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[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 7 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I think anarchism is popular in the west because of anti communism, which anarchism has historically been a part of. It has been allowed to proliferate as controlled opposition, because it is historically ineffective. They know people will radicalize here and there and they need there to be an option that allows for a semblance of radicalization without producing anything that will actually challenge the status quo. Growing up in the west, you see punks and anarchists in media, but the only time communism is brought up is during school when you are told it is evil and they move on.

In the end, when people start to radicalize or seek out sub culture because they are naturally feeling against the mainstream, the only real option you've ever heard of that hasn't been totally demonized is anarchism. Anarchism in the west doesn't require any hard work and is mostly focused on hanging out with people, partying, music shows, so it is comfortable and easy for individualist westerners to adopt and not really have to change much

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[–] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I see your point, but I disagree on it not being effective or that they don't work hard at things. It hasn't properly overthrown the order of course, but I see a lot of mutual aid work in anarchist groups. That itself is some powerful propaganda to get people thinking of alternative ways of functioning. And if you learn about real anarchist theory, you will inevitably learn Marxism.

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[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I'm saying it doesn't require hard work. People can just adopt anarchism without having to change much at all. You don't have to read much, study at all, etc. of course people do that within anarchism but there are plenty of anarchists who think reading itself is bourgeois, literally.

I'll also say that, having worked in anarchist mutual aid spaces for a long time, people are burning themselves out doing "hard work" but not accomplishing much. I think this is by design, because these groups reject structure and material analysis, they do things in ways that exhaust resources quickly to produce worse results. I've seen countless regular people see how anarchists are operating their mutual aid programs and say "ew get me out of here " because of how poorly run and low quality they were. Rotting food and volunteers who are drunk or high, allowing abusers to be around because there is no system to get rid of them, general unprofessional behavior that makes average people unable to trust them.

To your last part, the most anti-marxist people I interact with regularly are the most well studied anarchists I know. They've read all the anarchist lit which is why they feel confident rejecting Marxism.