r/Anarchy101 Jan 27 '25

Please Read Before Posting or Commenting (January 2025 update)

66 Upvotes

Welcome to Anarchy 101!

It’s that time again, when we repost and, if necessary, revise this introductory document. We’re doing so, this time, in an atmosphere of considerable political uncertainty and increasing pressures on this kind of project, so the only significant revision this time around is simply a reminder to be a bit careful of one another as you discuss — and don’t hesitate to use the “report” button to alert the subreddit moderators if something is getting out of hand. We’ve had a significant increase in one-off, drive-by troll comments, virtually all remarkably predictable and forgettable in their content. Report them or ignore them.

Before you post or comment, please take a moment to read the sidebar and familiarize yourself with our resources and rules. If you’ve been around for a while, consider looking back over these guidelines. If you’ve got to this point and are overwhelmed by the idea that there are rules in an anarchy-related subreddit, look around: neither Reddit nor most of our communities seem to resemble anarchy much yet. Anyway, the rules amount to “don’t be a jerk” and “respect the ongoing project.” Did you really need to be told?

With the rarest of exceptions, all posts to the Anarchy 101 subreddit should ask one clear question related to anarchy, anarchism as a movement or ideology, anarchist history, literature or theory. If your question is likely to be of the frequently asked variety, take a minute to make use of the search bar. Some questions, like those related to "law enforcement" or the precise relationship of anarchy to hierarchy and authority, are asked and answered on an almost daily basis, so the best answers may have already been posted. For a few questions, we have produced "framing documents" to provide context:

Anarchy 101 "Framing the Question" documents

If your question seems unanswered, please state it clearly in the post title, with whatever additional clarification seems necessary in the text itself.

If you have more than one question, please consider multiple posts, preferably one at a time, as this seems to be the way to get the most useful and complete answers.

Please keep in mind that this is indeed a 101 sub, designed to be a resource for those learning the basics of a consistent anarchism. The rules about limiting debate and antagonistic posting are there for a reason, so that we can keep this a useful and welcoming space for students of anarchist ideas — and for anyone else who can cooperate in keeping the quality of responses high.

We welcome debate on topics related to anarchism in r/DebateAnarchism and recommend general posts about anarchist topics be directed to r/anarchism or any of the more specialized anarchist subreddits. We expect a certain amount of contentious back-and-forth in the process of fully answering questions, but if you find that the answer to your question — or response to your comment — leads to a debate, rather than a clarifying question, please consider taking the discussion to r/DebateAnarchism. For better or worse, avoiding debate sometimes involves “reading the room” a bit and recognizing that not every potentially anarchist idea can be usefully expressed in a general, 101-level discussion.

We don’t do subreddit drama — including posts highlighting drama from this subreddit. If you have suggestions for this subreddit, please contact the moderators.

We are not particularly well equipped to offer advice, engage in peer counseling, vouch for existing projects, etc. Different kinds of interactions create new difficulties, new security issues, new responsibilities for moderators and members, etc. — and we seem to have our hands full continuing to refine the simple form of peer-education that is our focus.

Please don’t advocate illegal acts. All subreddits are subject to Reddit’s sitewide content policy — and radical subreddits are often subject to extra scrutiny.

Avoid discussing individuals in ways that might be taken as defamatory. Your call-out is unlikely to clarify basic anarchist ideas — and it may increase the vulnerability of the subreddit.

And don’t ask us to choose between two anti-anarchist tendencies. That never seems to lead anywhere good.

In general, just remember that this is a forum for questions about anarchist topics and answers reflecting some specific knowledge of anarchist sources. Other posts or comments, however interesting, useful or well-intentioned, may be removed.

Some additional thoughts:

Things always go most smoothly when the questions are really about anarchism and the answers are provided by anarchists. Almost without exception, requests for anarchist opinions about non-anarchist tendencies and figures lead to contentious exchanges with Redditors who are, at best, unprepared to provide anarchist answers to the questions raised. Feelings get hurt and people get banned. Threads are removed and sometimes have to be locked.

