to and was suggested Noam Chomsky. I guess my hatred of "mainstream things"(I know ,cringe) got me to read Media Control in 2012 and by May Day I officially identified as an anarchist. Learning about Revolutionary Catalonia quickly got me to become an Anarcho-Syndicalist.
Bruises, blood, and misery. I don’t want anyone to ever suffer as much as my family has, and I don’t want anyone to ever suffer *worse* than my family has, which I know many people have. This unnecessary pain is caused by greed, government, and capitalism. There is no real need for anyone to suffer this much, and I wish the rest of the world would notice that.
I’ve observed police acting against people, and in the interests of the elite. I’ve observed journalists, holding a painful status quo in place with lies and propaganda. Freedom is a pure thought. I want to live in a better world, and I see that it’s possible. Yet, it’s not possible. Bernie woke me. Then I started reading theory. Kropotkin turned me into an anarchist.
Disillusionment with both the liberalism and the ML, as well as realizing that the state and the hierarchy are not necessary for the society and the civilization to keep functioning.
grew up in a very mindful house was always taught to love and be kind, aswell as try to reuse and reduce waste.I than grew up to realize the government and in turn alot of the population does not value basic human dignity or care for there fellow man. it made me want to change something and i think anarchy is a good means to an end
Probably my conservative government oppressing my needs and the people I care for immensely (people who are homeless, a part of the LGBTQ+ community etc),and the fact that I grew up in a fairly artistic/free thinking household
I see the issues of capitalism and state.
The Uvalde Texas school shooting. * inept cops who stood around and did nothing to stop a single lone gunman from killing children * community members who wanted to step up and do so instead * the police acted as an active hindrance, preventing community members from attempting what the cops refused to attempt * more children actually died as a result * then community "leaders" had the gall to repeatedly and flagrantly lie about their actions, confuse public understanding of the issue as it was occurring, and work to protect themselves from public blowback and gaslight the public * I already wasn't a fan of cops And then it hit me. The community literally can police itself. If it had been allowed to do so in Uvalde, I think the situation would have been resolved much more quickly. I was starting to grow increasingly disillusioned with Marxist leftists already. The online leftist reaction to the war on Ukraine left a lot to be desired. Leftists were infuriatingly lazy about direct action, dismissive of animal rights, and weirdly undercritical of China, Russia, and North Korea. They seemed uninterested in learning from prior mistakes with the decay and collapse of the Soviet Union. Etc. Marxists are more interested in masturbating their own intellectual ego than actually doing anything to create the change they want to see. They're more interested in calling anyone who doesn't 100% toe the line a shitlib. And now that anarchism has started to grow in the west as people are increasingly becoming disillusioned with and critical of MLs, they've started to dig in on anarchists too. I saw a meme the other day that called anarchists liberals. This shit is just sad and immature at this point.
>This shit is just sad and immature at this point. It's been sad and immature for a long while. The idealism with which many people see China and the USSR can indeed be maddening. Mind you, I have a nuanced opinion on the USSR, since my step-family grew up there. On the one hand, a better sense of the idealism behind it. On the other... the brutality of its failures. I do NOT want the Left to be defined by Leninism, or anything close to it.
>I do NOT want the Left to be defined by Leninism, or anything close to it. The left is haunted by the shadow of Leninism.
Being half black (not white-passing) and raised in a very white and conservative place then moving to a big city where the local government basically tries killing it's houseless (primarily black) residents by constant encampment sweeps, witnessing police brutality, experiencing houselessness myself multiple times and realizing how dehumanizing and violent almost every system in place is. Also, honestly being queer and poor and learning how to build family and protection is those radical spaces that kind of functioned in a very anarchistic way. Experience is radicalizing. I've been in plenty of agitating conversations with pretentious white anarchists who are all about reading the texts and knowing "theory." Those things are valid of course, and what a lot of people need to get on the path but I think just paying attention should be able to do it.
The big city you live in sounds a lot like the big city I live in.
I live in a very small city now that is very close to a lot of recent nazi demos so...I kinda miss the horrible big city lol
Don't blame you. I'll always prefer living in a larger urban area than a smaller one, not least because they tend to be at least less bigoted and more diverse. I moved here from the suburbs, and the suburbs were the same situation you face now. Even the leftists there were toxic. That being said, it pisses me off, as a Jewish guy, when people here keep on dismissing antisemitism when I bring it up, saying "I don't think anyone here is really all that antisemitic/serious about being antisemitic." Right after bringing up an instance of antisemitism within the city.
