you control the lesser power (individual) with a bigger power (the “ourselves”).

to quote: https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionA.html#seca213

anarchists recognise that individuals are the basic unit of society and that only individuals have interests and feelings. This means they oppose “collectivism” and the glorification of the group. In anarchist theory the group exists only to aid and develop the individuals involved in them.

While groups cannot think, individuals cannot live or discuss by themselves. Groups and associations are an essential aspect of individual life

Anarchism rejects the abstract individualism of capitalism, with its ideas of “absolute” freedom of the individual which is constrained by others. This theory ignores the social context in which freedom exists and grows.

In practice, both individualism and collectivism lead to a denial of both individual liberty and group autonomy and dynamics.

The link goes into more detail.

It’s not like humans didn’t arise from more anarchist structures.

A Definition for a term I’m about to use:
Archy - Hierarchy, Rule, structure of command and subordination, opposite of anarchy.

How did humans “rise” from anarchist structures? I wouldn’t call whats going on right now any better than the pre-archic societies. Those societies were destroyed because they didn’t have the structures to protect themselves against archy anarchy isn’t just no archy, it’s conscious opposition to archy. Now that we understand archic structures and their influence we can start opposing it. Pre-archic societies couldn’t

having spontaneous mobs forming to upholds the customs

Why would you need mobs? often times a single other person would be enough to stop/deter anti-social behavior.

as long as they are kept in check by a bigger power

Who controls that bigger power and what’s stopping them from becoming corrupt? There is no bigger power than the state and police is the state. You can’t have anything bigger. As soon as you have representative democracy the people will go from humans to a resource. They will be grown and molded to not care about their society and just root for their team. Governance isn’t something you can delegate to others. It makes you lazy and means you will stop thinking about the actual problems and start fighting with anyone who disagrees with you.

Representational democracy does not work. The state is a living system that has interests of it’s own and those will always be prioritized over the citizens. Sooner or later every state devolves into authoritarianism. All the while screwing over anyone who wants to live without it.

I will so thank you!

I’m surprised that an anarchist position is getting downvoted in this community. I guess the libs came to party.

Thank you for your insightful comment. :)

ACAB!

Seriously, what are you talking about?

Anarchy. I’m an anarchist. I’m talking about anarchy. People do not need to be controlled/enforced/governed. We are perfectly capable of organizing a society ourselves. Stopping violence should not be the responsibility of a special group but everyone. Social pressure is more powerful than direct violence. Otherwise the police would not have such a cushy job.

What would be the motive to write or follow laws?

No one needs to write laws. Custom is already a ruleset that most people in a society follow. You don’t need laws on top of that. It’s unnecessary and creates cases where the right thing cannot be done because it’s illegal. Government creates a ton of unnecessary busywork that most people do not need to concern themselves with. What does the government do that you couldn’t do with free association and an empowered populus?

Do you follow laws just because you’re afraid of the police? Or is it because of the social pressure to not cause a fuss. Do you need rules to be written down on a piece of paper for you to follow them? I think not. I’ve followed a lot of “made up” rules because I understand these rules make my life better. Human beings are capable of working together without needing someone else to tell them how to live their life. We did it for millennia before archy clawed it’s way into every society (by colonizing the anarchic ones because they were “primitive”)

It’s not the CEOs/police or the existence of their function

Yes it is. You cannot have police that doesn’t abuse their power. If you have a position in society that gives people power, It’s the power-hungry that fill them. Everyone that doesn’t want to dictate other peoples lives will not fill those positions. so sooner or later they are going to be filled by people who want power and nothing else. It’s no coincidence archy keeps devolving into fascism and totalitarianism. It’s inevitable. Society elevates people who want power so you end up with people who believe they are god and can do no wrong.

No. We do not need cops. The police will always be a corrupt hand of state violence. As long as there are cops (as in special people who are allowed to use violence) in any form they will ultimately become corrupt. As long as law is enforced it is not equal, and it will never protect “the people”. The people are the only ones that can protect “the people”. You don’t need cops, you need everyone to start policing people around them. That is the only way everyone gets protection.

ACAB! All power to all the people!

If you want a comprehensive resource then An Anarchist FAQ has an entire section dedicated to state socialism https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionH.html.

Some your questions are answered there like:

• H.1.4 Do anarchists have “absolutely no idea” of what to put in place of the state?
• H.3.7 What is wrong with the Marxist theory of the state?

And if you want some more examples of an anarchist society then Section I is dedicated to that.

