this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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holy fuckin' hell, Anarchists really will monetise their ideology.
It seems like every time I see a shop that sells leftist clothing it's an Anarchist.
Also, most of their clothing looks hella bad and it makes me wonder if they made the designs themselves or if the designs are stolen. Also, if they hate AES and capitalism, where do they source their shirts from? Seems pretty damn hypocritical to shit on AES, and then utilize AES labour for your own profit.
Historically anarchists already stole the song "Whirlwinds of danger" to create "To the Barricades" amongst other examples so it wouldnt surprise me if this was the case all over again lmao
When your ideology is primarily individualist and largely aesthetic, you end up with a ton of people who treat their political orientation as a fashion statement.
Speaking as an ex-anarchist, there's a massive trend in anarchism to not be focused on the ideological distinctions between the plethora of anarchist subtypes but instead to align oneself to a flavour of anarchism which is most appealing.
In communist thought you have very clear distinctions which are based on theoretical and practical disagreements (practical in the sense of socialism being put into practice); you have leftcoms and Trotskyists and council communists and MLs and MLMs etc. All of whom you can trace out their positions and their ideological stances from.
In anarchism it's much more about what the individual is most attracted to as a cause than this. Sure there are platformists, DeLeonists, and egoists, for example, which fit what I've mentioned above about disagreements on theory and practice but you're more likely to find an anarcha-feminist or an eco-anarchist than you will a DeLeonist or a platformist imo.
With that in mind it should come as no surprise that so much of anarchism is focused on fashion.
There's a lot of "no veggies at dinner, no bedtimes" empty hedonistic self-described "anarchists" out there. They're barely even leftist except in a passive way and just want people to NOT TELL THEM WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Add "no bosses" to that list too.
Y'all think that any sort of construction or manufacturing is going to run in a self-organised fashion without foremen? Lol, good luck.
If you've never worked in a factory before, that's cool but there are much better ways of announcing this fact and I think that it's important to remember the old "No investigation, no right to speak" or, in their terms "In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker".
I try not to focus too much on these types because I'm convinced that a couple of years of touching grass, working for a living, and spending time doing on the ground organising will bring these infantile urges in people to a conclusion in all but the most stubborn-minded. Although you can cut through these naive ideological positions by tracing out how there was (vulgar) vanguardism in their favourite historical socialist projects and how leadership was crucial to their functioning. That being said I have more important things to do with my time than engaging people with discussions on that stuff tbh.
I met too many folk just like this in college. I considered myself an ancom. I knew an anarcho-syndicalist, ecosocialist, democratic socialist, guild socialist, libertarian socialist, Christian anarchist...
I can't fault them or myself too much, we are taught to identify with ANYTHING but Marxism-Leninism. I was the edgiest one of the lot for daring to even identify with "communism" (albeit in its softer, less threatening anarchoform.) We agreed on pretty much everything, yet we all identified our politics as meaningfully different based on what we named them.
Continued study of imperialism and self-criticism turned most of us into genuine communists. Some got tired of radical politics and became Hilary stans. One's a pastor and a patsoc who believes in literal demons and performs exorcisms and shit.
The U.S. left is in an absolute state.
Srsly Anarchists suck ass
I can respect some who respect us and just have a less material basis of their ideology, but any of these “all authority equally bad” pricks are just total pains.
Leftist branded designer clothing is so ridiculously cringy.
Except if you buy from https://deprogramshop.com/ for fall merch/j
At least some Deprogram ones are funny, I love the "state affiliated media" and "remember what you are fighting for" with the US hellhole picture