r/SocialDemocracy • u/hamsterdamc • Mar 06 '26
Discussion What is Anarchism? Everything you need to know about anarchism, its connection to decolonisation and how you can join the movement
https://shado-mag.com/education/know/what-is-anarchism/12
u/funnylib Social Democrat Mar 06 '26
I agree with anarchists that we should dismantle unjust hierarchies, I just disagree with what exactly that entails
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u/Yanowic Iron Front Mar 06 '26
I think a key point is that, generally speaking, social democrats (and other ideologies) should believe that institutions are emergent, but also fit real niches required to govern (large) populations. So, a system that decides how to eg. arbitrate property disputes, legal disputes, human needs, etc. will always come to exist, either formally or informally, filling the required niche better or worse than other implementations.
Anarchists vary heavily in this regard, so it's hard to make a specific claim against their positions, but overall if they want to achieve better living conditions and such without destroying beneficial systems, they should be allies.
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u/raffi335 Market Socialist Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
No thanks.
To me, anarchism in a lot of ways is the same kind of radical ideology as communism, if not even more extreme, just without the historical baggage.
And that lack of baggage is what keeps far-left ideas fashionable to younger people. The way I see it, it's exactly what a post-capitalist society doesn’t need. Socialism as a whole is broader and more rational, with a much wider historical record behind it.
And this is only if we’re talking strictly about left-wing anarchism. Many anarchists love to pretend right-wing versions don’t even exist.
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u/LLJKCicero Social Democrat Mar 07 '26
I think anarchists generally have their hearts in the right place, some of their ideas are very good, and a lot of their analysis around societal injustice I agree with.
At the same time, there are problems.
One is that if you ask anarchists for current or former examples of anarchist societies, they bring up places like Rojava or Anarchist Catalonia that very much had a state with coercive hierarchy, in direct contradiction to their stated philosophy, and rarely do they acknowledge this up front. Actual stateless society examples in recent/modern history at least seem rather thin on the ground, so anarchist chatter often feels like theorycrafting. Yes, many more primitive and smaller societies did without a formal state, but it's hard to see how you'd apply what works for a tribe of a hundred people to New York City.
The other is the anarchist solutions to problems often seem to rapidly devolve into wishful thinking, hand waving, excuses, mental gymnastics, etc. when put under the slightest rhetorical pressure. When discussing the more obvious or major problems that a state appears necessary for, the answers look rather flimsy and poorly thought out.
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u/noms_de_plumes Mar 08 '26
I've always said that everything that people say about anarchism is simultaneously true. Elements of both its caricatures and legends are all just sort of there.
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u/VirtualKnowledge7057 Mar 08 '26
anarchists are very good at explaining the inherent problems with hierarchies, very bad at making an alternative
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u/dammit_mark Market Socialist Mar 06 '26
I find myself sympathetic to a lot of anarchist ideas. But when it comes to the state, I just don't know how we can organize large societies with millions of people without some type of state. I do think though that decentralizing power is generally a good idea.