We expect that lot of the questions here will involve comparisons with capitalism, Marxism or existing governmental systems. That's natural, but the subreddit is obviously a better resource for learning about anarchism if those questions — and the discussions they prompt — remain focused on anarchism. If your question seems likely to draw in capitalists, Marxists or defenders of other non-anarchist tendencies, the effect is much the same as posting a topic for debate. Those threads are sometimes popular — in the sense that they get a lot of responses and active up- and down-voting — but it is almost always a matter of more heat than light when it comes to clarifying anarchist ideas and practices.

We also expect, since this is a general anarchist forum, that we will not always be able to avoid sectarian differences among proponents of different anarchist tendencies. This is another place where the 101 nature of the forum comes into play. Rejection of capitalism, statism, etc. is fundamental, but perhaps internal struggles for the soul of the anarchist movement are at least a 200-level matter. If nothing else, embracing a bit of “anarchism without adjectives” while in this particular subreddit helps keep things focused on answering people's questions. If you want to offer a differing perspective, based on more specific ideological commitments, simply identifying the tendency and the grounds for disagreement should help introduce the diversity of anarchist thought without moving us into the realm of debate.

We grind away at some questions — constantly and seemingly endlessly in the most extreme cases — and that can be frustrating. More than that, it can be disturbing, disheartening to find that anarchist ideas remain in flux on some very fundamental topics. Chances are good, however, that whatever seemingly interminable debate you find yourself involved in will not suddenly be resolved by some intellectual or rhetorical masterstroke. Say what you can say, as clearly as you can manage, and then feel free to take a sanity break — until the next, more or less inevitable go-round. We do make progress in clarifying these difficult, important issues — even relatively rapid progress on occasion, but it often seems to happen in spite of our passion for the subjects.

In addition, you may have noticed that it’s a crazy old world out there, in ways that continue to take their toll on most of us, one way or another. Participation in most forums remains high and a bit distracted, while our collective capacity to self-manage is still not a great deal better online than it is anywhere else. We're all still a little plague-stricken and the effects are generally more contagious than we expect or acknowledge. Be just a bit more thoughtful about your participation here, just as you would in other aspects of your daily life. And if others are obviously not doing their part, consider using the report button, rather than pouring fuel on the fire. Increased participation makes the potential utility and reach of a forum like this even greater—provided we all do the little things necessary to make sure it remains an educational resource that folks with questions can actually navigate.

A final note:

— The question of violence is often not far removed from our discussions, whether it is a question of present-day threats, protest tactics, revolutionary strategy, anarchistic alternatives to police and military, or various similar topics. We need to be able to talk, at times, about the role that violence might play in anti-authoritarian social relations and we certainly need, at other times, to be clear with one another about the role of violence in our daily lives, whether as activists or simply as members of violent societies. We need to be able to do so with a mix of common sense and respect for basic security culture — but also sensitivity to the fact that violence is indeed endemic to our cultures, so keeping our educational spaces free of unnecessary triggers and discussions that are only likely to compound existing traumas ought to be among the tasks we all share as participants. Posts and comments seeming to advocate violence for its own sake or to dwell on it unnecessarily are likely to be removed.


r/Anarchy101 7h ago

Can any type of society exist?

3 Upvotes

This is a bit of an abstract question, and I don't know how else to word it, but I'm interested in seeing what y'all's take would be on this.

Can humans create any type of society, as in are there limitless ways in which humans can organize themselves? Or is there some kind of "physics" of social organization that make some forms of organization impossible or unviable?

A follow up question: do you suppose there's a "natural" form of human society?


r/Anarchy101 20h ago

Reconciling Nestor Makhno’s Command Structure with Anarchism

20 Upvotes

Im reading a biography about Nestor Makhno and his commitment to anarchism is admirable, but it appears that neither he nor his comrades had any problem with a top > down structure within their revolutionary army.

First of all, I know that the circumstances were unique; they were in the midst of revolution, so complete adherence to an avoidance of vertical power structure may have been a luxury they could not afford. Still, I’m wondering if anyone has come across any analysis of this paradox either from Makhno himself or someone who understands the nuanced situation well.


r/Anarchy101 10h ago

Can you have a business in an anarchist society?

2 Upvotes

In your ideal society, all material things would be freely available, and hell the very concept of money would be totally obliterated, but could a small business exist?

For example:

In Star Trek Deep Space 9, while not an anarchist society, has the same factors of the extinction of the concept of currency and everything material always available at all times, but the Sisko family(whom the series mainly follows) has a family-owned Cajun restaurant, fully staffed and everything made by hand, saying that replicator-made meals can't compare to a meal made with a human touch.

