I seem to have picked up a racist “anarchist” reader from somewhere, so I want to make this explicit:

Nazis should fuck off and die. Racism and nationalism have nothing to do with anarchist political theory. We wish you ill. We are not on your side, you are not on our side.

I’ve long believed in a diversity of political viewpoints, and consider myself excited to include a wide variety of anarchist beliefs under the no-state spectrum. Hell, I’m even soft on anarcho-capitalists, because agorism is kind of interesting (not that I am anarcho-capitalist, mind you. I identify as anti-capitalist). But nationalist anarchism is not anarchism. It is repackaged fascism.

I want to talk about this because I believe that fascist leaders have adopted the sexy, sexy characteristics of anarchism in order to entice young, rebellious folks into being their footsoldiers, to delude them into thinking that the problems they face are racialized. Or to trick people into thinking that being proud of your culture means that you need to keep it “pure,” that the white race is somehow threatened by multiculturalism.

here are the facts:

  • anarchism seeks to end the nation-state and destroy borders
  • anarchism has always been, and will always be, multicultural. Although most of the “famed” anarchist thinkers in the western world were white, many of them were not considered white at the time, and anarchism has found its way onto every continent. In America, anarchist papers were printed in all sorts of languages.
  • whiteness is a social construct: that is to say, it is as manufactured by our society as gender is. Yes, some people have different racial characteristics, but the definition of what makes one “white” or “black” is a matter of social opinion, an opinion that has long been shifting. By this understanding, anarchists do indeed intend to destroy whiteness. Or “whitey.” But we’re not talking about killing white people for being white.
  • fascism is the polar opposite of anarchism. Fascism is totalitarian, and beats the race-war drum mostly so as to inspire morons into doing their bidding.
  • fascists should fuck off and die
  • the nazis rounded up the anarchists and other leftists pretty much first and foremost. National Socialism had every intention to exterminate us as well as everyone else.
  • Hitler was a piece of shit and if you call yourself an anarchist and quote Hitler, you’re a moron

I listen to a lot of black metal. Poor black metal got a bad rap after a couple of wannabe nazi morons (who by and large aren’t taken seriously in the neo-fascist circles in Europe) started National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM). Anyhow, Protector, from the amazing, non-political band Summoning has done a good job of pointing out why you can like your cultural background without being a nazi, in a political statement he released after some folks set fascist videos to Summoning songs on youtube. Some of my favorite parts:

I prefer to be proud about things i did or am responsible for, but I never ever could feel pride for things I could not even decide upon. I can be proud about my music for example, but never that I was born in Austria. I am of course happy to live in a country like Austria instead of a poor country, but I am definitely not proud about that. It seems for me that Nazis have nothing else to be proud of than the coincidence that they were born in their father-land. Even if you are proud of your country, that doesn’t naturally mean you’re a Nazi. But if national pride is your most important pride, and probably the only pride you have, then it starts getting a bit weird.
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If you think you are an individualist or rebel because you like fascism then you are wrong. There is no space for individualism in fascist regimes. In fascism conformity and obedience are the most important value. This goes for Nazi Germany as well as the Stalin-Soviet Union. Fascism means extreme conformity and following orders and leaders. You have to be a working component in the huge fascist system – thinking for yourself will disturb this system.