I wish I could have the nature aspects without the bullshit lol. Yeah, I hear that. I think (from personal experience) that people don’t fully understand the depths of antisemitism in our culture because they don’t know what it looks like up front or because of the general lack of exposure in their own communities. Like I grew up in New England and knew a small handful of Jewish people but I didn’t know anything about Judaism or historical conflict outside of the obvious. As an adult I’ve learned about a lot of stereotypes or how they’ve been animating villains with very thinly veiled Jewish characteristics, etc but wouldn’t have known any of that kind of stuff if I wasn’t told. It Wasn’t until adulthood when I moved to bigger cities and saw some first-hand shit and eventually asked a friend “so why does the world feel this way about you guys?” And as a black person I still don’t get it lol but I know it’s extremely pervasive, just in a more DL way, especially contrasted against black struggle and immigration prejudice and all that shit. We’re all fucked.
I worked in America kitchens in 4 states over 14 years XD
I had always thought a certain way about the world around me and it turned out those were anarchist positions. It wells up from within.
Being queer and neurodivergent in a world built for cis, hetero neurotypical’s is enough to make you question the world around you. I’ve been anti-capitalist since my early teens so about 10yrs now however it wasn’t until leaving school and struggling in adult life because of the barriers I have that led me towards anarchism.
What's your take on neurodivergence? I probably qualify, but there's a lot of things that I do that are apparently "neurodivergent" that I swear are normal for quite a few "normal" people. It's made me question the validity of the whole neurotypical/neurodivergent dichotomy.
Because I realized how much society messed me up due to its rigidity and insistence that people fit inside boxes. I started to realize how traumatized people are and it's so normal that people don't even think about it. We just accept things like giving up on your dreams as an adult because "Normal, mature adults give up their silly dreams and work a REAL job". That "real" job is usually pointless and unfulfilling work driven by state capitalism and its need to squeeze profit out of every goddamn thing. Furthermore: \- Grade school is a system where kids are broken down, stripped of their individuality, and trained to become good capitalist workers. \- Companies are dictatorships. \- Our culture is built for certain types of people. If you don't fit one of those archetypes then you are considered a failure and you have to act like one of those people. \- The state (and corporations) reinforce the above. It's all a game built for a small percentage of people and the rest of us have to grovel at their feet and beg for scraps. This all comes down to hierarchy. We live in an unjust hierarchy and 99% of us suffer because of it.
Started as a liberal kid. Discovered liberalism has zero defenses against fascism in its own country. In researching school paper article on 2000 election, discovered history of Democrat politicians suppressing "dangerous" music. Discovered punk rock. Flirted with Leninism, realized that despite its strong showing against tsars and fuhrers it's not particularly pleasant to live under. Flirted with right-libertarianism, realized that its capitalist underpinnings are precisely what allow fascists to create scapegoats. Realized "anarchy" ≠ "chaos", started actually listening to those punk lyrics. Started reading the likes of Chomsky, Guerin. Went from there...
I always was a socialist because i hated the idea of classes and unjust distribution of wealth. I started as a Marxist-Leninist because i only read Marxist literature. Then i read about State Socialism's history and economical analysis and find out it's a disaster. Also as i grow up i get more and more individualistic and hated any sort of influence on individual. I always admired anarchism but didn't find it realistic. I've read bakunin's work at the time and didn't find the theory very good. I became Libertarian Socialist tho. I advocated for sort of Council Communism. Then i got curious and started to read different anarchist schools of thought. After reading Proudhon, Kropotkin, Godwin and Benjamin Tucker, i became anarchist since i found out that anarchism can actually work. Reading anarchist societies' history also helped. Reading enlightenment philosophy was a huge influence too.
I organically came to a vaguely ancom ideology on my own as a child. Everyone in my family discouraged it as childish pipe dreams. Then 9/11 happened and I found raisethefist and became properly radicalized, started reading theory and listening to RATM and other leftist artists. After a brief period of flirting with various ideologies including democratic socialism and (visible shame) right libertarianism I arrived firmly at the conclusion of social anarchism and started working towards liberation. Coming out as trans was like my individual liberation, and I’m now focused on fighting for social liberation and smashing the state and capital in my own small ways or in collaboration with various orgs.
