In the realm of antifascist politic, which is in many ways, the dominant expression of USian anarchism, infiltration, doxing, and information sharing are the norm. But are these practices reproducing something antithetical to anarchist practice?
Community safety announcements, be them online or plastered on windows, showing the faces of fascist or other reactionary elements, are a clear example. The rationale being that these are dangerous individuals and or groups and the community (neighborhood, online forums, organizations, etc) could be in danger. Another example is contacting the families, employers, or associates of the reactionary person. This would be to help draw a line: Will you choose to associate with this person? I don't wish to confront these practices as much as the following one, but want to prompt with the question, Is doxing an act, like violence, that is contextual? Ie, does the anarchist character of those doing it justify the act?
The final example I want to discuss is infiltration. I don't mean joining a non-vetted Telegram chat for some esoteric Nazi group or your local college Republican chapter. I mean the active joining and participation of a reactionary organization with the intent to expose, stop, or hurt those involved. To be involved in such a practice solidifies in-group belief (With new members, we feel stronger. We must be on the right side of history!). It also will lead to the infiltrator engaging in possibly violent acts. FBI are no different. Their infiltration and entrapment has included agents engaging in or otherwise assisting in attacks on victim populations. Examples include Secret Army Organization and Guardians of the Oglala Nation. Would the firebombing of a Black church by an antifascist be justified, if it meant this person could advance in the ranks, to further possible future destabilization?
- Is doxing an act, like violence, that is contextual? Ie, does the anarchist character of those doing it justify the act?
- When does the activity of something resembling an intelligence apparatus move beyond safety and towards resembling statecraft?
- What historic examples of anarchist (counter-)intelligence come to mind as effective and non-effective models?
- In what ways can anarchists spread awareness of dangerous persons or organizations without reproducing statist practices? Additionally, is the notion of "dangerous persons or organizations" already a statist concept"?
Comments
this is an unusually good TOTW, and it speaks to some of the
CalvinSmith Sun, 05/03/2026 - 09:01
humorous and ironic aspects of calling yourself an "anti-fascist"....
A lot the problems with anti-fascist thinking is people just assuming that certain people "shouldn't be ignored". Yes, people are dangerous, especially when they are foaming at the mouth with ideological rhetoric, but anti-fascists tend to downplay the power that ignoring people and gently mocking them can have. The state doesn't ignore this: that's why they have solitary confinement.
"When does the activity of something resembling an intelligence apparatus move beyond safety and towards resembling statecraft?"
When the underlying assumptions of the group are false and nobody cares anymore: it's like when cops "have the scent" for someone they believe is a murderer: "It has to be them! The husband is always the one who does it! He's clearly lying because these kinds of weird things never happen! HE'S LYING!"
Such kinds of assumptions can cleared up or put on hold with more curiosity, investigation, and thinking, but it can be very hard for someone to lose interest in doing these things when they have very strong convictions.
Reply to CalvinSmith Sun, 05/03/2026
Emma Durruti (not verified) Wed, 05/06/2026 - 08:03
In reply to this is an unusually good TOTW, and it speaks to some of the by CalvinSmith
I made it out the other side of frustration with leftist "activist" burnout and petty infighting somehow not jaded as heck. My flag just keeps getting blacker.
The issues you raised here are both short term practical issues (what do we DO when we expose the Gestapo), as well as a long term ideological shortcoming of dogmatic anarchism.
