By Cake Boy

In this period of time, in my country, the leftist/antifa anarchists are squatting again. Squatting is actually the political thing they do, which has some meaning. The state notices it and isn’t that happy with it. Although it isn’t a big threat

You can see this squat movement as a cultural Marxist secessionist movement. These people step out of society because society isn’t woke enough for them. In a way, it functions like how some Christians step out of society to form their own hyper-Christian communities. The Amish people, etc. To the Christians, God is more important than the state. For Antifa, the woke is more important than the state. They need a place where they can have their own rules based on their own values. Society is already pretty woke, but not woke enough for Antifa squatters.

The mainstream culture, the mainstream people in this country, hate these squatters for some distinct reasons:

The squatters often look alternative and unwashed. They have holes in their clothes because this so-called sign of rebellion (as if the state and capitalists care).

The squatters refuse to talk with the mainstream/rightwing media channels (everyone who disagrees with them is a ‘fascist’).

The squatters are always angry and aggressive (a lack of emotional/social intelligence).

Sometimes, Antifa squatters attack nationalist/populist politicians, who are very popular among many working-class/mainstream people. The Antifa never explains to the people why they are opposed to nationalism/populism, what their solutions would be, why they are squatters, and why they attack these politicians.

So, the squatters do everything to be niche. In no way do they connect with society.

I was thinking that if these squatters somehow would connect with the broader mainstream/working-class/conservative people, then the government would have a huge problem.

There is a big housing crisis in my country. This is because of failed neoliberal policies, in which politicians sold all the real estate to speculators. At the same time, they taxed the cooperations that provided social housing, making it artificially cheap to buy a house, which drove up prices. So, they did everything to destroy the housing market.

But, according to the mainstream/rightwing/working-class culture, the housing crisis is because of the refugees that get into the country. The refugees indeed get all the few social housing that are still available. But the problem was already there before they came. The mainstream/rightwing people like to be critical of refugees, but they would never be critical of the speculators and politicians who wear suits, who created the problem in the first place. The Antifa squatters will never talk about these topics with the people.

In a way, the Antifa squatters are both the establishment and anti-establishment. The (democrat) neoliberal elites have the same culture as they have, namely, eating soy, being bi-curious, having pronounced, wearing facemasks, etc. But, these neoliberal elites don’t want people to break the law, squat in buildings, etc.

A bit as with radical Christians. Christianity is mainstream, but radical Christianity is a step too far for most people.

Because the squatters are both the establishment and anti-establishment, people often don’t know what they can expect from them. Meanwhile, they speak using their own kind of vocabulary based on critical theory/academic language, which nobody understands or wants to understand. It is a bit like how radical Christians cite obscure parts of the Bible.

So, squatting is a relatively successful form of secessionism/anarchism. However, it could be a hundred times more problematic for the state if it was associated with or interacted with popular culture.

There is another big autonomous movement here.

People who call themselves sovereign. They are actually anarchists (you and I would call them anarchists), although they don’t call themselves that way because the word ‘anarchism’ is ruined by Antifa. People think of woke/Antifa nonsense when you use the word ‘anarchism’

This autonomous sovereign movement is, strangely enough, significant (10,000 people), and the mainstream people are mildly positive about it, somehow (this is very surprising because, in this culture, people don’t like it when someone breaks the law by definition). This movement arose during the COVID period when many people started to distrust the government and when many lost their jobs and businesses without getting any help from the bureaucracy. Some of these people went far in their mistrust and even became sovereign. This sovereign movement does find a connection with the broader society. This is why they are a far bigger threat than the woke squatter movement. They are not isolated.

In this case study, we see how cultural Marxism/woke keeps anarchism as niche as possible, which benefits the state.

We see that anarchism becomes problematic for the state when it connects with working-class and/or middle-class cultures. When anarchists behave well, don’t look filthy, are open to debate, explain their position, and are not aggressive to people, then they can become successful in a short period of time. So, emotional/social intelligence is the key—aspects that are often forgotten in our rational, task-driven society.

These are the sociological dynamics of current anarchism: tensions between social groups. We have to understand aesthetics and culture if we want to understand politics.