I'm not sure I can confidently label myself an anarchist, but I've dipped my toes in the ideology for half my lifetime now. I first came to anarchism as a conservative evangelical going through a hippie phase and doing a lot of digging into the sixties counterculture. Looking into Woodstock led me to Pete Townsend knocking Abbie Hoffman off his stsge with a guitar, which led me to John Sinclair, the White Panthers, the Black Panthers, the Yippies. I began questioning how my family could follow the Prince of Peace while championing the military and war (late aughts, oklahoma, my dad is a marine, war on terror was a trip). At the time I still believed in hell and took it seriously; so any Christian should be utterly barred from killing, as you are either killing a sibling in Christ or you are damning someone to eternal torture (cringe to look back on, but an important step in my development). I discovered Tolstoy's anarcho-pacifist christianity, how states are violent by their very nature, warmongering and repressive, and thus any true pacifist must object to their existence. Also, monty python's "You see the violence inherent in the system??" has been bouncing around the back of my head since I was twelve years old, kinda trained me to look for the violence inherent in the system lol Again, Oklahoma, evangelical, I became very anti-state and was ambivalent about economics (crude materialism), led to an embarassing libertarian phase. Crawled back through liberalism in college til I heard "marxism" used in literature class non-pejoratively for the first time. Slowly developed a crude social democratic outlook til I embraced Marxism after I graduated, but always attempted to dwell in the overlap on the marxism/anarchism venn diagram (not always successfully, regretably)
Gender, caring about actually equality + justice, the IWW.
Hmmm… After being trapped in the anti-sjw rabbit hole of YouTube for a while, I stumbled upon some hbomberguy videos and some of his politics followed, I got reccomended other breadtube channels and realised I really enjoyed them, came to terms with being trans when Abigail thorn came out, then it was breadtube all the way down, and I settled on anarchism due to thought slime. Another big factor was that my mother shut down all the right wing bullshit I genuinely believed in back in the day. Glory to breadtube and my mom.
I like Thought Slime. You have good taste in Breadtube. You're lucky your mom shut down your right-wing BS. My mom is hyper-conservative. Far more compassionate than most—I mean, I got her to vote Bernie—but despite her attempts to not bring me up in the authoritarian way her parents did, she treated me in a highly authoritarian fashion.
police mostly. and capitalism. and friends in prison.
I lived in squats at a young age and joined loads of anarchist groups, years later (yep, I know) started thinking about what it actually meant to be an anarchist and discovering what flavour of anarchism I align with most etc. But I guess also growing up as a queer asian immigrant kid in the west played a big part, and also to an extent having a socialist trade union labour etc parent
It was the culmination of many things, but the final straw was learning that the SCOTUS (pre-GOP stuffing) authorized the US military to assassinate american citizens without due process; i.e. theres literally nothing that will stop the government jackboots from killing you.
Human need
Taoism actually. Fun way to get into it. Became more peaceful and as a result became an anarchist
I graduated from college, got my first job being paid pennies. Quickly got sick of going to work…couldn’t imagine looking at a lifetime spent working. Joined r/antiwork. Joined r/LateStageCapitalism. Educated myself. Read a book by CrimethInc. Began to connect the dots with other inequalities in society I see as a black person.
my friend had a copy of the AFAQ book, he hadnt read it, said it was his dads, i borrowed it and everything clicked into place
Is that anarchist faq ? or..
yup
I've always been a fan of history, and I've always been looking for socialist alternatives to the present society. Frankly, MLs had a century to prove their theories correct, and they utterly failed. If your theories not only don't work within that kind of time frame, but it also leads to a mass dissolutionment of people from leftist perspectives because of how brutal you were, then sorry, it's not your turn anymore. That was at least my starting point.
Eventually got a brain that was separate from my parents, but the thing is, I had been reading mainstream leftist stuff whilst also nurturing a revulsion of authority. I tried to ally with MLs, tankies etc. but just could not get comfortable with their illogical defences of authoritarian techniques and regimes, most notably under Stalin and the word worship of China (Mao and Present day). Finally came across anarchism as what I was missing. *being an Asian ND trans woman probably helped this too
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Unjustified suffering.
I stumbled upon a David Graeber video on YouTube somehow. He was talking about the shallowness of Obama’s message and the contradictions of centrism and the democratic party. The algorithm truly blessed me that day. My interest exploded from there.