I have no answers, only some thoughts. I have heard that the "restorative"/"transformative" justice model when applied by folks new to it (I suppose we all are, given prisons' barbarity), is quite disappointing in practice and often leaves neither the "defendant" nor the "plaintiff" very satisfied, or feeling like any lasting justice was achieved. I have not experienced it, only the worst sides, but I imagine us anarchists' proclivity for poor follow through and reportbacks makes the long and complex, and basic (for any culture, say, a territory liberated by radical forces who cannot afford a power vacuum in their rear lines). The problem of coercion, voluntariness, formal vs informal rules/rulers, and the seeming hypocrisy of liberarian socialists, whether Spanish last century or the overtly non-anarchist (but still arguably anti-authoritarian socialist) projects like Rojava and EZLN and smaller regions have always had to make a choice when confronted, during open social revolt, with numbers of opponents who are recalcitrant and pose a severe risk if let back to their lines, too dangerous to simply exile and wash our hands of it while some other town finds out, or even say, a fascist adjacent logistics worker, or other edge cases: WHAT DO WE DO WITH THEM? We want to pre-figure a free world, and our mortal enemies, fascists, do not. Other sorts of prisoners and anti-social behavior I have heard addressed often in Anarchist intro style books, but anyone who has ever seen the dark side of inpatient mental health (etc), likely will share my deep skepticism about how widely effective "rehab" (inching close to indoctrination black sites in worst case, but I don't think any GROUP of anarchists with any affinity for each other would long tolerate abysmal detention conditions or cruelty. Besides sheer military power, our current biggest weaknesses by far as Anarchism: The Movement also include such "statist" fundamentals as administering conflict resolution, maintaining order in liberated territory (I think a loose brigade of hardcore anti-org, hyper-individualist anarchists would prove unwilling or unable to organize at scale and so will simply never liberate physical territory for long, let alone build a thriving economy and culture, at least not without compromising with another faction).
As far as anti-fa in the street, they aren't subtle, and their suited compatriots are rarely much better. The real difficulty, for us to both maintain our ethical integrity, have a clear vision of our ends, and have a world worth employing the means we already have. This focus on ATTACK, advance, and not waiting for the One Big Day when we overthrow fascism and capitalism for good are essential in my view, and hesitations over truly vexing moral dilemmas, as are presented in Thought Experiments (aka intuition pumps) can be avoided by always already practicing our unity of means and ends. To be sure, more man-made horrors await us, but I think at least this issue is surmountable (and must be for our planet to survive frankly). I wholeheartedly reject vulgar utilitarianism and deontology both, with the exception of really loving the concept of "autonomous" (lit. Self-rule-issuing; which meshes well with anyone from Stirner to Bookchin or Graeber, etc. I prefer autonomy over "freedom" and such, which is a Kantian trope, because for MY freedom and Y'ALL'S freedom to mutually support each other, we must both struggle towards 'autonomy'; learning to keep promises to our future selves, and thus also to live together with others without some Social Contract nonsense. The one who is truly free, can and must have a moral code. And likewise, for a moral code (a self-made one, not absorbed from say, TV or church) to truly matter, the moral agent must be free (this DOES NOT preclude non-sapient animals from moral consideration fwiw). Def gonna lie to the SS and all that though, Manny! I know a Nazi by the company they keep, their jokes and references, little things from years of research. Their greatest weakness is that fascism CANNOT create, ONLY steal (hence the NSDAP's name and iconography, and the sadly returning modern phenomenon of NazBols red-brown weirdos. They are not an immediate threat like the neo-reactionaries and trad race war cringe mobs though.
Forgive me for not engaging…
EmmaAintDead Wed, 05/06/2026 - 09:13
In reply to Reply to CalvinSmith Sun, 05/03/2026 by Emma Durruti (not verified)
Forgive me for not engaging with the substance of your post, but Emma Durruti is a name I haven't seen in a loooong time and I just wanted to thank you for keeping it alive. It brought me a moment of bittersweet joy to see that today.
Sounds like you've got a pretty
CalvinSmith Wed, 05/06/2026 - 14:51
In reply to Reply to CalvinSmith Sun, 05/03/2026 by Emma Durruti (not verified)
Massive burden to carry...
Certainly one example,…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/03/2026 - 09:02
Certainly one example, calling a boss/company with the intent of getting someone fired, is reinforcing the structure of work/employment, not much different than using the cops.
yeah, haha, the social progress police are the ones that do
CalvinSmith Sun, 05/03/2026 - 09:53
In reply to Certainly one example,… by anonymous (not verified)
that kind of thing...the ones that should be working in human resources instead of spewing revolutionary rhetoric.
OSINT gonna OSINT dear…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/03/2026 - 09:16
OSINT gonna OSINT
dear lefties, stop selling me the work, trade and craft of FBI and IRS as revolutionary. no, i will not use a.i. to come up with lists to audit "the 1%" or "landlords". i will not refine the data munging process for the benefit of those who use it against us.