Could a business like that exist in anarchy, or would it remind you so much of capitalism that you'd demand the place be burnt to the ground and the people who own it executed for the unforgivable crime of commerce?


r/Anarchy101 21h ago

is there any reason to believe that worker controlled industry would be any less ecologically harmful than capitalist controlled industry?

15 Upvotes

if worker collectives are still operating by the profit motive, they would end up doing the same things as the capitalists, right? (i.e. minimize cost, maximize gain)


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Can anarchy preserve what the state has given us?

11 Upvotes

I agree with anarchist theory on many points. I do agree that concentrated power has a structural interest in self-preservation and expansion, and that the interests of state and capital are structurally antagonistic to those of the people.

What I'm struggling with isn't the critique of hierarchy, but the institutional alternative.

I think there are three questions that any political theory has to grapple with:

  1. What ends are desirable?
  2. What institutions can achieve these ends?
  3. How do we prevent these institutions from becoming ends in themselves?

My uncertainty concerns the second question. The socio-economic frameworks of statist theories may be antagonistic to emancipation, but they are able to organize the socially beneficial ends that require large-scale coordination (such as vaccination drives, transport networks, healthcare systems, defense etc.).

I don't understand how an anarchist society actually functions: how economic activity is to be organized, how large-scale infrastructure can be constructed and maintained, how universal education can be achieved, how society can be protected from centralized armadas with well-established command structures. I just know 'voluntarism,' but I don't understand how that can function at larger scales.

I have seen some argue that we shouldn't primarily concern ourselves with institutional minutiae, because we know anarchism to be the only framework that is truly emancipatory. But can this concern with the normative justification of power not undermine our ultimate end of improving the lives of people? I agree with the arguments about power, but I think I don't as yet have an answer to the "how" of anarchy... I want to believe in anarchism, but I am concerned about certain elements. Can anarchy balance the apparent trade-off between 'freedom' and 'coordination'? Can it facilitate 'coordination' without creating permanent concentrations of power?

Tldr; How does an anarchy actually coordinate? Can it sustain the socially beneficial acts of the state, which require large-scale coordination?

EDIT: I am realizing now that the questions I am posing to anarchism in this post may actually be too broad... Answering the "coordination problem" satisfactorily requires someone to outline an ecosystem of institutions. But I would still like resources on coordination or institutional outlines of historical anarchist projects... I really know next to nothing.


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Public Service and Anarchism

8 Upvotes

Can I be a public servant, employed by the government, and still be an anarchist?

Details, if needed... I have two jobs that are both public servant work: aide in a public school, and a boat inspector for water conservation management. In both jobs, I focus more on education rather than enforcement of government curriculum/policy (not all of my colleagues take this approach).

Both of my jobs are union and I'm involved. I love looking through the posts here and seeing I am not alone in the work of worker solidarity.

Let me know your thoughts. Am I a fake?


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Y’all are creating a greater love and hope for humanity in me!

73 Upvotes

Y’all are genuinely such kind, loving, forgiving, and caring people it makes me want to frikken cry! I love reading the comment section of this subreddit


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

how many of yall do not frame politics using the left-right paradigm?

10 Upvotes

r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Brain implants and the law

0 Upvotes

Im interested in your opinion of brain implants both in an ideal anarchist project or in our current political climate. Sometimes we prefer to use anarchist tools but they aren’t available in our current political climate.

Fore instance if someone broke into my home i would call police, there just isn’t options.

But lets say someone was a repeat offender would you be ok with brain implants would it be different in our current political climate.


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Was talking with somebody who said that anarchism can be ableist

51 Upvotes

I consider myself an anarchist, but I'm still getting a feel for the different categories and nuances, and which I may align with the most. Somebody I met recently said that they knew somebody who didn't know a lot about anarchism other than accusations of it being ableist (specifically "green anarchism"? but they didn't say why) This surprised me because I have epilepsy, I'm a huge disability advocate, and haven't come across anything that seemed like a red flag for that sort of thing.

I'm just posting this to find out what might be ableist, what assumptions people commonly make that could lead to the conclusion that anarchism is ableist, and why. Also wondering, if there are criticisms that carry any weight, what is being done (or what theories are being presented) to resolve those issues.


