Anarchy Hiding

How open are you with others about your anarchist beliefs? What types of people? In what contexts? How do you feel about it? Proud? Ashamed?

This anarchist is usually upfront with others that they are an anarchist most of the time. But there are situations where every precaution is taken to keep that fact to myself. Those situations are usually work related and they feel awful, like most things work related.

That makes me wonder how other anarchists go about this and how important it is to them that their anarchist status is known or not known by others. And what might some of the big picture consequences be?

Discuss!

Listen to the conversation here!

Comments

anon (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2024 - 20:08

Real anarchy is never having to.talk about it. Tho it's beneficial to.talk openly about any ideas and principles related to.it. Anarchism belongs to a kind of secret society. The whole 20th century approach of making it an above-ground thing wbded up being stupid and self-defeating.

anon (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2024 - 20:27

I'm very open about my anarchist beliefs but I have to spend MANY minutes after qualifying it to not be associated with the authoritarian fuckers that run Anews or IGD or Gillis' sex robot dojo. Then we talk about Neech and do crime.

anon (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2024 - 08:08

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Neech was no anarchist, brow. He was a flaming liberal individualist, but also wanted an aristocracy of artists running society (imagine the disaster, lol). He was fully against nihilists on record, and some of his philosophy like in Genealogy and Zarathustra was supportive of authoritarianism, domination and conquest. Also took major ideas from Stirner without ever quoting him.

He's a great non-anarchist inspiration tho, for his critical deconstruction of Western morality and its belief systems.

anon (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2024 - 08:24

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Bro said they "talk about Neech" and this triggered you into an Wikipedia snippet-level rant about Nietzsche? Talk about ressentiment.

Nietzsche never took from Stirner. It's questionable (just fucking look) that Nietzsche even read St. Max.

Your understanding of Nietzsche's aristocrat seems limited and your understanding of what you're labeling as Nietzsche supporting "authoritarianism, domination and conquest" is completely missing Nietzsche point and (knowingly?) flipping it on its head much like those 30s Germans that misinterpreted him and his thinking for their own purposes. This is on you and them but, Not Nietzsche.

Sit with the Zarathustra and let the animals lead you.

anon (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2024 - 10:33

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Let's just cherry pick things. You've had your sus secondary source I'll choose a primary one. Behold!:

"Amor fati is the core of my nature. This, however, does not alter the fact that I love irony and even world-historic irony. And thus, about two years before hurling the destructive thunderbolt of the Transvaluation, which will send the whole of civilisation into convulsions, I sent my Case of Wagner out into the world. The Germans were given the chance of blundering and immortalising their stupidity once more on my account, and they still have just enough time to do it in. And have they fallen in with my plans? Admirably! my dear Germans. Allow me to congratulate you."

Understand?

1LitTrashPanda Tue, 09/10/2024 - 04:27

I usually open with with my anarchist beliefs. People tend to hear the other half of my ideology and freak out because they don't understand what it is or what it means. Most people inside of the working and impoverished class can get along with Anarchists. I feel like the time where we have to hide being anarchists for our safety is coming to close in some places, obviously not everywhere but still.

anon (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2024 - 19:44

https://youtu.be/vSXeBnYhtME?si=3Rb_CAT0Zi9q69hK

"Be careful how much you reveal. I got one piece of advice for you kid: Keep your mouth shut, put a fucking lid upon your dissenting views. Don’t roll your eyes when they face the flag or stitch the goddamn thing on their carry-on bag. Hold your tongue hold though your reflex is to gag. There’s nothing you can do. Don’t laugh out loud when they vote NDP and then act all surprised when they serve industry. The water is poison despite how hard we mark our little X to rearrange the deck. Damned if we don’t. Damned if we do. I’d just shut my mouth if I were you. Everything you say can and will be used against you and your dumbass until you get that through your head with a masonry drill, it’s all downhill for you. It doesn’t matter what you think. It doesn’t matter how you feel. It don’t matter that you can’t sleep. Be careful how much you reveal. Ixnay the "I told you so"'s. Suppress your overwhelming urge to gloat. You can save all that shit for your suicide note. Trouble wording your last laugh? I’ll lend you my final draft!"