(so-called) anarchists act…
anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/04/2026 - 09:08
(so-called) anarchists act like cops all too much, policing everyone around them to fit into their adopted idea of "right and wrong", and usually defined by Leftist parameters.
anti-fa is just the most obvious example.
obviously, confrontation is part of being an anarchist, of being alive, but what i too often see is (so-called) anarchists enforcing their adopted morality on others.
where are the anarchists who live in anarchy.
(possibly offline in the woods?)
I've been trying to pull back a little,
CalvinSmith Mon, 05/04/2026 - 14:07
In reply to (so-called) anarchists act… by anonymous (not verified)
As my comments are plastered in the comment as of recently...
Yeah, the viseral disgust Nietzsche has towards "morality" is not that he didn't have his own version, but that it translates to this idea that there's only one way to live, if you steer from the path, your wrong.
I think ranting about "the left" largely perpetuates the same blunder: that leftists share none of your morality and lifestyle choices...
well, i agree, we all have…
anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/04/2026 - 16:33
well, i agree, we all have our own underpinnings, tendencies, and life-ways,some might say "beliefs", which is where uniqueness can flourish. i tend to resonate with Nietzche's perspectives here. my problem with "leftists" parading as anarchists (which are most self-described anarchists at this point, sadly) is that their "morality" is inherently authoritarian and controlling (not anarchist), not that their "morality and lifestyle choices" (and assumptions) are just different. examples are endless here. this site is full of them.
What you're describing, seems me these
CalvinSmith Tue, 05/05/2026 - 09:26
In reply to well, i agree, we all have… by anonymous (not verified)
Lefty radical groups tightly controlling their "anarchist spaces", and thats @news is the only anarchist space where i hang out...for all that i don't like about it. Those RL groups tend to just hang out in bourgie metro areas anyway, pretty exclusive towards left-sympathic "rednecks" like me, lol
So there. Been to Italy…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/05/2026 - 13:18
In reply to What you're describing, seems me these by CalvinSmith
So there. Been to Italy lately and all the occupations I've seen were either goddamn social centers (i.e. closed most of the time) or nice living squats privatized by a handful of Lefty anarchoids. Always in big inconvenient urban hellholes filled with hipsters, of course, for some reason.
If you understand that they really are coming from a liberal-progressive capitalist (and pro-society) worldview, that ain't too hard to get why they're behaving as they do. A few among them are still good people, but it's like what they're saying of ANY big institution or cult... it's always relying on the few good people so that they can be as shitty and ruthless as they want with all those not in the "in" crowd.
How to keep them away from consolidating control over spaces is a big question tho. How they are being attracted to these spaces seems to be the flip side of that question.
Eventually these fucktards might wither away, moving up the social ladder or just ending up as more ossified "revolutionaries" having their obituary text published in here.
I just miss the good ol' days of fun collective living in more open squats, with endless coffee time and meals shared around the dinner table, and occasional fucking, partying and of course buddying.
Such a disrespect to anarchy and LIFE in general that these wannabe-bureaucrats took openness out of the equation. Useless shit producers, in the end... like so many others. At least I compost my own poop, you civcucks!
found a relevant quote that might help:
CalvinSmith Tue, 05/05/2026 - 15:21
In reply to So there. Been to Italy… by anonymous (not verified)
"When imagination dies, we become lonesome slaves to our bodies, prisoners to our sounds, specied and culture. The stories of the panther are my best memories, but what you hear is not what you might see in me."
-Memphis, from "The Heirs of Columbus"
When all else fails, go into the mystical jibberish...
imagination works
prosumer (not verified) Tue, 05/05/2026 - 16:29
In reply to found a relevant quote that might help: by CalvinSmith
sadly, a dead imagination might be preferable to billions of productive imaginations overworked and employed with the task of preserving and extending their own slavery, prisons, and culture.
Indeed. Absence of…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/05/2026 - 17:29
In reply to imagination works by prosumer (not verified)
Indeed. Absence of imagination ain't the biggest issue with the crowd/tendency being criticized here, but rather in fact its alienation from lived experience and the person. They are being just more of Society, not a solution to it.