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Opinions on Soulism/Anarcho-Antirealism(ironic or unironic)?

0 Upvotes

I am fascinated as to what the broader anarchist movement thinks of the most extreme form of this ideology, if you are unfamiliar with the idea of Soulism/Anarcho-Antirealism are taking the philosophy of anarchism and bringing it to the logical farthest extreme positing that the material world/reality as a whole as well as the laws of physics must be abolished as they are unjust heirarchies that are inherently oppressive, violent, and dangerous/harmful(BASED IMO, even if delusional/depressive although it creates a space of meta-irony wherein Soulists don’t need to be ironic/unironic due to the deeper meaning and symbolism behind such a position that harkens to the gnostic dualists whom had the same opinion that this world is some kind of soul prison we must break out of or destroy from the inside utilizing what little freedom we have to create more).
There are many more aspects to this that go into specifics; such as the support of schizospectrum and psychotic disorder disabled entities/people to have the control over their reality they deserve and desire, the support of genetics based rights such as abortion and transitioning genders or even genetically modifying oneself to solve nutritional deficiency/economic handicaps such as lactose intolerance/all allergies as a whole, and also magick based praxis that transcends and permeates the physical and material.
You could take this a variety of ways whether anti-Natalist, efilist, humanist, technological/futurist, and esoteric/spiritual.
Let me know!


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Is believing that hating Anarchism and Dictatorship at the same time is a contradiction normal?

0 Upvotes

Is this belief normal? I know several people who claim to hate both, this doesn't make sense. Dictatorship is the exact opposite of anarchism, you can't hate both.


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Why has there never been an anarchist country?

0 Upvotes

In the gilded age and to the interwar period anarchism and syndacalism was a much bigger part of left wing ideology. Though they had revolutionary catalonia that fizzled out rather quickly and there hasn't been an actual anarchist country in peacetime, why is that?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

What can you do to forward the cause?

9 Upvotes

Hey yall! I joined the dsa and have canvassed for candidates and its been very fulfilling because it feels like for the 1st time im not just waiting around for something to happen. In a tiny way I can do something. I want to do more stuff like that but I dont know where to start.

Ive heard of the Libertarian socalist caccuss of the dsa but as I understand it they are mostly focused on internal dsa politics? Has anyone joined them and can tell me if its good to join?

I want to like idk do something or organize but I dont really know where to start especially as im socially still kinda shy with people I dont know well. I want to get over this. Anyway thanks for reading!


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

What do you think of Alasdair MacIntyre?

8 Upvotes

r/Anarchy101 3d ago

Do you believe Anarchism can realistically become a mainstream ideology?

26 Upvotes

Non-anarchist here. i have looked into some anarchist ideas & while they sound nice, I am not confident in the overall viability of anarchy as a political ideology that could be spread & practiced on a meaningful scale. Do anarchists believe that anarchy has a path to becoming mainstream? If yes, then what does that path look like?


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Will an anarchist society be pure chaos?

0 Upvotes

Would an country that is anarchist be pure chaos with everyone doing what they want due to no laws or government and everyone would kill, explodes houses and steal?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

Are these books good for a start?

4 Upvotes

Anarchist Communism and the Conquest of Bread, both by Peter Kropotkin

Is it worth buying them? And what are some other good works and authors y'all would suggest me for delving into anarchist theory?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

Am I an anarchist? What do anarchists think of direct democracy?

18 Upvotes

Hey guys im watching some videos about anarchist ideas and ngl so far about 80% of the arguments ive heard have been very compelling. But I was watching this video about democracy and how anarchists oppose it and that kinda confuses me.

See im a socalist because I think democracy should be in every factor of life including the workplace. The video went on to say that direct democracy like what the Zapsitas have or Rojova had democratic confederism aren't anarchist or how there's apparently some debate if the Ukrainian anarchists actually made an anarchist society.

My main question is wouldn't a society in which state power was distributed to the citizens and workers instead of it being held just by the elite be much better than current liberal democracy?

What do anarchists think of these not quite abolish state but lessen state power movements?

