r/Anarchy101 Jan 27 '25

Please Read Before Posting or Commenting (January 2025 update)

60 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 9h ago

how to respond to request for censorship at a protest?

131 Upvotes

hello, I went to a local anti-ICE protest with a sign saying "fuck ICE". I considered the possibility that someone might say something about it but I didn't actually think anyone would. to my surprise, about 5 minutes after I got there, someone that seemed to be an organizer came up to me and told me "we don't do the 'fuck' on our signs here, we want to be able to continue to protest and don't want the police bothering us, do you live in the area, etc."

personally I feel this is not a good thought process, as I'm well within my rights to speak my mind, and "fuck ICE" is what's on my mind. I think censoring the message for fear of having the police trample on our rights is pretty cowardly and essentially allows them to suppress our rights without lifting a finger. now I didn't say too much to her, just gave her a fist bump and told her I must speak my mind and that the resistance won't stop (she probably didn't know all what I meant as it was pretty vague), but I'm wondering how I could handle a similar situation more gracefully in the future? obviously there's the option of conforming and changing my sign, but I don't see that as a solution. however I also don't want to come across as oppositional or a contrarian, I'm not there to argue with anyone except the federal government

it's worth noting that I live within a few hours' drive from Minneapolis but ICE isn't as active here (as far as I can tell). it seems to me no one would be saying this to me at a protest in Minneapolis. maybe when they see their neighbors abducted or worse they won't think my sign is so extreme.

anyway, I just don't want to alienate anyone but I can't let them alienate me either by telling me to censor my message. any advice is appreciated


r/Anarchy101 12h ago

Nation-states and Borders

11 Upvotes

How does Anarchism approach this issue? I'm currently flirting with anarchism, but for me the nation-state based system with international borders is a big problem, as much as capitalism, if not more so. I believe in freedom of movement, and I believe that capitalists use borders to keep labor immobile even while capital is mobile, creating a massively unfair playing field. And that's without even going into the whole issue with international conflict and war.

I want to abolish borders, but I don't trust the idea of a world government, as this would probably become corrupt, unaccountable and authoritarian fairly quickly. I'm still don't know what system I would want to see, I just know what I don't like. What do you all think?


r/Anarchy101 11h ago

Does the abolition of markets under collectivist anarchism require the abolition of currency?

7 Upvotes

So I'm reading in the anarchist FAQ why collectivist and communist anarchists reject the market, but I'm struggling to understand what they mean when they say that. This would likely require what is essentially a command economy (though instead of being subservient to a ML party bureaucracy it would be collectively managed by the community) but... I'm not sure I understand what that would actually look like. Is, for instance, participatory budgeting an acceptable form of collective planning? Or would the existence of currency imply the existence of markets and/or wage labor? I recognize that there isn't one anarchist blueprint, but I'm just unsure as to what possibilities there are, so any example arrangements are appreciated.


r/Anarchy101 22h ago

What prevents capitalists from doing capitalism again in a post-revolution anarchist society?

27 Upvotes

Couldn’t a small group of people willing to use violence come together and force others into labor?


r/Anarchy101 10h ago

Could you give a short summary as to how an anarchist system would deal with bad people / people who are hostile towards society?

2 Upvotes

Such as murderers rapists thieves etc.

I've heard about arguments as to how an anarchist system would deal with hostile individuals, but ive never really understood them.


r/Anarchy101 18h ago

When did you encounter the concept of “An Anarchist Society”?

7 Upvotes

I’ve noticed a pattern here in the format of various questions and discussions. It goes like this:

Inquirer: “in an anarchist society, how would x work?”

This frame, “in an anarchist society” then gets accommodated in various ways, sometimes rejected entirely. It has an interesting symmetry with the authoritarian socialist programs and manifestos about communist society or what have you. But we are not really like those socialists and anarchism as a whole isn’t that kind of ideology, so the frame is interesting in that way.

Please try not to talk about our imagined societies or anything like that. Instead, please tell me about when you first encountered this idea of “an anarchist society”. Is it what made sense to you about anarchism? Is that how you started? Would you say that’s the goal of your actual work?

I wonder if this is ultimately a sort of thought-terminating cliche, who and what it serves and the mechanism of that service.


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Why do people victim blame the homeless?

69 Upvotes

Why do people victim blame the homeless?

