this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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Anarchism has had zero historical successes, and the 20th century showed that only national liberation struggles backed by proletarian states had any success at defeating capitalist empires.
The USSR, Cuba, China, Vietnam, all defeated fascist / capitalist states not via dismantling or "decentralizing" power, but through centralizing it in the hands of workers capturing and holding state power. They all explicitly dismissed anarchism as being worthless for the uplifting of their people, and many times had to fight against anarchists who sided with the reactionaries, or advocated dismantling worker-power.
The historical ignorance and arrogance of western anarchists is truly astounding. Name me a single historical success of anarchism in defeating capitalist-imperialism. The USSR defeated nazi germany, Cuba defeated the US. How many batallions did the anarchists field in those struggles that were some of the most important events in the 20th century?
Yeah I'm just not interested in relitigating the anarchism vs. Marxism debate with you. If you're seriously interested, check An Anarchist FAQ or consult our literature instead. This debate is over a hundred years old, and neither of us are smart or creative enough to come up with a truly novel argument that hasn't been said a thousand times before.
The point I wanted to relitigate is the ridiculous "your proposals are the same as the US" framing, which you didn't respond to basically at all, because you know it's bullshit. Absolutely, there are self-styled anarchists in the West who tow State Department narratives. Same with self-styled state socialists from the West (e.g. Socialist Workers' Party in
are fucking Zionists, Platner/AOC/Sanders enjoyers, the entire Twitter left), because liberalism is the monoculture in the West, and it is something Westerners (like myself) of any political persuasion must spend a lifetime unlearning. It's a problem with Westerners, not necessarily anarchists. You're being obnoxious and unhelpful when you reactively assume that every anarchist, that anarchism itself, is in line with
interests.
If you wanna yell at me for being an annoying Westerner I'll eat that, but to then cast all anarchists into that bucket is ridiculous.