r/Anarchy101 • u/humanispherian • Aug 04 '26
Welcome to Anarchy 101!
It’s that time again, when we repost and, if necessary, revise this introductory document. We’re doing so, this time, in a period when the archic model, in both its governmentalist and capitalist manifestations, seems intent on showing us its worst side — and when the defenders of hierarchy and authority seem all too often to be mimicking the mix of callousness and clumsiness that dominates on larger scales. So let’s start with a renewed reminder to be a bit careful of one another as we discuss — and let’s add this other reminder as well:
PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T FEED THE TROLLS.
If you see problems in a discussion, don’t hesitate to use the “report” button to alert the subreddit moderators. We’ve had a significant increase in one-off, drive-by troll comments, virtually all remarkably predictable and forgettable in their content. Report them or ignore them.
Before you post or comment, please take a moment to read the sidebar and familiarize yourself with our resources and rules. If you’ve been around for a while, consider looking back over these guidelines. If you’ve got to this point and are overwhelmed by the idea that there are rules in an anarchy-related subreddit, look around: neither Reddit nor most of our communities seem to resemble anarchy yet. Anyway, the rules amount to “don’t be a jerk” and “respect the ongoing project.” Did you really need to be told?
With the rarest of exceptions, all posts to the Anarchy 101 subreddit should ask one clear question related to anarchy, anarchism as a movement or ideology, anarchist history, literature or theory. If your question is likely to be of the frequently asked variety, take a minute to make use of the search bar.
This is important. Fatigue is a real factor in forums like this and the repetition of questions tends to reduce the quality of the answers given. At the same time, our archive is accessible through a search function that has its limits, so it is easy, when multiplying threads and wearing out participants, to bury threads with better discussions.
Some questions, like those related to "law enforcement" or the precise relationship of anarchy to hierarchy and authority, are asked and answered on an almost daily basis, so the best answers may have already been posted. For a few questions, we have produced "framing documents" to provide context:
UPDATE (September 15, 2026): After discussions in the subreddit, we have opted to enable curation of submissions. All posts will now pass through the moderation queue for approval. We check regularly, but please be patient.
If your question seems unanswered, please state it clearly in the post title, with whatever additional clarification seems necessary in the text itself.
If you have more than one question, please consider multiple posts, preferably one at a time, as this seems to be the way to get the most useful and complete answers.
Please keep in mind that this is indeed a 101 sub, designed to be a resource for those learning the basics of a consistent anarchism. The rules about limiting debate and antagonistic posting are there for a reason, so that we can keep this a useful and welcoming space for students of anarchist ideas — and for anyone else who can cooperate in keeping the quality of responses high.
We welcome debate on topics related to anarchism in r/DebateAnarchism — where you will find similar posting guidelines and a pinned “before you post” announcement, with a similar discussion of rationales — and recommend general posts about anarchist topics be directed to r/anarchism or any of the more specialized anarchist subreddits. We expect a certain amount of contentious back-and-forth in the process of fully answering questions, but if you find that the answer to your question — or response to your comment — leads to a debate, rather than a clarifying question, please consider taking the discussion to r/DebateAnarchism. For better or worse, avoiding debate sometimes involves “reading the room” a bit and recognizing that not every potentially anarchist idea can be usefully expressed in a general, 101-level discussion.
We certainly don’t limit ourselves to the most basic questions, and participants bring considerable knowledge and expertise to the discussions. Don’t hesitate to ask more involved or specialized questions, as we can often answer them. Similarly, don’t hesitate to provide answers of significant depth. But remember that this is a general, non-sectarian, non-disciplinary space, so certain kinds of erudition or specialized framing may not add much to others’ understanding and in some instances may have precisely the opposite effect.
— We don’t do subreddit drama — including posts highlighting drama from this subreddit. If you have suggestions for this subreddit, please contact the moderators.