anon (not verified) Wed, 09/11/2024 - 02:53

An anarchist is:
1
2
3
4
5
and so on.
So what is it one is hiding?
I agree with commenter in that anarchy doesn't need to be broadcasted, I get on with it, in my own way. Is it real? Someone crosses my line, I deal with it my own way.
I'm not someone who believes one must constantly suffer to be.
If you tell me you're an anarchist, why are you telling me coz I couldn't care less. We either get by, sort shit out or don't and on we go.
x

anon (not verified) Thu, 09/12/2024 - 07:08

I used to be quite open about my anarchist beliefs, but over time I became more reserved about it. The reason why is that I gradually discovered that most people have no idea what anarchism is and I grew tired of having anarchism 101 discussions with people all the time.

anon (not verified) Fri, 09/13/2024 - 05:30

In reply to by anon (not verified)

this, same. and i express it through action when i can. preferably the word doesn't come up so i can keep doing that anarchisty thing without anyone bothering me about the scary words.

anon (not verified) Fri, 09/13/2024 - 07:52

I'm open about my anarchy. I show up at rendys and announce, "hey forest hipster brahs, I am an anarchic headless acephale with a knife in one hand and a girldick in the other. I've brought many bags of dumpster poutine for us to feast upon after we crack squats! Who's with me?" My tribal gang of headless squat crackers grows exponentially.

Zipthisup (not verified) Fri, 09/13/2024 - 19:09

I'm proud to be an anarchist. I'm open about it with my family. Lots of shitty people try and exploit anarchists cause they're not going to be running to the cops.

minona (not verified) Fri, 09/13/2024 - 20:19

It depends. Generally I'm pretty open about it but I don't exactly inject it into conversations. If I feel that it's somehow relevant then I may make it known that I'm an anarchist, but in most situations it's not relevant.

I remember I was talking to a couple of my neighbors and one of them knew my position and the other didn't, so the one in the know mentioned an anarchist event I was involved in coordinating and the other says, "anarchist? are you an anarchist?" and I was like yeah I am. The first thing I hear is, "so, every man for himself then?" I just laughed because he's a funny guy, maybe I lightly pushed back on the assumption but I wasn't really concerned. Though he did go on to literally quote Hobbes' infamous "nasty, brutish and short" line at me, and I DID care enough to refute that.

But that's my general tact I guess. Not exactly "open to the public" but also not in hiding. I don't need to be a representative for an idea, but I would like to somehow embody it and be a kind of cultural node that is in some ways visible.

I put it this way in a recent conversation with someone with regard to trans stuff: I generally enjoy talking with people about it, but I do NOT enjoy explaining it (and anymore I just won't). Tranny shit and anarchy shit are different but you get the point.

anon (not verified) Sun, 09/15/2024 - 19:02

i only tell people i’m an anarchist after a few months of dating if they’re a keeper

anna eva (not verified) Tue, 09/17/2024 - 05:22

in my case, I'd say that I am not living as anarchically as I would love to, I work 30 hours a week, I am a bit ashamed about saying I am an anarchist but it's not the same shame you have when you are doing something bad, it is more similar to declaring you are an artist like for many people it won't mean anything but if you say it out loud you have to face a fear inside. I'd say I am more open about the topics with friends and people who are starting conversations about politics, in my work, I am semi-open about it but I guess they don't really know what it means and as I work in a trans rights ngo in Armenia, and it's a bit risky place to work given the traditional context, the workplace is used to freaks as long as they do the work

anon (not verified) Tue, 09/17/2024 - 09:13

anarchists keep getting better and better at hiding their anarchy. so much so, its hard to find any of it at all anymore.

anon (not verified) Tue, 09/17/2024 - 16:09

In reply to by anon (not verified)

I wrote the first comment above at that's about the best argument there can be against my position. While that can be a bad idea to get a social rep as "anarchist" to everyone you know, especially when it comes to any "politically-sensitive" jobs where you gotta have a public face, getting clandestine and anon keeps anarchists from meeting up on the grounds of their ideas.

But that's why any activity or conversation related to anything anarchist, without being openly "anarchist", should be the best resort. Like be a bunch of nobodies looking like whatever meeting up for a free-sharing event at a park. Or/and set up some sort of secret societies, which in some areas might already be happening, and keep more open relating on the base of anarchist ideas for more private parties and meetups.

And then, it's always good for blatant anarchist symbols on the public place... just make sure it's connected in some way to some local activity or else that'll just be an empty spectacle, like I seen in some cities.

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