Submitted by confusedarchist in AskRaddle
So first of all I have identified as an anarchist for 2 months since a kind gentleman linked me to a Noam Chomsky interview on Youtube. But more recently several people on facebook have linked me to this site, specifically the wikis when I say to them anarchism is for justified hierarchies (which Noam agrees with me with) and the other thing he agrees with is that we should vote for the less evil (Joe Biden) to defeat fascism because supporting the best version of the state is more important than being against the state without exception.
So the more I talked with anarchists the more confused I became because they say even democracy and free speech is not anarchism, and again they link me to pages here. This makes me think anarchism is not what I am at all because I think democracy / freedom is the most important thing in our society. If the people don't get to vote for what we want or say what we want to say, then how can this be an ideology for the common people?
For these reasons, I think I might be a statist / communist, what do you think? Can I still be an anarchist if I support voting, democracy, freedom to speak and justified hierarchies?
not_Bezotcovschina wrote (edited )
When you are thinking about "justified hierarchies", please, think about who are justifying them. I'm pretty sure, that at some point of history, people were justifying monarchy and slavery.
Common people can say what they want and face consequences for their words without hiding behind the shield of "Free Speech". And, in the same manner, instead of voting for what they want, they can just do what they want and, again, face consequences for their actions.
No. It's not a gatekeeping or something. It's just against the whole definition of anarchy. I don't think you should worry about it too much - if it's not your cup of tea, then it would be healthy to stop clinging to it and enjoying being yourself without putting yourself into position you are uncomfortable to be in.