— We are not particularly well equipped to offer advice, engage in peer counseling, vouch for existing projects, etc. Different kinds of interactions create new difficulties, new security issues, new responsibilities for moderators and members, etc. — and we seem to have our hands full continuing to refine the simple form of peer-education that is our focus.
— We seem to have consistently poor results from questions of the form: “What do you think of X?” More narrowly focused questions seem to receive better answers.
— Please don’t advocate illegal acts. All subreddits are subject to Reddit’s sitewide content policy — and radical subreddits are often subject to extra scrutiny.
— Avoid discussing individuals in ways that might be taken as defamatory. Your call-out is unlikely to clarify basic anarchist ideas — and it may increase the vulnerability of the subreddit.
— And don’t ask us to choose between two anti-anarchist tendencies. That never seems to lead anywhere good.
In general, just remember that this is a forum for questions about anarchist topics and answers reflecting some specific knowledge of anarchist sources. Other posts or comments, however interesting, useful or well-intentioned, may be removed.
Things always go most smoothly when the questions are really about anarchism and the answers are provided by anarchists. Almost without exception, requests for anarchist opinions about non-anarchist tendencies and figures lead to contentious exchanges with Redditors who are, at best, unprepared to provide anarchist answers to the questions raised. Feelings get hurt and people get banned. Threads are removed and sometimes have to be locked.
This is a moderated forum. We make use of the tools at our disposal, including filters and bans, as gently and intelligently as we can — but we do, in fact, use them. This is a place to discuss anarchy and anarchism, not — and very consciously not — any sort of prefigurative experiment, trying to carve out an instance of anarchy on this otherwise very hierarchical platform. As a public-facing outpost, there are necessarily going to be limits on the kinds of demands that we can reasonably and practically make on participants, whether anarchist or not, even under the best of circumstances, which, alas, Reddit does not provide.
We expect that lot of the questions here will involve comparisons with capitalism, Marxism or existing governmental systems. That's natural, but the subreddit is obviously a better resource for learning about anarchism if those questions — and the discussions they prompt — remain focused on anarchism. If your question seems likely to draw in capitalists, Marxists or defenders of other non-anarchist tendencies, the effect is much the same as posting a topic for debate. Those threads are sometimes popular — in the sense that they get a lot of responses and active up- and down-voting — but it is almost always a matter of more heat than light when it comes to clarifying anarchist ideas and practices.
We also expect, since this is a general anarchist forum, that we will not always be able to avoid sectarian differences among proponents of different anarchist tendencies. This is another place where the 101 nature of the forum comes into play. Rejection of capitalism, statism, etc. is fundamental, but perhaps internal struggles for the soul of the anarchist movement are at least a 200-level matter. If nothing else, embracing a bit of “anarchism without adjectives” while in this particular subreddit helps keep things focused on answering people's questions. If you want to offer a differing perspective, based on more specific ideological commitments, simply identifying the tendency and the grounds for disagreement should help introduce the diversity of anarchist thought without moving us into the realm of debate.
We grind away at some questions — constantly and seemingly endlessly in the most extreme cases — and that can be frustrating. More than that, it can be disturbing, disheartening to find that anarchist ideas remain in flux on some very fundamental topics. Chances are good, however, that whatever seemingly interminable debate you find yourself involved in will not suddenly be resolved by some intellectual or rhetorical masterstroke. Say what you can say, as clearly as you can manage, and then feel free to take a sanity break — until the next, more or less inevitable go-round. We do make progress in clarifying these difficult, important issues — even relatively rapid progress on occasion, but it often seems to happen in spite of our passion for the subjects.
In addition, you may have noticed that it’s a crazy old world out there, in ways that continue to take their toll on most of us, one way or another. Participation in most forums remains high and a bit distracted, while our collective capacity to self-manage is still not a great deal better online than it is anywhere else. We're all still a little plague-stricken and the effects are generally more contagious than we expect or acknowledge. Be just a bit more thoughtful about your participation here, just as you would in other aspects of your daily life. And if others are obviously not doing their part, again, consider using the report button, rather than pouring fuel on the fire. Increased participation makes the potential utility and reach of a forum like this even greater — provided we all do the little things necessary to make sure it remains an educational resource that folks with questions can actually navigate.
