ToTW: Pick Your Own, Mix and Match

What kind of anarchist best describes you? If you embrace a label (or labels), what are they and why? I have gone by anarcho-feminist, at least until I was confronted by too many others using the same label to mean something totally different. If no existing label suits you, then what one(s) would you coin, and what would define them?

Refusing to take this labeling thing seriously, as what single word could possibly do justice to the ways that we are all unique powderpuffs, we can still play with labels/characteristics that we think deserve some attention and re-valuation. I would aim for being a Wilde-ist: Williams says about Wilde that he "found in art an exercise in freedom, a source of pleasure, and a mode of value free from moral considerations, the demands of utility, and the dictates of the market. He looked to art as an ideal for labor —creative, meaningful, its products a joy both to make and to use—and as the central element of any life worth living. He therefore thought that society should be organized to foster this sense of beauty —beauty in our surroundings, in our work, in our relationships; in the lives, imaginations, and souls of individual people." And maybe a Bene Gesseritist too. For those bad days...

If none of that works for you, you could inform us how people who use some specific existing anarchist label are confused and using it wrong; that could get funny.

There are 24 Comments

I used to try on being this or that kind of anarchist. I've come to terms with being an anarchist without adjectives and that just feels right. Especially with the nonsense you see on tumblr and social media and reddit and stuff where people just go nuts pinning their anarchist flavors to themselves like merit badges or something. Anarchy without adjectives is the shit. Voltairine de Cleyre's "Anarchism" really cemented this for me, but there are other wonderful articulations of it as well.

Anarchy with adverbs is where I'm at now. Swimmingly, for example. Or hopelessly -- that's a nice one.

Why would this wanking be pertinent to anyone? Because anarchist are much more interested in self-defining themselves than spreading chaos.
Much more preoccupied by their socialization than destroying society.

'Why would this wanking be pertinent to anyone? Because anarchist are much more interested in self-defining themselves than spreading chaos.'

hi anon 23.36! thank you for taking time out of your life of TOTAL ATTACK MAKE DESTROY ALL DAY AND NIGHT to comment!

idk about y'all, but whenever i hear someone label themselves with a fixed idea ('ancom' or 'ancap' especially) i can't help but think 'this is a person who lives extremely online.'

yeah, I much preferred to have my reductive online labels pinned on me by my troll enemies

Ultimately, the beautiful thought 24/7 should be the aim of all anarch individualists.

“The only -ist name I respond to is 'cellist”-Fredy Perlman

He played the cello, thus cellist. So I guess the only -ist I'd respond to is graffitist or arsonist.

I've changed my whole notion of anarchism. For a start, no more "ism", now its anarchy and anarchic or anarch. Then its become a non disclosure thing, like if someone asks me what my political views are, I don't say I follow anarchy or I'm anarchic, I just say I don't believe in government. Then they usually say "oh so you're an anarchist?" Which I'm not going to reply yes to, I'm going to just say I believe in ordinary people running their own neighborhoods and being honest to eachother. That's all it takes, no labels, not even anarchist, I'm just a genuine unique compassionate person of independent creative imagination to get by and make the world a better and less destructive. Simple, the anarch without a name or adjective, the invisible truth utterer, the excellent transparent honesty lover, the say it how it is now DUDE!

Unfortunately the labels I would choose for myself don't leave me with much company. I am sort of in the same individualist-mutualist-panarchist school of thought as John Zube although my influences are somewhat eclectic. My background is most strongly in the free software and freedom of expression movements so I've also identified as anarcho-pirate, techno-anarchist, and crypto-Stallmanist.

Group identity is a trap. Release yourself. Be who you are, let others apply whatever label they want.

bene gesseritist fer sure, btw. nailed it

"What kind of anarchist best describes you?"

A sincere anarchist that is good at describing and that knew me well would be the best for that task.
They'd not hesitate to insult me. While they wouldn't resort to euphemisms, they would prefer to not waste words out of disinterest.

