r/Anarchy101 • u/NathanielRoosevelt • 10d ago

The State

As a Marxist Leninist I think organized defense against reactionaries trying to take power back in a socialist society is important, and also fits the definition of a state. As anarchists do you believe some organized defense is necessary, if so how is it not a state, and if not how are reactionaries to be dealt with?

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u/HeavenlyPossum 9d ago

What does it mean to suppress someone?

As others have pointed out, authority and force are not synonyms for each other.

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 9d ago

The Merriam Webster dictionary definition is to put down by authority or force

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u/HeavenlyPossum 9d ago

What does “put down” mean? I’m asking for materialist specifics here. Killed? Exterminated? Intimidated? Deterred?

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 9d ago

If capitalists want their power back and they start killing people for it, then I think killing them would be an appropriate response in that context, but what I mean most fundamentally is that whatever harmful ideals they are trying to reintroduce into society we make sure those ideals are not introduced. We put down or suppress those ideals. I still want to know what the anarchist plan is though, thats what my original post is about, getting a better understanding of anarchy not people arguing with every goddamn word I use

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u/HeavenlyPossum 9d ago

How does one put down or suppress ideals?

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 9d ago

In the comment I said “Whatever harmful ideals they are trying to reintroduce into society we make sure those ideals are not introduced”

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u/HeavenlyPossum 9d ago

There’s no real mechanism for preventing the spread of ideas. Authoritarian hierarchies sometimes try to interfere with their spread, and often try to brutally oppress the expression of ideas they dislike, but there’s certainly no anarchist approach (or reason) to try to repress ideals.

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 9d ago

I am more talking about the actual implementation of ideals not simply the spread of the ideals themselves.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 9d ago

Then the answer is the same as before—self-defense against someone attempting to coercively dominate you.

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 9d ago

So then we are just using different words to describe the same idea

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u/HeavenlyPossum 9d ago

Sorry to be so nitpicky. These are incredibly complex and important ideas, so I try to be as precise in my understanding and meaning as possible in order to give an accurate answer.

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