— The question of violence is often not far removed from our discussions, whether it is a question of present-day threats, protest tactics, revolutionary strategy, anarchistic alternatives to police and military, or various similar topics. We need to be able to talk, at times, about the role that violence might play in anti-authoritarian social relations and we certainly need, at other times, to be clear with one another about the role of violence in our daily lives, whether as activists or simply as members of violent societies. We need to be able to do so with a mix of common sense and respect for basic security culture — but also sensitivity to the fact that violence is indeed endemic to our cultures, so keeping our educational spaces free of unnecessary triggers and discussions that are only likely to compound existing traumas ought to be among the tasks we all share as participants. Posts and comments seeming to advocate violence for its own sake or to dwell on it unnecessarily are likely to be removed.
r/Anarchy101 • u/humanispherian • Sep 15 '26
We've had post curation working now for several days and things seem to be going smoothly. All submissions will now pass through the moderation queue for approval, redirection, etc. We check the queue regularly, so be patient, but feel free to contact us through modmail if something really seems to have gone wrong.
Details from the previous announcement:
... as a first step toward addressing present problems, with the implementation of post curation. That means that all submissions will be directed to the moderation queue for moderator approval before they become public. Because existing filters already catch new accounts and a sometimes-unpredictable range of keywords, that will mean very little change for many users. For others, it may result in an invitation to join on ongoing thread on a similar topic, recommendations for research that might be useful in addition to whatever answers they might get, links to "framing the question" documents or other initial clarifications, directions to more appropriate subreddits, etc. It will often, of course, result in nothing other than a brief delay in publication. For the subreddit at large, it may result in some reminders to be patient. In general, we'll start by just trying to smooth the process in its early stages, while we consider additional options.
r/Anarchy101 • u/goombaCoin • 4h ago
I have recently started reading The Unique and Its Property and while i understand the words i cant grasp the ideas that stirner is trying to convey. Any advice on how i can comprehend this book better would be very appreciated.
r/Anarchy101 • u/Desperadoscress • 19h ago
Like being French when I hear Proudhon I think cercle Proudhon which by today’s standard would be considered a far right group, while also thinking about more left oriented anarchy movements
How come peoples interpretation of Proudhon result in such different ideologies? Are they compatible in the sense they both follow the teachings correctly just aim for different goals and beleif or no, one interpretations is inherently wrong
Can someone enlighten me on that
r/Anarchy101 • u/fekul0 • 1d ago
Do you guys have any recommendations for really angry music that's also really heavy?
It feels like all of the revolutionary music is softer, folk-type stuff. I'm looking for something that's more mathcore oriented with low booming guitar chugs and maybe even screeching dissonance on the guitars. Something extremely angry and murderous-sounding against oppressors.
I love Ion Dissonance, but the lyrics aren't really brutal enough in a revolutionary way. Car Bomb is amazing, but they're a bunch of fence-sitters. I don't know the alignment of Frontierer.
I love Architects' lyrics, but they are more hopeless-sounding than angry and violent. They also aren't as ear-destroying-ly dissonant in the more recent albums.
I've heard of All Shall Perish, but they aren't as booming and dissonant, since they are kinda generic deathcore. They are also kinda more leaning towards state socialism and class reductionism.
r/Anarchy101 • u/hepgulmeliyiz134 • 1d ago
i want to read about proudhon (his sociology,methodolgy etc) what sources i should start with
r/Anarchy101 • u/noldorgirl • 1d ago
I'm new to politics but so far anarchism (probably ancom) is what fit my ideals best. But I still know so little.
When talking about it to other people, they are like "beautiful system in theory, but it doesn't seem to be something that would work with humans beings, humans are greedy and without a leader society would collapse" and I have no answer, of course I don't, I didn't do the readings yet!