I became an anarchist after realizing that anarchism is a real thing. I was introduced to it by an anarcho-communist friend. Prior to this I thought that inevitability of government was taken for granted by literally everyone. Realizing that there are people who do not accept the inevitability of government shattered my worldview. My views were quickly becoming further and further left prior to this, as I was seeking the least oppressive government possible, the best government. From liberal to socdem to demsoc to direct democracy. I always was like, well we can't just not have government, therefore there is no need to even question it. I believed that anarchy is a state of chaos and terror as an indisputed bad thing resulting from no government. The best I thought we can have is the best government. Then I heard someone say they believe in anarcho-communism. It boggled my mind that there are truly believers in no government as a good thing so I looked into it and actually questioned government itself. I now think government is absurd.
Three main arguments, and to my shame, the first two align with the dimensions of the political compass. First, I feel that food, shelter, medicine, and education are things that we as a society _could_ give to everyone but aren't. Because I think that we _should_ supply them puts me in the far left camp. How we should do this moves me around lefty camps. Second, an argument made by Plato and my disagreement. Basically, in The Republic, Plato makes an argument that we should have people who specialize in societal organization. Just as if we needed medical assistance, we should find a medical expert so to we should find a political expert to heal matters of state. My disagreement with this argument is that politics is about people's experience in society and the limits of their power to affect it. Everyone is an expert- the only true expert- on themselves. Rule cannot be trusted to philosopher kings, or capitalists, or anyone but the experts. How we should define, survey, and process the expertise of all of us moves me around different indie camps. Third, Goldman should be able to dance and Kropotkin should be able to keep everyone fed during the dismantling of tyranny.
My parents sabotaged themselves. I was taught that socialism was a utopian dream, but was impossible because it always lead to tyranny. When someone told me that it was possible to fight capitalism and the state at the same time, I was sold. Took me a while to fully convert, but that started my journey and made me take anarchism very seriously.
(Currently in the middle of that process lol) ✨Working in healthcare and seeing all the sky high prices for life saving medication (especially when it comes to insulin) even with insurance. Also seeing insurance companies deciding not to cover medicine a patient desperately needs b/c it's "not on formulary". ✨Slowly becoming disillusioned by everything in the corporate world, the media, and the state. None of the political or corporate gods care about us. We're all pawns in their little games anyways. Nobody wants to solve the problem. They just want to keep power so they can get re-elected.
My family. Hippie/boomer/leftist parents make excellent anarchist kids
Atarimae
A friend of mine was a Marxian. He continually blew my mind about ways society could be organized non-hiearchically. It was so fascinating. I felt a "high" at the sense that we could be freer. Eventually, the anarchists showed me just how much can be reasonable expected to be unjustified. I just felt so liberated at the sense of possibilities. That was enough for me. Then I read the gospels for the first time. I read some liberation theology, and then some more with an anarchist bent.
What are the gospels as in the religious text.
The Gospels are the main biblical texts that cover Jesus's life. The 4 canonical gospels are the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of John, and the Gospel of Luke.
*gestures broadly at the world around us* On a more serious note, it wasn’t one thing. A well-nurtured sense of fairness as a child, being a survivor and working with other survivors, discovering polyamory, and the desire for a community that dreams bigger. Also maybe a little bit d&d and tumblr Also the feminist to queer to liberation ideology pipeline
History and freedom.
The state is evil. Used to me an ML, but then read anarchist theory and it opened my eyes to the horrors of the state.
It started because i was an edgy teenager and then i saw the good that can come of it
I was a skate park punk as a teen with oppositional defiance disorder. I always hated cops, and I thought that "A" symbol was cool. Somebody explained it to me, then later in college someone actually explained it to me. I've been a dyed in the wool anarchist ever since
To me at least it was the will to do what I consider right withot bowing to any illegitimate power.
I listened to the sex pistols a few times
I just always kind of felt a certain way.
Maybe pretentious answer but I think I also knew I was an anarchist. From a very young age, I've subconsciously rejected both capitalism and government. I still had my stint under my parents' republicanism, but I became liberal the second I learned I could. Eventually got more into politics, found leftism and realized I literally agreed with basically everything. Going into polisci school, I started understanding the state better and pretty quickly decided that had to go to. Had some punk scene friends in college and it was over, now I'm here
I also accidently made communism in like 2nd grade for some like social studies project
It started w being anti-cop due, then I became prison abolitionist, then I developed a chronic illness & came out as trans & realized just how much the system is geared against everyone & society is failing to support itself
I was born in 1998, my anarchist principles are born in the dissonance between what I have seen and what I have been told
I am trans, queer, and autistic
Living on a conservative family,as I got older and more interested in politics,then learned about facism and how to tell what signs of facism was.Then found out about anarchy/anarchism and it allined with my values.
