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[–] 9 points 1 week ago (6 children)

While I do support Marxists and anarchists working together against imperialism and capitalism, communism and anarchism are not compatible. Anarchism, oversimplified, presents a world of interconnected horizontalist cells, essentially a world of petty bourgeois cooperatives. Communism seeks total global collectivization across all of society, to create a classless world. The reasoning for this is that Marxists hold to dialectical materialism as our worldview and toolset for changing the world, whereas anarchists do not.

This strikes me in particular because I used to consider myself an anarchist. Part of my growth into a Marxist was simply understanding how historical materialism works, as presented by Engels in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. I recommend giving it a read when you get the chance, and really pay attention to how Engels describes the transition to socialism and communism.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    If anarchists and communists can work together politically towards goals positive for both, I argue that as a binary anarchism and communism cannot be incompatible.

    Is there no human foundation shared between and no collective label that can apply to both?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    It's incredibly difficult to square anarchism's petty bourgeois cooperative focus with communism's analysis that the future will be collectivized. They stand at polar opposites, one where humanity is balkanized into tiny cells, and one where humanity is united.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    Do you see fascism and anarchism as equally distant from communism? If not, is that distance entirely unrelated to the parts of each?

    I guess if they are defined alone by what makes them unique, then rather than them being incompatible or compatible, it is more that compatibility is a category error.

    I guess I'm considering the overlaps in the massive negative space for each.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    There are of course overlaps, but the underlying trend is in opposition, with anarchism you have full horizontalism and decentralization, with communism you have full collectivization. This creates profound differences in where each stands that cannot be made to reconcile.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    Is there opposition within the overlapping negative space? In the places they each say "this space intentionally left blank"?

    If anarchism is horizontal and decentralized, is communism vertical and centralized? It's not what you said, but those seems like truer opposites.

    Are the origins of anarchism and communism entirely separate or are they diverging refinements on a common base? Are all of those refinements really changes in category and none of them in specificity?

    I guess my claim is changed now, from "anarchism and communism are compatible" to a person can live a life aligned with anarchism or communism without entirely reinventing themselves during transitions between".

    Though this is well away from "Haha enjoy getting raided" feeling eerily similar to the liberal "Enjoy the camps, transes". Not the same rationally as the power relationship is wildly different, but feels similar.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    I said there are overlaps, the pertinent part is that collectivization into one and communalization into countless cells are two fundamentally opposite approaches with different class characters.

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