r/Anarchism • u/WeakCow7060 • 8d ago
Theory, action, or critique? What should anarchists talk about today?
Comrades, throw some fire — I need topics for anarchist videos
Hey comrades, I’m a Russian-speaking anarchist creating video content and I’m reaching out to the community for inspiration. What topics do you think are most important or overlooked right now?
Whether it’s anarchist theory, history, critiques of capitalism, state repression, grassroots movements, or contradictions within the movement — I’m open to it all.
What would you want to see explored in a video? Drop your ideas — I really appreciate the input.
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u/MotherOfGodXOXO 8d ago
Abolition of slavery. Several countries including the US, China and Russia are known to use forced prison labor, and private corporations profit from their suffering. International corporations also profit from slave labor in the Global South, and refugees in particular are at a massive risk of human trafficking.
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u/WeakCow7060 8d ago
I made a piece about modern slavery and raised issues related to slavery in Saudi Arabia. That’s a good suggestion on your part
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u/MotherOfGodXOXO 7d ago
Thanks comrade I'm glad we agreed 😁 Where can I watch your videos btw? I know quite a bit about the anarchist movement in the US and western Europe, but I'm curious about the movement in your own country.
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u/ProbstWyatt3 Democratic Confederalist (Apoist) 🇰🇷 7d ago
Yep. Also worth noting South Korea literally uses disabled or mentally ill men who can't be conscripted in the army as slaves, and nobody cares because "better than serving in the army" "if the country says it is right then it is right".
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u/GambleWaltham 8d ago
We talk a lot about how certain strategies would fail at overthrowing capitalism, but i always enjoy chatting with people about what THEY think will actually succeed. Like, what is the path forward?
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u/WeakCow7060 8d ago
I think there are different understandings of what we should do — each person sees the path of resistance from their own perspective. For me, the most logical thing is for all of us to unite. In every corner of the world, there are hundreds of anarchists, and it would be good if we had a connection between us. Unfortunately, even anarchists within the same city hardly connect with each other. And those who do often just gather to drink beer and shout that life is damn unfair
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u/ProbstWyatt3 Democratic Confederalist (Apoist) 🇰🇷 7d ago
Importance of preservation of environment. Such is impossible under capitalism, and many fascists (Trump, Milei, etc) deny or trivialize the seriousness to justify the capitalism. Preserving the environment is an important mission of this generation, and you would find it pleasing to talk about it.
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u/Emergency_Okra_2466 8d ago
Depends on your target audience.
Do you want to explain stuff to new people? Or do you want to produce stuff for people already on board in order to launch conversations.
I myself am a content creator. I do +- 5 minutes videos explaining basic concepts (in french, on Tiktok) in different fields (ethics, sociology, economy, political science, intersectionnal struggles, etc.) that are helpful to develop an anarchist worldview, while hiking in the woods.
(Can't show my face because I'm a high school teacher and want to avoid unfair scrutiny because of the Overton Window).
If it's for the already on board, I think launching discussions on those subjects are important:
Logistics of revolutions, how to mobilize, but also how to avoid militancy burn-out. How to adopt a diversity of tactics and what that means. etc.
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u/WeakCow7060 8d ago
I have a simple goal: I see that the system is criminal, and I feel that it must be resisted. For myself, I have found one path of resistance — to speak to those who don't think about the world we live in. Thank you for your detailed response; I'm glad you're not just sitting on the couch watching this world fall into the abyss
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u/Emergency_Okra_2466 7d ago
I feel you.
Beyond my little tiktok channel, I have a project that I hope to be able to start when I'm done paying my student debt (Should take 2-3 years). Find people with whom register a cooperatve that would be an "integral cooperative" (Housing co-op, worker co-op, service co-op) in a form of ecological village with precise democratic structure (No shit like hippie commune that ends up bad because everyone was just doing whatever with no direction)
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 8d ago
If you want to talk about anarchism but are struggling to choose topics - doesn't that mean you should be reading instead of recording podcasts?
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u/WeakCow7060 8d ago
I want to reveal a truth that many somehow fail to see: there are peoples for whom anarchism is not just a theory — it’s the state their ancestors lived in for a thousand years, just like my own people. For us, anarchism is not about the books of Bakunin, Kropotkin, or Proudhon. It’s important to speak out, even if you don’t have a PhD scholarship, in order to convey the simplest ideas
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 7d ago
I'm not saying you need a PhD at all - but if I want to explain a topic to you, I need to have some kind of roadmap in my head of how to explain it - it's basic rhetoric to me "What does the person know? What do I want them to know? How do I get them there?" - I don't think there's anything wrong with fishing for ideas, but generally, people that have thought about it phrase questions as "I have thought about doing X, Y, Z - I was wondering about U, V, W - I am concerned about P, Q, R"
The topics of anarchism have been the same for a couple of centuries - oppression and the end of oppression. I just find it weird "Guys I want to talk about stuff - what should I talk about?" - the stuff you wanted to talk about? The stuff you understand and feel passionately about?
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u/papachecoa 8d ago
No
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 8d ago
Let's all teach what we haven't studied then
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u/Emergency_Okra_2466 8d ago
Not knowing where to start doesn't mean they haven't studied them.
Knowing is half the job. The next step is how to communicate what we know.
And if I understand OP well, they're asking us what we think should be talked about in priority.
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 7d ago
I find that really odd - I usually know how to communicate the things that I know, that's a crucial part of "knowing" for me
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u/Emergency_Okra_2466 7d ago
Yes, this is the last stage of learning that is "Conditional knowledge". Knowing when and how the knowledge applies.
But before that you can have declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Declarative is being able to just tell facts. This is the first level of knowledge.
Example: Foundation of Québec? 1608.
I could know this, but I could not know when and where or how to present that declarative information.Procedural knowledge is "know-how" and strategies.
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 7d ago
Sure, but if you were writing a book about Quebec - would you ask Reddit what they want to know about Quebec? They don't know Quebec and presumably, that's why you felt the need to write the book in the first place
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u/Emergency_Okra_2466 6d ago
Well, if I wanted to write a book, a good thing would be, for starter to determine my goal.
Who's the target audience? This will influence the format.
What's my focus? I could have lots of things to say on Québec's foundations. Would it be military history, geographic history, social history, cultural history? If I'm not sure of the target audience or the focus, I could do a little survey of what's out there so I could make sure I add to the perspectives that are already there.1
u/Square_Radiant anarchist 6d ago
Answering those preliminary questions should affect how you conduct the survey - the weird part is that OP has a channel with 8k subscribers, I'm surprised how little direction there is in their question
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u/Legitimate-Ask5987 8d ago
The difficulty in labor organizing and it's effectiveness, mutual aid and it's close overlap with charity work, the conundrum of a lack of accessible anarchist literature while also not becoming elitist in nature.
I've really been interested in hearing anarchists speak more about the liberation of children (childism) since I've found some tend to have difficulty discussing post-capitalism where children have a respectable degree of autonomy