By Cake Boy
A critique of Preston was that he would be an anti-statist authoritarian. Some Antifa intellectual said this. To the Antifa/woke anarchists, anarchism is not just voluntary interaction but a program of social change. It’s a cultural Marxist project to them. There is a problem with this viewpoint of the Antifa/woke anarchists. The cultural universalism the Antifa wants can only be implemented by centralized bureaucracies.
For example, let’s look at something like Islam. I just walked outside, and I saw a girl with a headscarf. In a way, Islam is an authoritarian culture. The Islamic woman isn’t allowed to have a boyfriend, sleep around, etc. If the Antifa workers were consistent (which they never are), then they would reject this feminist Islam tradition. But, then, they would need a bureaucracy to get rid of it. Their little Antifa mobs couldn’t defeat Islam. A pretty authoritarian state could ban Islam. This state would then leave the domain of classical liberal/neoliberal thought.
Anarchism (in its social/society form) is, by definition, cultural pluralism because only a communist state or an authoritarian neoliberal state can force cultural change or cultural homogeny.
Let’s look at the whole current transgender thing. Modernism says that we should all have to look differently at gender and talk differently about gender. Masses of people don’t agree with this and mock it. Both working-class people, Christians and Muslims, reject this woke culture. A state could force these people to send their kids to state schools, where they learn the latest gender theory. Anarchism couldn’t do that if it wanted to be consistent. It would have to convince the masses of people to look differently at gender, which will be a tricky thing to do for them because 90 percent of people think in terms of man/woman, not in terms of the modern gender theoreticians.
Some people say that Antifa is just a tool of the WEF technocrats. They are used to push globalist/neoliberal ideas while not being aware of it themselves. Antifa is then used to implement these SDG goals the WEF discusses. This could be the case. I don’t know. But it strikes me that Antifa wokies sort of always talk in the political language of the progressive neoliberals. They say you should wear your facemask, and they are worried about ‘conspiracy theories’.” They say you should fight your ‘internalized homophobia’. It’s as if they are Democrats.
Antifa anarchism led to all the traditional-minded working-class people, Muslims, and Christians, having a wrong view of anarchism. Because they think that anarchism hates them and looks down on them, they believe it threatens their way of life.
I would say that Antifa sort of destroyed anarchism. Most people think of Antifa when they think of anarchism, and 99,999 percent of the people hate the Antifa movement. So, it’s okay if Antifa is critical of people, but they only delegitimized anarchism and turned it into something people joke about. For example, look at the comments under this Antifa song. 99,9999 percent of the people laugh about your childish Antifa nonsense. It’s time for some self-reflection
If anarchism had been presented as pluralism in the last few years, then all these masses of people could have been positive about it. Pluralist anarchism doesn’t hate you, it just wants you to not force your views and laws on other people. That’s a whole different arrangement. It’s then presented as a sort of classical liberal theory but with more focus on decentralization and more focus on the actual meaning of voluntariness
Pluralist anarchism/Tuckerite anarchism isn’t authoritarian anti-statism. It’s anti-statism that understands that it has to integrate, at least tolerate, both the progressive and conservative within its structures if it wants to be consistent and successful.
The fact that you tolerate something doesn’t mean you agree with it.