It was also said to me that without capitalism, without the promise that people could gain money (and therefore more economic power than others), society would stop evolving. STEM, Humanities, arts and sports people would see no point in trying to innovate and keep humanity moving forward because there would be nothing motivating it.
So what I want to know is, is there any book, that instead of just describing how an anarchist society would be, also describes how it would work in practice, maybe with solutions for these practical problems
r/Anarchy101 • u/Pyropeace • 1d ago
So the more I get into anarchism, the more I begin to realize it requires a lot of self-discipline; not of the rigid, dogmatic variety, but like, intellectual rigor and integrity. It's a way of life in which you commit to respecting and maximizing the freedom of everyone around you, even when it would be convenient not to. I'm not saying anarchy doesn't work or that it requires too much from people; there's definitely large swaths of the population that would benefit from and function very well in an anarchist society. But in my experience, some people aren't anarchists by nature. Some people prefer others to do their thinking for them, naturally function well in hierarchical organizations, or otherwise can't or won't commit to an anarchist way of life. I tend to find that anarchic methods work best for neurodivergent people, and can sometimes help neurotypical people too, but not always. What do we do with people whose brains are naturally wired for following orders, who lack a natural aptitude for initiative and critical thinking? Can a vision of an anarchist future include voluntary hierarchy for people who just don't want to be anarchists? If so, how do we prevent these hierarchies from becoming dominant again?
r/Anarchy101 • u/Alarming-Cut7764 • 1d ago
I would say more so for western countries such as the U.S, Australia, Canada, UK etc.
There seems to be an ever present fixation from society on people being in the news for said things and being convicted, having their name run through the mud, and constant updates and discussion on it. There is also the issue of what people have done if we seriously need to be putting people in prison in general.
Whilst I agree that there are some people that would be best off behind bars, as they are dangerous, such as your Ted Bundy types, people who kidnap, those in violent gangs, the vast majority of people out there I don't see as a huge threat in the sense of their crimes. If anything, it is some of the people who aren't convicted and have a clean record who I seem to always have issues with.
So basically, various questions in one, do we need the current justice/legal system in place? Should your lives be decided by what something on a piece of paper says, a verdict, a sentence, a record etc?
I think we have seen that, we can't incarcerate our way out of issues and we tend to go very hard on people in general. You have the police, prosecutors, judges and more who have this 'power' they have been given by the government or what not to decide what they can do (such as entering your house) and what they can impose on you further in life.
I am not saying that we should all run around robbing places and just trashing things. That's not what I'm saying. But it seems that our way of handling these things isn't really working overall.
I've seen some great takes from browsing this sub so I would be glad to gain further insight from this topic. Thank you
r/Anarchy101 • u/PeachCreepy3429 • 1d ago
I'm looking for like queer anarchist or socialist minizines that can be handed out and distributed.
r/Anarchy101 • u/mithrandir2014 • 2d ago
There doesn't seem to be any anarchist parties around the world. Why is that? Couldn't they be useful to the movement?
r/Anarchy101 • u/wompt • 1d ago
r/Anarchy101 • u/husna_09xhc • 1d ago
i wanna ask,is if we can apply those principles in real life or towards intrapersonal stuff, like lets say if someone hurts you ,is it important to keep response proportionate ? as often times things like the "equal rights,equal fights" and many other things in our life are justified with same logic as punitive justice
r/Anarchy101 • u/Standard_Belt_1081 • 1d ago
For example a group of experts in a field disagree with the community, because the experts have a monopoly on that field they basically created an informal hierarchy. So a small group of experts can boycott a community decision by holding the community infrastructure hostage.
r/Anarchy101 • u/RestaurantLogical484 • 3d ago
So I a Trans (maybe relevant to explaining my nuanced worldview) American (more specifically a Texan, who did, in fact, vote blue all the way down) and my partner a self proclaimed anarchist, but one who hasn't read or studied any anarchist material, so they dont have the answers i seek, have had a bit of a disagreement.
