this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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I'm politically agnostic and have moved from a slightly conservative stance to a vastly more progressive stance (european). i still dont get the more niche things like tankies and anarchists at this point but I would like to, without spending 10 hours reading endless manifests (which do have merit, no doubt, but still).

Can someone explain to me why anarchy isnt the guy (or gal, or gang, or entity) with the bigger stick making the rules?

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[โ€“] pearable@lemmy.ml 37 points 2 years ago (21 children)

People tend to think of anarchism as a power vacuum. As soon as a charismatic person comes in they'll start gaining more and more following. But that's not really how it works. Anarchy is about filling that vacuum with everyone. If a decision needs to be made you bring in everyone the situation effects to make it. You start at the level of a household to neighborhood to watershed to biosphere. A charismatic wanabe tyrant will be frustrated every step they take towards getting more power.

Anarchists develop structures and agreements that discourage concentration of power. They enable people to guide their own lives and improve their communities. When violence occurs, when agreements are broken the community decided what is too be done.

All that assumes you're already there. One of the primary differences between anarchists and MLMs (Marxist Leninist Maoists) isn't necessarily their longest term goals, it's the means by which they reach them. MLMs believe that they must use the state, capitalism, and by extension coercive control in order to reach those goals. That brings the risk of capture and co-option of those structures. They've also accomplished incredible feats of human uplift so I wouldn't say their position is without merit.

Anarchists see the revolution coming about through a unity of means and ends. They create a better society by building it while the old one still stands. Their groups are horizontally organized. They create organizations to replace food production and distribution; and devlop strategies for housing distribution (squatting).

[โ€“] Subverb@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (9 children)

Like true Libertarianism, this assumes that people will be perfect, altruistic and cooperative.

They won't be. Eventually (quickly) someone will become a cult of personality or a bully and seize power.

See: America 2016/2024.

[โ€“] sebsch@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Libertarians just want the person with more money above the ones with less. It's a very hierarchical system in favour for assholes (people stealing or inherit a lot of money).

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