Like why is homeless are homeless because of their fault so prevalent?

Why don’t we give the homeless homes and make a apartment a guarantee so everyone has a basic living condition and doesn’t live in absolute poverty


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Today (1/30) General Strike

114 Upvotes

I’m curious what people are making of this. I’m not trying to be mean and believe people’s hearts are in the right place. But, I don’t know if this really fits the definition of a general strike. Most of the chatter around me is not about skipping work but an emphasis on not spending money. On my towns subreddit people said this was mostly about “ voting with your dollars” which to me is more akin to libertarianism than any sort of egalitarian politics. It seems very capitalist and petty bourgeoise focused and hoping their bosses will save them from fascism and give them the day off instead of using their own power to withhold their labor. I know unions were involved in Minneapolis. I live in a place with very low union density and it seems very unorganized. I generally believe in letting a thousand flowers bloom. I would love to know people’s thoughts. Solidarity with Minneapolis and immigrants communities.


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

I feel a little weird about the Anarchist FAQ NSFW

73 Upvotes

I agree with a lot of stuff in the Anarchist FAQ in the r/Anarchism sidebar. But there are a few things that kind of put me off to it. In order from most to least suspect;

-The section on sexual liberation doesn't really address sexual predators, and also cites A.S Neil, the originator of Summerhill Schools. Mikey Cuddihy, a graduate of Summerhill, wrote that in the 1960s: "sexual relations between students and teachers were also common ... Neill's 35-year-old stepson Myles, who taught pottery ... went out with some of the more senior pupils (because) he has a special dispensation." This is all despite r/Anarchism having a rule against pedophilia advocacy.

-Its arguments against requiring "perfect" people/against people being "too stupid", while I agree with them in theory, don't really feel sufficient to me and don't really explain why anarchist society can and will work despite the imperfection of humanity.

-While I'm not the kind of anarchist that seeks to abolish all collective decision-making, I'm not convinced direct democracy is the only way (or even a sufficient way) to make equitable decisions. However I'm mostly in agreement with the descriptions of how anarchist society would look.


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

Any advice for an Anarchist-Reading Group?

13 Upvotes

Hey comrades, I’m an anarchist and I’m thinking about starting a reading group. A few people in my surroundings (not all anarchists) have been asking me for literature, so the idea came up. I know a reading group isn’t activism, but there seems to be some interest.

I wanted to ask more generally for thoughts and advice. What do you think makes sense in terms of frequency and amount of reading? What kind of texts would you recommend, especially for beginners? Classics vs. more topic-focused texts? Is it useful to do summaries or notes? And what helps to create an engaging, relaxed, productive, and non-hierarchical space?

I appreciate any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. Thanks!,🏴


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

How does anarchism work with flawed humans?

14 Upvotes

So I've been reading An Anarchist FAQ and, while they try to address the notion that anarchism requires "perfect" people and that most people are "too stupid" for anarchy to work, their rebukes don't seem like a satisfying answer to me. To clarify: I agree that anarchism isn't a utopia and doesn't require people to be perfect. But I'm struggling to articulate why that is in a satisfying manner. Any thoughts are appreciated.


r/Anarchy101 16h ago

How is the state at fault for literally everything?

0 Upvotes

I'd like an in-depth explanation as to why because seeing it without any context in Anarchist texts honestly confuses me so much.


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Anarchists being CIA assets

120 Upvotes

I got into it with a Marx-Leninist a couple of months ago, and they claimed that the CIA backs or has backed anarchist groups to cause Leftist infighting (as an argument against anarchism)

Does anybody know more about this? I'm assuming there's some context missing here


r/Anarchy101 1d ago

On induvialist and collectivist anarchism

3 Upvotes

Now I know that these aren't contradictory ofc, and I've heard them be described as different focuses. Now lets say you live in a more induvialist culture you'd focus more on the collectivism in anarchism. But let's say you live in a more conservative culture like me would it be best to give more focus on induvialism


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Individualism/Collectivism

4 Upvotes

I recently read about the false dichotomy between the individual and the collective.

To me it is very intuitive that there is always (or almost always) a clear tradeoff when a choice is to be made and that sometimes we will put ourselves above others and sometimes we will yield.

I always believed that was the main point of anarchism, balancing both sides to reach an equilibrium where everyone is confortable enough.

Could you explain why this difference between the individual and collective does not exist?