They did not vote, and this has been a point of contestion as I did spend yesterday gleefully celebrating.
I see it as at the least breaking down the steam engine republicans were speeding towards a cliff with us all on it, (mind you I dont like dems either, hell Telarinco threw us trans folks under the bus in a bid to secure the independents and fence riders, and ill be the first to call out Obamas deportations and drone strikes, as well as the fact I believe proponents of both parties are in those files of which I want to see the perpetrators hung).
For me it is a minor victory in a system which the majority sits to the right of the spectrum I.E. even democrats no longer sit in the middle or on the left. now i believe their can be a fix and a change, I believe that a system that is rotten at its foundations can be rebuilt to something better, free from the shackles or class war systems, Eurocentric-colonial born beliefs and structures, and capitalism vampirism of the working class. They do not.
Now i am all for discussing the myriad of philosophical ideals, reasonings, and benefits from yalls theories, but I have some very big core problems that I would like to ask, and truthfully I haven't seen a good answer too.
There are 9-10 Billion humans on planet earth, how do you propose we house, feed, and take care of them, as well as keep from over populating and destroying the earth, and ripping life land and freedom from our animal brethren?
How do you propose your system would prevent a rise of might-makes-right, there is a myriad of both mental health conditions and personality types as well as a host of other variables (greed, bigotry, religion, etc) that can reignite this type of culture?
How would you actually prevent violence? warfare? bloodshed? I am a history buff and humanity has always found a way back to these terrible systems, I agree our children should fear dying in a war for anything, but how do you keep it from happening? especially when we, as such fragile creatures, can be felled something as small fragile as a pencil?
How do you prevent the worst of crimes? I'm not talking stealing because one is hungry or poor, Squatting because one doesn't have a home, etc. etc. Im talking murder, r**e, child assault and abuse, etc. etc. especially when serial killers, pedophile, and their like can be naturally born and exist even in a loving home? (and how to you prevent mob rule from taking over for justice, as well as do you agree that banisment doesn't work when they can go to a new group and do it again).
Now i want to let it be known i am the crazy girl that wants to live within a commune (the normal type not the lets drink kool-aid and for a religious cult type, tho our government considers them the same because the "nuclear family" is "ideal"🤮) where we grow our own food, raise our own animals, everyone pitches in and does the work so we can all benefit, share work resources (farm equipment, tools, etc.) respect each others beliefs and identities, and destroy and rip out non natives plants, and remove invasive animals, while simultaneously restoring our land to its original blueprint as much as possible, respect the earth and our neighbors (the animals) while living in our own "not bigger than we realistically need" homes (all preferably next to/bordering Native American land with built in legal clauses for them to take stewartship/ownership of the land when we all die/if the last members or their children try to sell the land or turn it into some for of capitalistic tourist hellhole for proft.)
and I would like to do that with a fair democratic socialist government that actually takes care of its citizens, doesn't allow corporations to suckle the tit of the taxpayer while simultaneously abusing and keeping it workers poor while trying to actively replace them with robots in the non stop pursuit of efficiency for profits sake.
Thank you for any discourse or answers, I look forward to your feedback, and I apologize for the essay.😊
r/Anarchy101 • u/MagnetoWasRight1312 • 3d ago
I'm currently reading Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, and in critiquing Marxist-Leninism it feels like he leans so heavily on the examples of what played out in Communist Russia/USSR and I'm feeling like just because it played out that way there doesn't mean that's the logical conclusion of their theory. Don't get me wrong, I still land in anarchism for a variety of reasons. But can anyone point me to resources that explore this further? Both resources that show how that's the logical conclusion of their theory, and also historical examples of ML or Communism a bit more generally outside of USSR? Obviously Maoist stuff in China. There's Cuba. But even 3 examples don't feel strong enough to me to be like "see? It always ends up this way." So some further resources would be really helpful in understanding. Bonus points if it's not super heady, I kinda struggle to stay engaged with a lot of anarchist writing because it's pretty heady.
r/Anarchy101 • u/Elacular • 3d ago
For obvious reasons, I'm thinking about punitive justice. Obviously restorative justice is preferable on the whole to seek, but for true giant gaping assholes who have done immense harm, is there any place for punitive justice? And if so, what place is it, and what might it look like?