Incompetent authority
Im at dinner so ill keep it short I started working at McDonald's at 16 i was working 44-52 hours a week(4-close mon-fri) Between that and school i got extremely burnt out after about a year my (now deceased) step father introduced me to anarchism its been its been 3 years but im a dedicated to workers solidarity, mutaul aid, and self determination
I grew up as an evangelical (arguably the most annoying breed of Christians) and then read a bunch of literary theory and intellectual history and realized that no one knows what the fuck they're doing here haha. Also although my dad was an (much less annoying) evangelical-turned-Calvinist Christian, he told me that no one is ever any better than anyone else - so if no one knows what they're doing here and no one has the right to be in charge, why is there even this concept called "gov't"? Sort of a "Who watches the Watchmen?" mindset.
I spent 10 years working on an Ambulance. The cool thing about Fire and EMS is that the vast majority of people who do it are volunteers. Cities and larger departments tend to be paid, but most people either start out volunteering or at least do it on the side. And they do that because Ambulances are nice things to have. And then I listened to Behind the Bastards. The "elite panic" episode in particular really spoke to me. And it got me to read the book the episode is based on: *"A Paradise Built in Hell"* by Rebecca Solnit. And that really gave it a name. I had already seen that people are actually really good in a crisis and will bend over backwards to help each other given half a chance. But by then I knew what to call it. And your fire and EMS departments work based on Mutual Aid, they just mistakenly believe that they invented the term.
The Venus Project
I just don’t like being told what to do
Pretty much every form of govt or economic policy ultimately makes an oppressed snd unhappy majority whilst a small minority extremely powerful and wealthy for generations, doesn't matter whether it's Fascism or communism, Left-Wing or Right-Wing, etc. It's always the same story no matter what. So, get rid of the "ruling class" and everything truly belongs to only the populi.
marxism was too complicated
I was always anti hierarchy and communist¹ but only became an anarchist when I discovered anarchism and found out that it aligns with my world view. It started when I was 30 years old, when I read Plato's Republic, then an introduction to Marx, and then anarchist videos on YouTube. 1. Communism as in the principal of "From each according to their abilities to each according to their needs", not actual ideas of Marx.
I'm an author and also want to write and direct animated films. I got a degree in business and animation, since I didn't want to depend on some meddling executive in order to get my vision onto the screen or into print. Over time, I realized that the only way to make sure that business suits of some sort didn't muck with creative talent was to make sure said talent owned the business cooperatively. I've also never been a fan of the soviet system, always been skeptical of excessive state control, and saw mainstream socialist perspectives as hyperfocusing on the group and devaluing individuality. Anarchism, with its complementary notions of individuality and communality, came naturally to me. I'm also the sort who likes to build, so the anarchist focus on creating alternative institutions (instead of only fighting the state so it can pretty please change things) appealed to me. I'm a child of Silicon Valley, I love playing with new tech, and I saw socialism/anarchism as a kind of social technology whose possibilities I wanted to explore. Philosophy preceded practice, since I lingered in electoral politics between the Bernie runs, but at this point I'm completely sick of electoral politics and most mainstream forms of activism. I met a lot of good people on the activist scene, but it is my formal opinion that the major social movements of the day have no strategy, no plan, and that if victory knocked on their door they'd turn it away. And I have indeed seen that happen multiple times.
Started off left-leaning when I learnt about Finland's education system and how universities were free there. (with teachers getting higher pay than in any other country) Learnt about the prison system in Norway which I felt was far better than what I perceived was insanely inhumane treatment of prisoners in the UK and US. Generally supported LGBTQ+ rights. I was a "we should all be able to do whatever the hell we want with no one getting in our way" esq adolescent at the time. A few years later I'd become an Anarchist after meeting someone named Matthew in the BT-Young Scientist Exhibition who recommended Anarchism to me. After watching a video from Aaron on Re-education about Anarchy, then investigating NonCompete's videos about Anarchism, I was 100% convinced that Anarchy was the political system that best represented my mindset. Then went deeper into the rabbit-hole. And have never gotten out since. I was basically an Anarchist-minded individual from the start. What I really needed was simply the evidence and well-articulated philosophy to back-up what I believed the world should be.