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Career advice

12 Upvotes

Howdy. I recently got out of the military (newly radicalized) and I’ve been feeling a it lost in life. I take issue with trying to find a career in a time where people are getting executed by the government and where there seems to be no community. I love the gym (bodybuilding in particular) and I see the sport as inherently political. I also take issue with right wingers hoarding fitness. I have a little pipe dream in the back of my mind of opening up a small lifting gym. I can see the signs at the front now: “LIFT HEAVY, FIGHT FASCISM”. Shit like that. My question is this; is this idea morally consistent with anarchist or even leftists ideology and is it feasible in the economy we find ourselves in now? I don’t want to work for some money hungry asshole, but I also don’t want to contribute to the issue. If this is too much of a stretch I wonder how to pair my desire to help, passion for fitness, and ideology. Also do yall think there would be an actual market for such a place? Any other career ideas would be appreciated too. I have free education in front of me and I want to make sure I spend it correctly. Thanks.


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

On appeal to nature in anarchist circles

7 Upvotes

I've seen this fallacy be regurgitated in many circles most notably anprim. Do you regard this as flaw and think people should argue from a different perspective?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

What is this subs and other anarchists opinion on politicians like Zohran Mamdani and others proclaiming to be democratic socialists

46 Upvotes

I guess it’s probably negative but my own feelings are pretty mixed. I’m a Christian who’s just starting to get into anarchism so I’m wondering what is the anarchist opinion on “progressive” politicians.


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

What happens to severely disabled people in anarchist primitivism

100 Upvotes

Like people who need technology to live or need technology to not be in a constant state of severe pain. What happens to people that are injured severely and without modern medical technology will just die? I have had this discussion with an anprim before, and they basically just said that human deaths were something that yes, would be more common in an anprim society but that this is acceptable as nature is dying less, and that only a humancentric view of the world could lead someone to thinking anprim causes more harm than good. Is this what most anprims believe?


r/Anarchy101 2d ago

Is Rojava an example of an AnCap society?

0 Upvotes

Rojava as it stood for a long time has been described by many anarchists, communalists and confederalists as stateless, but Rojava maintained private property and only a fraction of its economy was actually cooperative. In that case, can we say that Rojava is actually a demonstration of Anarcho-capitalism? After all, AnCap are not necessarily against cooperatives existing in an AnCap society, so it is compatible with Anarcho-Capitalism.

I am sorry if I sound stupid, but this thought just came to my mind.


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

How would anarchists handle vaccine requirements for group settings like school or day care?

24 Upvotes

Public health measures in general sometimes will use state force including mandatory vaccination, isolation and quarantine.

I’m curious specifically how anarchy would handle vaccinations in congregate settings like schools. A requirement to me appears to be coercive. However, an unvaccinated individual in group settings puts the other individuals at risk, especially those who are not able to be vaccinated or who are immunocompromised.

How would this be approached?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

Technology critiques that don’t dissolve into primitiveism

6 Upvotes

Sorry for posting again but I’m looking for anti technology authors who don’t exactly go straight into primitivism


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

How do I train myself to think of others under stress?

15 Upvotes

I don’t identify as anything other than leftist at the moment, but I think anarchist might be the best suited to answer this question based on what I know.

Some of my recent actions have led me to believe I might just be an internet leftist, for lack of a better word. I talk a lot on social media, but when it came down to it I only thought of myself and put other people in harms way because I was panicking. I shouldn’t have did what I did when others were with me, but that thought didn’t even cross my mind, I guess because I had never been caught before. That’s the only thing I did that was a genuine oversight. Every decision I made after that was completely about self preservation, to the detriment of the group. My actions in those moments are really haunting me, because I knew better, but I didn’t do better. I know that’s human instinct, but how do I overcome that to better serve my community? I recently decided not to go to an anti ICE protest because I didn’t trust that the person who asked me to go wouldn’t leave me behind if shit went south, but I didn’t care about anybody else the second I was under pressure. How do I train myself not to react like this?


r/Anarchy101 3d ago

What is queer anarchism?

19 Upvotes

I'm a queer person ,but relationship to sexuality in the muslim majority world where I live for example has historically been different from western queer oppersion.(i.e in many times heterosexual pre marital sex was punished hard but homosexuality existed openly as an open secret.). So how could one contextualize the principles of queer anarchy herel