Means And Ends: The Revolutionary Practice of Anarchism in Europe and the United States – Zoe Baker

No academic publisher? Wonder why. Do we also have the permission of Dr. Anarchy/Zoe Baker to post this here?

WCH/libcom/Steve? wrote: We can't steal somebody else's work from them, then make it freely available.

I don't believe in copyright and make my material freely available, but as we don't live in an anarchist-communist society, AK Press has bills to pay (not least for printing).

I hope everyone who downloads this pdf will buy a print version from your local radical bookshop or from AK Press directly -- support anarchist publishers and bookshops.

Heya, so Zoe Baker has a message for libcom from twitter:

Zoe Baker @anarchopac

Hi @libcomorg. Noticed the site uploaded a pdf of my book without page numbers. Message me an email address and I can send over a proper pdf with page numbers. I want pirates to be able to properly reference me. If you have money please buy a copy and support radical publishing.

Y'all might want to reach out.

Hi @libcomorg. Noticed the site uploaded a pdf of my book without page numbers. Message me an email address and I can send over a proper pdf with page numbers. I want pirates to be able to properly reference me. If you have money please buy a copy and support radical publishing.

you are incredibly based for this

based

holy fuck thats so based

based

You can often tell a lot about a person and their works by just looking at the sort of crowd they attract. It's also sort of funny how the word "based" seems to have been embraced by some Zoomer anarchists (or maybe just morons, irrespective of generation?) when it had been a popular slang term within the alt-right and other right-wing circles.

You can often tell a lot about a person and their works by just looking at the sort of crowd they attract. It's also sort of funny how the word "based" seems to have been embraced by some Zoomer anarchists (or maybe just morons, irrespective of generation?) when it had been a popular slang term within the alt-right and other right-wing circles.

What is that supposed to mean? That Zoe Baker is under the influence of secret or unconscious alt-right tendencies? Am I allowed to use the phrase "hot take"? Because this is definitely one of those.

That Zoe Baker is under the influence of secret or unconscious alt-right tendencies?

Who's claiming that? I'm just saying that I don't think much of Baker or her admirers. The book itself doesn't seem particularly innovative. It's just another anarchist account of anarchist thought ("theory" is too generous of a word) that doesn't really introduce any new sources or archival materials. The thesis that anarchists have always been guided by some kind of "theoretical framework" is also quite suspect and suggests a coherency and consistency that anarchism has never really had in my view (unless you can point to anarchists talking about this particular "theoretical framework," which you can't—Baker is just making it up).

I also don't particularly care for the partisan anarchist accounts of history that we're all familiar with and that are always intended to vindicate anarchists and make Marxists look bad, regardless of the reality of whatever historical event. Just taking one minor example, Baker inaccurately describes the infamous Nechaev as just an "acquaintance" of Bakunin, rather than a close personal friend and someone who Bakunin cooperated with on quite a number of works/pamphlets. Speaking of Bakunin's relationship with Nechaev prior to Bakunin having broken off connections with the former, Paul Avrich writes in his Bakunin and Nechaev: "He [Bakunin] saw in Nechaev the ideal revolutionary conspirator, the herald of a new generation whose energy, determination, and intransigence would overthrow the imperial order" (9). Bakunin was not involved in some of Nechaev's more nefarious activities (such as the threatening letter to Liubavin in order to get Bakunin out of a contract in which he was supposed to translate Marx's Capital), but the word "acquaintance" is clearly intentional here and serves to distance Bakunin from Nechaev and his ideas.

The idea that you can also extract some kind of "anarchist theory" from the works of someone like Bakunin and other anarchists is also just laughable; Bakunin was not a theoretician by his own admission. He mostly just railed against authority and those so-called power-hungry Marxists throughout the bulk of his works. His criticisms of religion as being mostly reactionary were likewise quite problematic given how socialistic many Christians in the US and Europe actually were (e.g. textile workers in New England). He also didn't self-publish the vast majority of his most influential works, which were instead published and given their titles by others. In the words of Avrich again (in the preface to Sam Dolgoff's Bakunin on Anarchy):

Avrich wrote: Bakunin's influence, then, as Peter Kropotkin remarked, was primarily that of a "moral personality" rather than of an intellectual authority. Although he wrote prodigiously, he did not leave a single finished book to posterity.[1] He was forever starting new works which, owing to his turbulent existence, were broken off in mid-course and never completed. His literary output, in Thomas Masaryk's description, was a "patchwork of fragments." (xiv)

1. He did finish Statism and Anarchy, but it was published anonymously and he never completed the second part that he mentions in the text. I would also consider it a completed book.

