By Kris Zyclo
I am the product of a broken home/lower income, working class family. No one went to college except for me. However, I’m a high school dropout who got a GED and went back to school a little later in life. Several of my childhood friends have been to jail and died from drug overdoses. In sum, I’ve been up-close and personal with the dark side of the American working class. When I was a teenager, I was introduced to anarcho-punk bands like Crass. So, I decided when I was 16 or 17 that I was an anarchist. However, when I reached my mid-twenties, I got really into the American Libertarian party after the Ron Paul campaign. I eventually concluded that I don’t agree with certain aspects of American Libertarianism. Namely, the gung-ho capitalist views, so I started moving into more of a democratic socialist direction. Eventually, I joined the IWW and started getting interested in anarchism again. Needless to say, that was short lived. I soon became a political tourist, getting involved in a variety of activist groups like the Socialist Party USA, Food Not Bombs, and eventually I joined the Progressive Democrats of America. (What the fuck was I thinking with that last one?) To say the least, I was pretty confused. And honestly, I never really felt like I fit in with any of those groups. They were too dogmatic for my taste. Not to mention they were a bunch of hyper-sensitive dorks that liked to play moral police.
Like most people on planet Earth, I hit a low during the covid-19 lockdowns. Simultaneously, the woke movement was growing and spreading to the mainstream. This came as a shock because most of the people I knew from the radical leftist circles had had the woke mentality for years. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever expected it to become the status quo. I began to feel alienated by all facets of the left. That includes, the far left, center left, etc. They had this “if you don’t 100% agree with how we think, then you’re out of our club” thing going on. So, combine that and the reality of the post-covid world, I began questioning a lot of things. I started to realize that a lot of our outrage is manufactured. For example, I remember when a bunch of liberals were angry because Lauren Boebert posted a picture of her and her family holding guns by a Christmas tree. They said things like, “How disgusting! How dare she? blah blah blah?” I’m like, “Seriously? Who gives a shit? This is a massive waste of time! We have bigger fish to fry then worry about what some Q Anon nutcase does in her spare time.” It was as if we’re told what we’re supposed to be angry about. Too add to that, all kinds of fake stories were going around like the Bubba Wallace and Jussie Smollett incidents. Who knows how many more lies are out there that we just don’t know about.
I started looking for alternatives that exist outside the mainstream political narrative. One day after reading random Wikipedia pages, I stumbled across National Anarchism. At first, I had the typical leftist attitude of thinking of it as an oxymoron. But as time went on, I became more and more intrigued by it. It was almost like a magnet pulling me to it. I tried to fight it but I couldn’t. This led me to reading Tradition and Revolution by Troy Southgate along with various articles on Attack the System. I realized that I agreed with almost all of its principles like mutualism, anti-Zionism, anti-globalization, etc. I was also thrilled to learn about other socialists other than Marx who clearly has a stranglehold over socialism. As an American, I also found that I fully support Pan-Secessionism. Ultimately, there are some differences between me and National Anarchists. I’m not as traditional as they are. For example, I don’t mind some LGBTQ or people of color living in my community and I’m pro-choice. But I do admit that I wouldn’t want to be a minority. I think most people feel that way. The problem is that white people are the only race on the planet that aren’t allowed to say something like that. Black people say it all the time. It’s not racist, it’s just reality. In a post-state world, people would naturally flock to their own kind. It’s completely normal to want to be around people who share the same values and interests. Personally, I would prefer to live in a sober community because I am a recovering alcoholic and I don’t want to be around people who drink. The benefit of National Anarchism is that it respects others to do whatever they want in their own community. So, you can be black, gay, Muslim, Capitalist, multicultural, or whatever. As long as you respect the values of each community, everyone is all good with each other. I think more people should read about it and try to understand it. To me, it’s the perfect comprise between the warring tribes of humanity that will never go away. Ultimately, I don’t consider myself a National Anarchist but I have been greatly inspired by it. So, this is why I am here. Anyone who despises the world’s elites and dreams of a post-state world is an ally to me.
