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I do enjoy the anews even when I have nothing to comment. Nice to hear you toss around thoughts about the workshop.

As interesting as this workshop is, in the similar way that you don't need to be a linguist to speak a language, one does not need to be a scholar or philosopher of anarchism in order to be and anarchist.

I agree that anarchy/anarchism can't be anything and everything, that not anyone that claims it is in fact a genuine anarchist, that not everything a self-denominated anarchist does or likes is automatically anarchist by default. But in the same way that most people get by interacting with the world around them without knowing the intricacies of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc., most anarchists can get by with rough working definitions, notions, intuition and instinct. By this I don't mean they are infallible through those means, but that many who are fond of texts, history, definitions, semantics, theory, etc. can miss the mark just as well.

The good thing about the workshop is that it tries to coax out some rigor out of the participants via examining and producing texts. There are many other practices besides reading/writing that can also give feedback and lead to examining and refining ones notions.

It's interesting and frustrating how to some anarchy can merely state an opinion of strong dislike and rejection of archy, while for others it prescribes an ideal model for a society, suggesting mode of production, economy and institutions. More and more I am embracing that (as Chisel also had mentioned) the fact that another person calls themself an anarchist guarantees no overlap of definitions, opinions or affinity by itself. Each anarchist is a stranger, as any other person would be, a person like any other after all.

For me the takeaway of making my own anarchism is cancelling out the noise of all the infinite dissonant versions of anarchism that scream arrogantly how it should and shouldn't be. I don't look forward to sharing any notion I develop anymore than I do reading most of the comments on this site (no offense to the exceptions and its caretakers). Looking away from endless potential disagreements online and in "anarchist spaces", I'd rather focus on a daily life that tries to maybe one day punch up instead of down or sideways. Most arguments among anons aren't even interesting conversations, unlike the conversations between friends like in this podcast, those are the ones worth having.