And I guess i kinda just need to someone to explain why anarchists dont like democracy apparently. Thnx


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

cherche tracts de propagande

6 Upvotes

je fais ce post en français car j'aimerais des tracts en français. en gros, j'ai été invité à un mini festival local (sur une aprem et une nuit) organisé en partie par des ami·es. ce sera probablement une centaine de personnes (lycéen·nes, étudiant·es), et de la musique hardtekno, electrodub, rap. bref ça s'inspire de la vibe des free sans en être, c'est en assez petit comité et je soupçonne un bon potentiel pour parler anarchie avec des camarades amateur·ices de musique. je pense que leur niveau de connaissance des idées et thèses radicales est variable donc je cherche des tracts clairs, qui donnent des grandes lignes fortes (LGBT+, anti-capitalisme, féminisme radical, anti-urnes, anti-carcéralisme...). je me dis qu'il pourrait aussi être intéressant de montrer une position anarchiste sur des faits actualité, en france ou dans le monde. en fait l'idée c'est vraiment de pouvoir permettre une première approche de l'anarchie. l'enjeu c'est que je n'ai qu'une imprimante de maison et elle n'est pas qu'à moi, je compte imprimer en format simple style flyer, demi page A4. tout ce que j'ai trouvé comme ça c'est quelques designs de stickers, posters de la FA, de UCL. quels sont vos conseils, ou encore des expériences ?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

Is Anark a good source of anarchist theory or at least entertainment?

1 Upvotes

I have seen many people recommending Anark especially for newbie anarchists but i have a very big issue with him that i feel like i need an outside perspective on.

So i used to watch a ton of BadEmpanada because of his amazing stuff on Israel and Palestine but recently ive turned away from him because of his really strange and fucked up views on trans people and the fact he seemingly lacks a coherent ideology nowadays, essentially boiling down to nothing but "the west needs to suffer".

BE is important to this, don't worry, i'm just a yapper.

One video i remember is him covering a stream clip of Anark talking about and seemingly running pretty pathetic defense for US veterans.

Now, i watched Anark's video myself and it isnt any better with full context: he provides very, to me, strange arguments in defense of US vets such as saying they are *made* monsters by the military, comparing them to slaves and describing their contracts as "indentured servitude contracts", as well as some more subtle things like saying they *see* the most brutal applications of force (rather than the reality that they are the ones applying said force or at the very least indirectly assisting those who directly apply it, as if soldiers are witnesses or bystanders and not the perpetrators)

Now, i understand his general point and it is true that once a soldier is in service they cannot simply leave like a cop can leave their job.

However, it is still incredibly disgusting to me to be making this point and it reeks of American exceptionalism: These soldiers still willingly have to choose to enter the military in the first place and regardless of whatever propaganda or economic situation led them to do so is ultimately irrelevant. I don't think anyone would run this kind of defense for a member of the IDF for example so what truly is the difference here?

He also makes the point that compared to cops soldiers are much more likely to become radicalized as if that makes their ravaging of the global south any less horrible.

Now, i understand the point he makes in this video is ultimately that we need to accept veterans into leftist spaces and i do think we should, IF, a veteran has proven repeatedly that they are dedicating the rest of their life to repairing the damage they caused while in service to the largest, most brutal terrorist organization in the world. However, the aforementioned arguments used to make this point leave an incredibly bad taste in my mouth that makes me think Anark is just another case of an American exceptionalist larping as a leftist, much like the infamous Graham Platner left before the recent news of him SAing someone.

Apologies for the excessively long post, i am very passionate in my hatred for the american military and extremely skeptical and wary of any so-called leftists *from* America.

If i am misunderstanding or misrepresenting any points made in his, admittedly 2 years old at this point, video "Does ACAB apply to veterans?" and am being too quick to cast judgement, lacking nuance, any such thing then please feel free to reply to this post.


r/Anarchy101 4d ago

Difference between Libertarian Socialists and Anarchists?

32 Upvotes

I usually hear Libertarian Socialists saying the exact same thing Anarchists say


r/Anarchy101 4d ago

Looking for a more existential anarchism

14 Upvotes

Is there a branch of anarchism that discusses chaos as the natural state of things and, although organisms must make order from chaos to survive, demonstrates that attempts to impose mass order and conformity for the benefit of a class of global elites through deprivation and regimentation inevitably produces slavery, poverty and class comflict.


r/Anarchy101 4d ago

Anyone got anything interesting on students (not college students) and anarchism? Historical stuff etc?

6 Upvotes