The question "What kind of anarchist best describes you?" is meant in the first person, as to how YOU YOURSELF would describe your own type of anarchy, not how another anarchist would describe you. Not how I as an anarchist would describe your inability to understand the context of a topic and the English grammar it is expressed in, which would be that you must be either a moronic empty-head or a reader of trashy fashion magazines to,,,,,,,oh what's the point, I'm not going to waste words upon describing your stupidity!!

i think most people that call themselves anarchists fall short of being anarchists most of the time. i rather not call myself an anarchist and at least be sincere or accurate, rather than call myself one and be a failure or a hypocrite. but ultimately what i call myself online anonymously matters not. people love to perform and parade around labels like feathers on a hat, and that's allowed, indulge in it all you want. notice how i haven't even alluded to what i think being anarchist is, taking it for granted. i think anarchists are like indomitable unicorns that shit molotovs and have no regrets, their horns pierce the state and society and the spectacle REIFICATIONS and makes it bleed and cry and whither. when they die they explode and the echoes are heard across circular time.

I prefer evil.

But anarchism has no gods, devils or phantasms, so there can be no anarcho-devil. You become just another evil person, like a rapist or murderer.

"You talking about personal justice or herd justice? For personal justice, if anyone hurts me or the ones I love I will personally CUT THEIR FUCKING HEADS OFF! For herd justice, if someone burns down a hall with people in it, WE THE STATE HAVE BEEN ELECTED BY THE HERD TO ELECTROCUTE THE FUCK OUT OF THEM! For property theft and rape, the herd insists that prisons be made for the offenders, BUT IF ANYONE STEELS MY CAR, I'LL CUT THEIR FUCKING HANDS OFF "---Frank Booth

What kind of anarchist best describes me?

I'm the kind of anarchist who is titillated by the prospect of sharing with you all an exploration of what kind of anarchist I may be. So, an anarcho-narcissist perhaps; or maybe a narci-anarch.

Labels seem only good for an exploration. I could nail a flag, but then it never takes too long to contradict myself. I'm illegalist until I stand in queue to pay for salad. Nihilist until a vain optimistic belief in subverting a future dances across my eyes. A primitivist until flipping the lid of a laptop to entertain an Anarchist News topic of the week. A collectivist until your girlfriend falls in love with me and you threaten to stab me up and then instead conspire to try and shame me out of the community like a puritanical liberal wank stain… sassafrassarassum

The exploration seems good only for asking questions of myself. When years ago I chanced upon Bakunin and thought 'Fuckin'ell, Yeah!', did I ever consider being seduced by Stirner, Nietzsche, Emma Goldman, Émile Armand, Hakim Bey, Fredy Perlman, Wolfi, John Moore or Flower Bomb? Fuck, what kind of pervert am I!? Even Chomsky's spent time in my pants.

And so what do you all get? A sympathetic ear, a shield from the wind, a distant dream, a plixel on a screen [sic]. I want to be nurturing something with friends, discovering ways of relating to worlds, viciously destroying with fire and spikes every imposition a shitbag ever concocted. I want to fuck shit up and fall in love 13 million times.

Let me think; what kind of anarchist best describes me???

Potty mouthed, big-headed, big-hearted, conflicted, conflictual, finger in the eye, finger in the butt, sapper, dog whisperer, wire cutter, tree hugger, poety, pepper, mustard, chili and garlic…

Is this working?

I think I need to ask you; What kind of anarchist just wants anarchy and to be damned?

Chomsky-in-the-pants. hopefully there is medication for that.

"A collectivist until your girlfriend falls in love with me and you threaten to stab me up and then instead conspire to try and shame me out of the community like a puritanical liberal wank stain… sassafrassarassum…"
"I'm a GrowballsAnarchist, anyone threatens to stab me and I'LL CUT THEIR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!"----Frank Booth

I told him to try his luck.
If you're going to shoot, shoot! Don't talk!

“I think I need to ask you; What kind of anarchist just wants anarchy and to be damned?”

Cursed, pushed into the abyss, filled with ancestors and children, a clown, a wizard / Witch, the loser of a lifetime, but found a happy life.

Add new comment