I’ve pointed out before the tendency of self-proclaimed anarchists to become authoritarian whenever they’re the ones in power, but they thrash me for it about how I apparently don’t understand “theory,” when the reality is they’re the ones who don’t understand the difference between “theory” and “practice.”

Some level of organizational structure is necessary to prevent authoritarians from seizing and consolidating power. Just because current iterations in geopolitics haven’t been perfect, doesn’t mean we should throw out the idea entirely. It needs to be developed further, with lessons learned from history. Not thrown out with the bathwater.

It’s a delicate balance though, because at one extreme you have authoritarians imposing heavy restrictions to prevent other authoritarians from gaining a foothold, and at the other extreme you have libertarian-esque permissiveness allowing authoritarians to gain a foothold.

The problem can’t be solved without having nuanced discussions, acknowledging the full complexities of the situation and the inadequacies of overly simplistic “solutions,” which is impossible to do within campist spaces (which increasingly seem to be all of them).