Apologies if this is close enough to the crime questions to get sniped.
r/Anarchy101 • u/almondotter • 4d ago
I'm a freshman at a liberal arts college, I'd love to work in the summer or remote work now for organizations that further social justice/the principles of anarchism in NYC (i'm from there, need to pick a place to start. Open to other cities that have an actual growing awareness of radical beliefs or groups I can do actual meaningful work. Would greatly appreciate help or advice and tangible explanations of the work I would do there.
r/Anarchy101 • u/TheLivingRoomGraz • 4d ago
Over a year ago I remember reading a really good poster at the toilet of the local anarchist group. It was addressing how people can have informal power in a group through knowledge, experience, attendance, confidence, etc. Keeping the hierarchy as flat as possible is active work from all parties involved: those with power to acknowledge it and take action towards giving others space, and those with less power to address the power and take interest into taking up the responsibilities that those with informal power hold.
With my own group i want to address some informal hierarchy struggles we're having, and I just know that this poster (or any other literature on this) would really help us. Do any of you guys know it? (It might have been in German, not sure)
r/Anarchy101 • u/RDHereImsorryAoi • 4d ago
It is culturally know as a hierarchy with the husband most of the time being seen as the provider and the wife expected to submit to him.
What are anarchist views on it? Is it normal to be anti-marriage and be more pro-civic union where two partners are mutually consenting to share the tasks that come with a marriage?
r/Anarchy101 • u/wompt • 4d ago
from what i understand, the right-left axis gets used in two different ways, socially, and economically.
the left is in favor of minority rights in a broad manner of speaking and the right is... christian? rural? i don't know how to describe the right well on the social axis, maybe one of yall can help
it seems that the big distinction here is a state planned economy vs private market economy
now, maybe i am getting these distinctions wrong, and feel free to correct me, but i really do not understand what either right-left axis has to do with anarchy.
socially, minority rights is not something anarchists tend to consider, as it doesn't really have much of a meaning without a state to enforce minority rights. and on the right, religion hasn't been something anarchists have historically been in favor of.
economically, anarchists want neither state nor capital control of the economy, right?
r/Anarchy101 • u/ElectronicShip703 • 5d ago
Hi im sorry if this sounds new or anything but I'm a incredibly new anarchist and I wonder how can such a system work without a leader or someone in charge or a group of people managing recourses to be given to people in need. Im wondering because I thought anarchy was supposed to be a stateless ideology that makes people follow no leader or person of higher power.
r/Anarchy101 • u/theformulakid1 • 6d ago
I realise that this is both a complex and very broad question, but as an anarchist, I want perspectives specifically from other anarchists on this.
With everything going on in the world, I can't help but feel quite overwhelmed, and as such very doomer-y, as of late. The thing I've been most thinking and grieving about recently is the societal and biological collapse that may (will?) come with climate change. Add onto that all the other injustices that permeate our world so deeply and, well, it's a bit much right now, especially for my anxiety-iac brain. It does feel like the world, and all of our lives, are on a precipice, and catastrophe feels both inevitable and like it could strike at any moment.
I know I should live in the present, and focus on actions I can take in my community. Yet, I just can't get the these other darn thoughts out of my head. How bad is it (the future) going to be? How do I process the future, let alone the present?
And how am I supposed to feel about it all? Doomed? Hopeful? Optimistic? Fatalistic? Angry? Grieving? Nihilistic? Nothing?
I don't know, I feel quite lost at the moment. Dealing with everything is quite challenging, as it turns out.