Usually this is a derogatory term for those anarchists who are not deemed “thick” enough in their prescriptions for a stateless society.
It is becoming more and more accepted among anarchists that this is a bad thing and that mere opposition to the state is not sufficient to achieve true freedom or equality. The idea that humans must be radically remodelled to achieve statelessness is gaining prevalence. This blog exists to be a bulwark against this creeping moral tyranny.
For most anarchists, the motivation for seeking statelessness is the recognition that most value systems are undecidable. It is an acceptance of pluralism and a rejection of using violence to impose values. We are perfectly fine with despising one another, so long as the hatred does not cross the line into coercion. Live and let live.
But Anarchism+ inverts the priorities of anarchist analysis, and switches the ends for the means. For instance, Thickarchists see gender oppression as a problem within the context of the state. However, instead of seeing the abolition of the state as a means to end sexist oppression, they claim that the abolition of sexism (and even of gender norms) must be achieved to end the oppression of the state. And consonant with this inversion they have attempted to redefine anarchism as a dogmatic bundle of social values, usually culled from the popular left (though the right-wing National Anarchists could also certainly be characterized as “thick”).
The tendency of the “thick anarchist movement” towards an obsession with social justice is gradually evolving into a new popular hysteria which is, more often than not, considered immune to all critical analysis by those promoting it. Anarchists, no matter how much they like to pretend otherwise, are still human and are just as capable of being dogmatic, irrational, illogical and are still prone to becoming aggressive, emotional and abusive when their inconsistencies are questioned regardless of how well-intentioned the particular dogma itself may be.
“Thick anarchism” often becomes a species of fundamentalism in its own right and has the potential to be another hegemonic source of division and social authoritarianism which approaches reality from the perspective of putting idealism about how people should live before the goal of actually empowering people to live their lives as they personally see fit.
Anarchists look at oppression and see a common factor: The State.
Racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry, etc. are nothing in themselves but personal preferences. It is the State and its various institutions that gives personal and social biases their teeth. To this end, we are content with being Mere Anti-Statists. And furthermore we offer a challenge. If your claim of “oppression” cannot be traced back to the State or to violent imposition of values, then it is not really oppression. It is simply disagreement, and you have no right to be free from criticism or offense.