Yes, imagination gives meaning and sensibility to our beings and actions, but it can easily fall into being a part of the Spectacle.
when we are fully immersed in activity, the imagination
CalvinSmith Tue, 05/05/2026 - 18:09
In reply to imagination works by prosumer (not verified)
disappears, which isn't always a bad thing. I like the quote i listed because my default mode of thinking is just hostility and doubt about everything, for that reason putting my imagination to use in other tasks helps...and sometimes, like you say, the zero-effort approach is way better than trying anything. Corporate culture usually revolves around forcing idiotic things on your imagination.
no to the ci(a)/splc…
anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/07/2026 - 17:56
no to the ci(a)/splc thoughts
Pretty much agree with 'osnit gonna osnit' sentiment but here is an attempt to add some additional context/nuance. Specifically regarding the recent criminal charges against the (southern poverty law center) SPLC detailing their long-time practice of paying far-right activists this topic feels very relevant. For those who don't know the SPLC has a long term relationship with the FBI & I'm sure other agencies. I'm sure 'inflatrators' with the best intentions have been in groups chats with other informants, assets and actual fash which really make the 'spiderman pointing meme' all the more relevant to describe the situtation. I hope that among anarchists it's understood the connection between inflatrators/agents/assets and suggestions of high-risk action can lead to mass violence or entrapment. Learn recent anarchist history around state repression and prolly good to know abt how the state uses fashy groups in similiar but much more sinister ways.
IMO, post first gulf war the state is looking to disrupt/entrap anarchists, militant left groups (recent turtle island liberation front charges from dec 25) and muslims. This is in concrast to how the far right is dealt with which IMO the goal of the state here is to facilitate a ecosystem of far-right\fash violence against the groups people the state is trying to repress. This includes ideas like 'strategy of tension'/domestic GLADIO and this 'ecosystem' acts of violence mass shootings targeting gay night clubs/bars as one example or like any of the examples of entrapment of muslims over the last 25 years.
My point here is that when you look at fash groups and antifasacist activity in opposition there has to be an analysis of how the state and NGOs help facilitate a ecosystem of far-right violence. To do 'anarchist things' is to do things that are anti-state so that I feel is one way to go about answering these questions.
To me idk what 'antifa' even means anymore other than a label the state will use to fabricate terror charges against you (prairieland) and a thing that very online younger ppl use when they are 'getting into rad politics'. So yeah, I'm glad this is a TOTW it's a much needed discussion.
Second thing in that things have changed a lot since the 90s and even since Cville. Tactics to rebel against this hellworld need to shift too. The digital surveilence state that is being built whose architects are a different kind of fash than the local violent neonzi. There is a diff threat model at play and the technofash thing is one that I find much more scary. Sharpen your shovels and cover those eyebrows there is some digging to do.
I didn't know American…
God King Sat, 05/09/2026 - 22:18
I didn't know American anarchists antifascist spend a fair amount of time attempting to infiltrate some group and dox them. Ultimately what they're doing does nothing. I don't see anything wrong with doxxing people if they harmed you in someway. Ultimately though, I think it's better to ignore these people deemed neo-fascists, dangerous or whatever. All these anti-fascists are doing is feeding them and supplying them with stuff they can further whine and rage about. Is like they're supplying Cookie Monster from Sesame Street with an unlimited supply of cookies. It's probably best to stop allowing them to live rent free in these anti-fascists' brains.
Anti-fascists emulate the state authorities when they start accusing people of being evil fascists randomly or suspecting them of being fascist-like and need to be exposed based off behaviors or shit they is exactly what the authorities do. Typically, they do it through the media. Wouldn't it be better use of these anarchists time to try to extricate themselves from partaking in the state and its ingrained capitalistic system?
"Would the firebombing of a Black church by an antifascist be justified, if it meant this person could advance in the ranks, to further possible future destabilization?"
You read and watch too many spy movies/novels/TV Shows. I'm high doubtful that a bunch of anarchist antifascists in the US have the expertise, knowledge, and resources in tradecraft to infiltrate some group that's intending on bombing places and rise in their ranks. What would even be the purpose? Expose some group to other people or the state? If these antifascists were so successful and infiltrated the group, and then go along with bombing a black church that means these antifascists utterly failed. In the end, if these antifascists expose it to the people and inadvertently self-snitch, the authorities will learn and the antifascist group along the group them all infiltrated would be done. Unless these antifascists are masterclass in tradecraft.
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