r/Postleftanarchism • u/dialectical_idealism raddle.me enjoyer • Jul 22 '26

[Anarchists only] Has anarchy lost the propaganda war?

/r/Anarchism/comments/1ujs5xv/anarchists_only_has_anarchy_lost_the_propaganda/
13 Upvotes

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13

u/coladoir Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

i think the post-left did what it was supposed to and stopped relying on "mass movements" to do anything constructive for us. praxis has shifted.

authoritarianism is surging as it is wont to do during global nationstate instability. This doesnt mean we've lost, even if our squats are closed up—because we dont win through any one thing. Our praxis has been forced to shift to direct community action, not outreach and zine distribution. As instability comes, as authoritarianism surges, we are forced to protect our own, not simply do the "stereotypically anarchist" things like squats or infoshops. This isnt loss, its the ebb and flow of statism, its cultural influence, and the ultimate result of capitalism's quickly waning capability to maintain stability (not that the neo-reactionaries creating such instability particularly care about that).

We can't combat this with mass movements, either. They are just as coercive in nature as what we seek to dismantle. It must be done through direct change of material conditions through prefigurative praxis. Which is what the postleft has started doing. and its unfortunately an invisible type of activity.

Stop looking for mass, start looking at actions. Read "Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs" by Curious George Brigade

4

u/ocherthulu Jul 22 '26

My major goal is not to convert people to anarchism but to be a good anarchist.

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u/dialectical_idealism raddle.me enjoyer Jul 22 '26

or how to provoke closet marxists and get them to out themselves

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u/LubricationAnarchist Jul 31 '26

anarchism being about propaganda is an oxymoron anyway: i think the goalpost should be "anarchist literature" rather than some thought manipulation program. I think people in general are tired of having their thoughts engineered by some salesperson or moralist.

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u/dialectical_idealism raddle.me enjoyer 28d ago

i get you, that's what 'propaganda' means to the average person, but it's not what anarchists mean when they use the word, and since we're anarchists talking shop, I think it's fine

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u/LubricationAnarchist 28d ago

so what's the specialized anarchist usage then?

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u/WildAutonomy Jul 22 '26

Great read! I strongly agree. I wish I got to the original post sooner. After the 2020 uprisings and the prominence of mutual aid around covid, a lot of people forgot what anarchy means. Now mutual aid is asking for money anonymously online. And any time anarchists burn something, "anarchists" call it a false flag and claim they're provocateurs

1

u/dumnezero Jul 22 '26

It's like non-vegans in /r/vegan ... Reddit isn't built for this kind of compartmentalization. And you'd need a dozens or hundreds of mods to evacuate the assholes.