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Comment by ancapsfascists | Hacker News Reader

Here's an analogy: let's say you work on cars and you've got a decent set of tools. You have a friend who has an excellent set and a whole shop. You can imagine yourself running with your ideal set. But the first step isn't "throw out all your tools and get a $20 Walmart box of assorted tools."

I can imagine a society built on mutual aid, and I practice that everywhere I can. But I have access to tools today. I can vote, I can use my voice to influence the government. What's my alternative, given the reality of today? Convert everyone asking the Colorado river to council communists before the river dries up?

My tool box isn't perfect, but it has some good tools in it. Many of them I'd ideally get rid of and replace, but I'm not going to ignore the tools I have until I replace them with better ones.

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That literally sounds like the opposite of anarchism to me. But you do you I guess?

Sounds like you don't know many anarchists? Most of the anarchists I know are focused on:

Building mutual aid networks locally, first and foremost. We help us, we protect us. Think food, clothing, and shelter for anyone in need.

Advocate for harm reduction. Given there are a lot of systemic problems that will take years to unwind, it's important to offset those harms, even if it's not your ultimate goal. I vote. It takes me ten minutes, it reduces the harm by electing progressive politicians who might be able to lower the power of capital. That doesn't make me not an anarchist. I can hold an ideal and also recognize reality simultaneously.

Finally, anarchists educate. They are focused on teaching that anarchism isn't "the purge", it's a system built on the idea that every human deserves respect. We have the means to care for everyone and still enjoy some luxuries.

The definition I could find of anarchism as a political philosophy is:

“Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessarily limited to, governments, nation states, and capitalism”

You sound like you’re describing being a good neighbor. Which is good.

But I don’t see how it has any bearing on being an anarchist.

And encouraging the feds to step in to fix interstate water rights sounds very pragmatic, but the opposite of that political philosophy. Unless you’d expect it to weaken their power.

Go re read my posts. I think we should not have the federal or state governments.

But we do have them. So using them as a tool, until we can replace them with something better, is fine.

And indeed, most anarchists are just "be a good neighbor, at scale".

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