Am I allowed to use the phrase "hot take"? Because this is definitely one of those.

Chill out fam. You know all my takes are fire.

The thesis that anarchists have always been guided by some kind of "theoretical framework" is also quite suspect and suggests a coherency and consistency that anarchism has never really had in my view (unless you can point to anarchists talking about this particular "theoretical framework," which you can't—Baker is just making it up).

You just sound like someone who isn’t really familiar with actual anarchists, past and present, and you probably don’t even understand what anarchism is. Anarchism is just a political position whose adherents do have some common ideas about how the world work and what to do about it. It is not a proposal for a ‘theoretical framework’ or some theory; it is not like Marxism, which has the pretense of being an intellectual project. And it doesn’t make any sense to think of anarchism as a singular tradition, as it has historically developed into disparate tendencies, each of which does evidences strong coherency and consistency. If you are arguing that anarchist communists, for example, are incoherent as a group, then I would say you aren’t really engaging with them. I personally don’t agree with individualist anarchists but I do think they offer a coherent and consistent viewpoint. What I say about anarchists could also apply to socialists in general. It is a political position, that does imply some common ideas of how things are, but it is not a proposal of any theory.

I’m guessing you’re a Marxist, as you seem pretty defensive about it. In my view, Marxists have made themselves look bad. They try to paint Marxism as if it is equivalent to something like Darwinism. In truth, it is not some theoretical contribution to the world but rather a worship of a single man.

Steve wrote: The fact you think the word "based" has anything to do with the alt right is hilarious, and just shows that you are very detached from popular culture.

It was widely associated with the alt-right and the right-wing internet/meme subculture, particularly sites like 4chan. Its adoption by Zoomers is a recent development partly reflecting how much time younger people spend on the internet these days. The majority of people saying "based," "redpilled" etc. five or so years ago mostly belonged to the far-right, though I'm not sure how their use of the word "based" originally came about (nor am I particularly interested).

Steve wrote: That you are trying to use people using a common word to try to tie them to fascists and Nazis is perhaps the most ridiculous thing anyone has said on this site all year.

Nobody has accused anyone of being Nazis or belonging to the far-right. You and darren are just putting words in my mouth. The Zoomer anarchists using words like "based" are obviously not associated with the far-right. The word has just been adopted by them from this right-wing internet/meme subculture. It is also far more likely that this is the origin of Zoomer anarchists' use of the term rather than some rapper that most people are unfamiliar with. Here's Dictionary.com:

Based is a slang term that originally meant to be addicted to crack cocaine (or acting like you were), but was reclaimed by rapper Lil B for being yourself and not caring what others think of you—to carry yourself with swagger.

Based has been appropriated by the alt-right online as a general term of praise, as if “un-woke.”

One could add to the above etymology that the word has been reappropriated by Zoomers and seems to have become a rather innocuous slang term now.

Steve wrote: It seems like you just can't stop talking about things you clearly know absolutely nothing about.

This applies to you to a much greater extent, if people read some of your recent posts.

I'm also a year shy of being a Zoomer myself (the date ranges for generations vary depending on the source), so it's sort of amusing being lectured on internet slang by a dinosaur like yourself.

Steve wrote: The fact you think the word "based" has anything to do with the alt right is hilarious, and just shows that you are very detached from popular culture.

We can also consult Wiktionary:

The term ["based"] is formerly associated primarily with the alt right, but is currently used colloquially by non-alt right individuals, mostly without any political implications, although it might have political implications for certain individuals.

Wow, it's just like I said—strange isn't it? You're so cringe Steve, big yikes.