Although It is worth noting that there are a lot of different anarchists and the FAQ does not speak for all of them. I just think it manages to get the basics across very well.

Left-Right (Left-Right) and Authoritarian-Libertarian (up-down).

Sorry! I over-reacted. You are absolutely right. I am just used to the communist/syndicalist side and so when seeing someone talk about anarchism being against taxes the mind immediately jumps to the an-cap conclusion.

However I wonder how does individualist anarchism deal with wealth inequality? And the above mentioned economic freedoms limiting political freedom?

Anarchists argue that capitalism is an oppressive hierarchy that should be dismantled. That the ruling class is using money as a tool to oppress the poor and restrict their freedom.

Anarchism is a leftist/socialist way of thought. It does not protect the rich. Any anarchist who protects the rich is an oxymoron. Like the “anarcho-capitalists”.

For further reading: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-full#text-amuse-label-secf1

If this is sarcasm, then this is a conflict of terms that I thought about including in the meme but decided against for a snappier message. Listening can be read as either “obeying” or “hearing out”. This meme was made with the “hearing out” meaning in mind.

If its not and you use that meaning of listen then Yeah, Ain’t that great.

I should post a follow-up saying “You don’t have to listen to people that have no intention of listening to you”.

One needs to listen to a neo-nazi to understand them, help them. The problem is that they won’t listen to us because being angry is easier.

This is in the context of voting. Voting blue will achieve nothing other than delaying. The point of the meme is to encourage people to not just vote, but to actively engage in politics in order to make things better. Basically the same thing you said.

I probably should have put a check on the blue and remove the third option. That would have made it clearer.

Nothing wrong with snoozing. Just don’t expect it to fix anything.

So this was an undercurrent I wanted to address: are you suggesting that Americans not vote in the 2024 general election?

As the meme says voting blue means a 4 year snooze. I am not telling anyone whether they should vote or not. Just pointing out how I see the current election. The points you make are sensible and I think if I were in the USA I would vote because of the reasons you listed.

I’m copying some quotes from the FAQ that I think fit in this conversation.
But considering the state of the US I think that at the moment voting is a useful tactic to buy time for organizing, not a solution.

J.2.8: anarchists don’t just say “don’t vote”, we say “organise” as well.

J2.5 last paragraph: […] anarchists urge abstentionism in order to encourage activity, not apathy. Not voting is not enough, and anarchists urge people to organise and resist as well.

And when it comes to the last paragraph I must admit I am short of ideas. All of the groups you listed have a chance of helping, organization doesn’t need to start with a political group, once you have a group together you can start talking about anarchist organization and see how people react.

As an anarchist I believe that revolution starts with the people. Get enough people together with a common goal (or a shared dream if you want to be poetic) and you will have a revolution. This might seem pointless since you’re so small, but every revolution needs to start somewhere. And I believe only a revolution can fix the USA right now.

There are also some anarchist orgs like http://iww.org. I wish I knew more.

They will seize control of everything and make illegal anything they don’t control.

That’s why it’s important to create these groups now. Once the fascist are in power it’s too late.

The third box is smaller to reflect that it isn’t a “real” option. I only added it because I thought only the two wouldn’t be fitting for this community (and also complaining without providing an alternative is not useful). It’s more of an open question. eg “You need to do something else because voting will not stop fascism.”

In the FAQ there are questions like J.2.9 “What do anarchist do instead of voting?” and J.7.4 “What would a social revolution involve?”. These might help answer your questions.

In general there is no easy solution. For Americans to fix their system they need to fight for real democracy. I think trying to get rid of FPTP is a good start. However I do not put much faith in any election reform succeeding. My personal (european (although it shouldn’t matter)) opinion is that americans should try do build communities outside of government control so when things go bad they have someone to rely on.

I made this meme to just point out something I thought a lot about when scrolling through lemmy and that’s that voting isn’t enough because the best you can do is delay the inevitable. You can vote, but that won’t make a meaningful change.

Not my fault USA decided to use red for the conservatives, even though red as been the socialists’ color since we began.

If you don’t mind reading there is a lot of more specific questions and answers in this FAQ:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-full

personally I generally favour blunt and to the point lol

Me too!

I think having these conversations in the comments can be more helpful than posting an alternative, because the people your meme speaks to can read on and hopefully broaden their views!

This should be the goal of this community. To share memes that invite people to discuss them, so the comments can make them think. The meme acts as a gateway to deeper leftist thought in the comments.