Discuss anarchist praxis and philosophy. Don't take yourselves too seriously.
A bunch of anarchists who do end up leaving Reddit use Raddle, a different alternative to Reddit. This is probably why there's so few of us on Lemmy.
As for why so many do stay on corporate social media like Reddit, it's a similar reason a bunch of socialist orgs organise on Facebook: that's where the people are.
Because its easier
If you want to be heard, wouldn't you go to the most crowded plaza instead of the mostly empty one with people who already agree with you?
The crowded plazas owner might restrict you tho. Various well known anarchist accounts such as crimethinc where banned by corporate social media. Also you have to follow many rules to not get banned.
(I still think its valid to be on corporate social media to spread propaganda, but its not as easy as an actual plaza where you can directly communicate with people)
Most online anarchists aren't anarchists at all. They neither read anarchist theory, do anything IRL, nor adhere to basic anarchist principals - because they don't know what they are, they just know memes and a skimming of Kropotkin. They also define themselves through a liberal-filtered understanding if what they are not, rather than who they are and what they are working towards.
If you do organizing work IRL you will meet actual anarchists and they are much cooler as they are not just LARPing liberals that happened upon an aesthetic that lets them pretend to be radical while acting virtually perfectly in line with the status quo.
Funny enough, the highest concentration of actual anarchists I've seen is on hexbear, a place another commenter said would be offputting to anarchists. Perhaps they are thinking of the "anarchists" that just watch YouTube videos to get angry at "the tankies" based on a misunderstanding of history in the 1920s and never saw a NATO putsch they couldn't defend.
Hexbear can indeed be very offputting to anarchists, especially those who learned from history that "left unity" isn't. It's why slrpnk.net has outright blocked hexbear and they also managed to alienate all the admins of dbzer0. Likewise they get very little respect from anarchists in places like kolektiva.social.
In fact, the only people I've seen who keep insisting there's totally a lot of anarchists in hexbear is MLs in lemmy.ml and hexbear.
Hexbear can indeed be very offputting to anarchists
You should ask the anarchists on the hexbear anarchism comm. I'm sure they will share some reasonable criticisms but also explain something similar to my general sentiment.
especially those who learned from history that “left unity” isn’t.
Which decades or so?
It’s why slrpnk.net has outright blocked hexbear
slrpnk.net preemptively blocked hexbear by fiat of admins and without any kind of vote. A very, very funny thing for an "anarchist" instance to do, don't you think?
and they also managed to alienate all the admins of dbzer0
So you mean yourself when you were acting like this? https://hexbear.net/post/2489084/4892908
Most online anarchists aren't anarchists at all.
what year are you in? Are people still offline irl when you are?
"Most online anarchists aren't anarchists at all" 🤣
what year are you in? Are people still offline irl when you are?
The self-described anarchists who engage in actual work tend to be better informed and know what anarchism is and organize accordingly. Most people who self-label as anarchkst on the internet do nothing at all outside of comment and post. They also don't read, not even about anarchism. They are not anarchists, they are left liberals that confuse each other and the wider public online.
Occasionally they do pop up in organizing spaces, usually as new members. They are the ones wasting time trying to make an anarchist org "more horizontal" by which they mean "I get to be on every committee and speak for 20 minutes at every meeting". I cannot tell you how many times my anarchist comrades have had to explain the difference between (situationally) just and unjust hierarchy to such folks.
i'm guessing that you're in U.S.
Yes
Funny enough, the highest concentration of actual anarchists I've seen is on hexbear
Good joke, comrade.
It's true, you should go ask on their anarchism comm. You will find delightful and well-read people.
Most people don’t know about lemmy. And as an anachist, the fact this place is dominated by authoritarian MLs is quite off-putting.
Also a lot of anarchists aren’t as terminally online as a lot of us here :).
"Why do anarchists live under capitalism if they hate it so much?"
Bro, sometimes you don't have a choice. They might not know about Lemmy or other Reddit alternatives that aren't corporate owned piles of dogshit. For a while, there weren't any; that's why I was there for so long.
It's also hard to just up and leave a community. Even if it's in a bad neighborhood. Your friends are there. Unless they come with you, you're much more inclined to stay.
Sadly i think a lot of them are deluded into thinking they have to take care of the reddit community or "someone worse is going to take over". I don't quite get it myself but I know some of these mods were struggling a lot to get control of their subs (i.e be the top mod)
Town square vs a bush behind the abandoned lighthouse.
Lemmy doesn't have a large userbase. The few that moved I feel are dedicated here. Most people won't know what Lemmy is if you ask them or what federated social media is. Alternates aren't viable for most people.
Town square vs a bush behind the abandoned lighthouse.
"Town square"? More like shopping mall food court. What self-respecting anarchist wouldn't go for the abandoned lighthouse instead? It can only be that they're unaware that it exists and even has working plumbing sometimes.
I don’t think it’s an ideological choice for most people. Use of social media is largely habitual and people are just sticky with their platforms. We see influxes of users when other platforms are down for extended periods of time and when one of them does some kind of ideological purge.
True, we're creatures of habits...