so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips?

Reply to so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips? on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:13:51 GMT

athousandgateaux@ni.hil.ist — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:13:51 GMT

@tsvga make the structure of the group as hierarchical, rigid, and authoritarian as possible. Impose a top-down interpretation of every text you read, and give all the power over which texts get read to one person who is the official leader of the group. Read only Ayn Rand and Robert Nozick books.

Reply to so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips? on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:22:28 GMT

adamgreenfield@social.coop — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:22:28 GMT

@flowrot @tsvga The insight here about being too deeply entangled with another (and therefore afraid to risk that entanglement) is profound, and this:

“they can't separate their own sense of self from ‘being correct’ and so every critique comes across as a personal attack and every time they deliver a critique it feels like one of you has to die to the other”

…is both true and beautifully put, thanks.

Reply to so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips? on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:22:44 GMT

flowrot@ni.hil.ist — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:22:44 GMT

@adamgreenfield @tsvga It's always when we think that the politics are "self-evident" that situations like that happen, even among people who do self-identify as anarchist. I know a lot of people don't want to act like authcoms and force people to follow a party line, but the alternative is people coming in with unspoken assumptions and then having those record scratch moments show up as rude surprises. It's impossible (and IMO, undesirable) to completely avoid disagreements in praxis, but it takes discernment to figure out how wide or narrow of a shared baseline is necessary for a certain project, as well as how to actually navigate those disagreements when they show up.

I find that unfortunately the vast majority of the time, you can't expect a commitment to mutual, autonomy-affirming conflict resolution from everybody, not even comrades—because there's not enough of a personal bond for them to trust you with their vulnerability (or sometimes, because there's too much of a bond and they're too scared of losing you), because they're traumatized by multiple oppressions, because they can't separate their own sense of self from "being correct" and so every critique comes across as a personal attack and every time they deliver a critique it feels like one of you has to die to the other...this shit's fucking hard. These days when I'm exploring the possibility of working with a new comrade, I ask them questions about how they navigate conflict resolution in organizing spaces and I tell them about what I want to avoid (and even when you have that conversation and it seems ok it's not a perfect preventative ) (people can and will throw out their principles when they stop liking you)

Reply to so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips? on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:28:13 GMT

adamgreenfield@social.coop — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:28:13 GMT

@flowrot @tsvga ️️️having recently participated in inaugurating a space i thought was pretty self-evidently about this sort of politics, only to see it shited up by conversations about “manifesting” and “source energy,” i one millllllion percent concur.

Reply to so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips? on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:47:02 GMT

flowrot@ni.hil.ist — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:47:02 GMT

@tsvga This is just a dynamic I've noticed in more open reading groups—I would advise running it closer to an affinity group than an open book club where anyone can just drop in and drop out, because if you don't make the partisan (specifically anarchist) goals of the book club explicitly and militantly clear, you'll end up with liberals, radlibs or anarcho-liberals who engage with the text and discussion as a way to reproduce liberal politics, and it gets very awkward trying to avoid having those discussions devolve into a debate in light of those tensions, or feeling like you can't address the tensions and their politics because you want people to keep coming

Reply to so I may have just been asked to start an irl anarchist reading group... any tips? on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:34:57 GMT

nando161@partyon.xyz — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:34:57 GMT

@tsvga here's some handy resources to start you off if you didn't have them already.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index

https://www.politicalcompass.org/

https://audibleanarchism.podbean.com/

https://www.britannica.com/

https://youtube.com/@anarchistaudiolibrary

https://audioanarchy.org/

https://deathtofascism.com/files/40ways.online.2020.pdf

https://freedompunker.com/