banksy's flower thrower art with "The secret is to really begin" in a curly-cutesy font

We’ve all seen them, judged them, and likely acted our part in them. Clichés abound in every group of people, but anarchyland boasts an eclectic stew.

To kick us off with a few from personal experience, there’s the mass bleed skillshare instructors, Tails OS die-hards, climate disaster harbingers, and overconfident squat plumbers; the drug users, abusers, and abstainers, art school dropouts, class traitors, food forest designers, Muay Thai aficionados, and some of the best-and-worst shoplifters combined; then there’s the tireless mutual aid elders, Deleuzian-pilled theory heads, hostile gaggles of online trolls (hi, anon!), trans girls with Thinkpads, and nocturnal graff bros. I could go on…

This isn’t just an exercise in talking shit, though, I promise. I love the multiplicity of anarchyland, even when it feels like it’s all just a copy of a copy of a copy. In fact, I’ve often found those who believe all-anarchists-are-the-same to be my problem more than the clichés.

A wonderful piece of advice I’ve received is not to avoid clichés but engage with them interestingly. I think this insight is helpful for anarchists feeling stuck in subcultural defaults yet are paralyzed by the task of reinventing the wheel. It’s the creative nothing, sure, but it doesn’t start from scratch.

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. - Mark Twain


How do you see anarchists navigating the maze of clichés? What does the challenge to engage with them interestingly look like to you? Add your favorite clichés to the list!

Comments

anon (not verified) Mon, 02/17/2025 - 20:00

The eternal rivalry ----Autonomous Individualist anarchs vs Collective hierarchical manarchist strugglismos.

Owl Lord (not verified) Mon, 02/17/2025 - 21:07

The Anews Cynics of Surrender (thank you for the perfect label, JZ) cliché comes to mind.

The AnCoS smugly turn their noses up at literally everything except for the most cringe lost causes who they can groom and manipulate for use in their own edgy (yet actually completely normie) "projects" to create more AnCoS to grow thei echo chambers.

Anarchists navigate around these AnCoS by mostly never thinking about them or encountering them since they don't really exist outside of their own echo chambers and the annual bookfair circuit.

anon (not verified) Tue, 02/18/2025 - 05:36

The old Wildcat anarchist comics by Donald Rooum was great at playing with anarchist cliches.

no-warren-irak (not verified) Tue, 02/18/2025 - 08:16

And we'll keep ourselves in a place where it's easy to hold onto.
The last threats came and went, this is the way that wars are played.
Always heading for a front, heading for a front,
We go into the obscurity of an easy to pass on feeling that objection is so cliche.
A new way on
A new way on
A new way on
A new way on
So can your pop sensibilities sing me the end of the world?
Turn gunshots and mortar blasts into a metaphor of how we are all the same.
Well there's a lot of things that should be said, so we're hammering six strings,
Machine gun in audible voices, this is the party we came for.
A new way on
A new way on
A new way on
A new way
We stand in amazement of motion in a world that is constantly revolving.
With plans of invasion and arms races racing we rock to the new sensation.
A new way on
A new way on
_______________________
artist: Against Me!
song: Cliche Guevara
video: https://youtu.be/1RE4E0KLXrY?si=fG4CarskR36MCNTm

anon (not verified) Tue, 02/18/2025 - 12:36

i hate the term "anarchyland" almost as much as i hate the phrase "doing anarchy".

anarchism has become one big clichés with all the micro-clichés piled on top of one another.

CalvinSmith (not verified) Sat, 02/22/2025 - 16:57

In reply to by anon (not verified)

1. Find the different people who have an interest in something you are passionate about.

2. Refine your skills and knowledge in that subject matter, and a few related ones. It might seem ridiculous to apply this to a heroin clique, but, oh it happens. Trust me: it happens...especially when it comes to diseases.

3. Get tired of the subject matter, or listen to people talk about how their ideas are the best ones in the group and leave. Or, maybe, just maybe: die.

4. If you stay during the rule-refinement process, congratulations! You are now part of a cult. I hope you make some cold hard cash during this process, because otherwise you're just going to be a piece of gum under somebody's shoe. You still might accomplish both!

Speaking of which, I do like the new colors of this website.

purple n' black, you will come back

white n' black, get kicked in the nutsack

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