I don't particularly like the word "based" myself, I don't think I'd ever use it (well, except in the sense of saying that something is the basis of something, that seems fairly unobjectionable), but I also don't think I'd draw any particularly strong conclusions about Zoe Baker's work based (pun unintended but I suppose unavoidable) on the fact that someone used the word to describe her. That seems like taking the old saying about judging a book by its cover to bold new heights.

Steve wrote: The fact you think the word "based" has anything to do with the alt right is hilarious, and just shows that you are very detached from popular culture.

Steve wrote: The word "based" means "good" or "cool", and was coined by the rapper Lil B around 15 years ago, and has been in widespread use since then.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, there's also an entire journal article on the history of the term "based" echoing what I said about how it has spread from online far-right communities (e.g. 4chan, subreddits like r/The_Donald and r/PCM, etc.) to other parts of the internet and society while losing its far-right connotations. The article notes how this depoliticized use of the word “based” only really began to pick up around 2021 and after. While the rapper McCartney (aka “Lil B”) might have been the first to refashion the term “basehead” (i.e. a term for a drug addict) into the more positive slang term “based,” his use of the term had always been restricted to a small community of users (e.g. it was particularly popular within parts of the rap and hip-hop community) and was not where the current Zoomer use of the term originated. Your claim that McCartney’s use of the term has always been in “widespread use” is simply unsubstantiated and seems more like an attempt to connect the current Zoomer use of the term to a more “savory” source, even though there is nothing really “savory” about “Lil B” at all; he’s a repulsive misogynist.[1] Here’s the article explaining how the current Zoomer use of the term “based” essentially sprang out of the right-wing meme subculture:

Finally, what stands out in the 2021 snapshot are political and vernacular diversifications. Based retained its far right connotation in the /pol/ sample, but on Twitter, it became associated with a wider variety of political movements, from anti-vaxx protests, to transgender activism. One progressive Twitter user, for example, praised the proper use of pronouns for a trans woman in the 1950s as “INCREDIBLY based” (1.4k likes). In stark contrast to /pol/, r/The_Donald, and (parts of) r/PCM, here the term is used affirmatively by progressive users, suggesting the reactionary meaning of based was not (or no longer) dominant enough to foreclose such radically different political connotations. Based now became deployed in a wider variety of snowclones and epithets, whether it be “based, checked and redpilled,” “based department” or as the opposite of “cringe.” (11-12)

I’m also not sure whether you were originally claiming that the word “based” has never been associated with the far right at all. If so, then you’ve clearly been living under a rock or not paying much attention to American politics under the Trump administration.

1. Here are some of McCartney's lyrics. It is also worth pointing out that McCartney is actually straight, despite having released an album entitled I'm Gay (I'm Happy):

Lil B wrote: Bitch I think I'm Based God, everything foreign / Bitch sucked my dick, I'm Ralph Lauren (“Think I’m Based God”)

Lil B wrote: Nope, no child support, I'll kill a bitch for that / Bitches want my money, I know the Based God / The Based God is my friend, the Based God has bitches (“I Got Bitches 2014”)

Lil B wrote: Suck my dick ho / You don't wanna try me / Get ya' ass robbed fuckin' with this pretty bitch (Based God) (“Suck My Dick Ho”)

He has also regularly encouraged women/girls to send pictures of themselves to him over social media (often for money), in addition to creating memes out of the expression “please fuck my bitch based god.”

He might not be the far right, but I honestly wouldn’t rank him much better than them. It wouldn’t be much of an improvement if the Zoomer use of the term “based” derived from a disgusting misogynistic troll like McCartney (which it didn’t) rather than some far-right imbeciles who appropriated it.

"At the risk of beating a dead horse, there's also an entire journal article on the history of the term "based" echoing what I said about how it has spread from online far-right communities (e.g. 4chan, subreddits like r/The_Donald and r/PCM, etc.) to other parts of the internet and society while losing its far-right connotations."

Hmm, could've stopped there.

Reddebrek wrote: Hmm, could've stopped there.

I don't know why you keep chiming in with your uninformed comments and with your inability to read the entire discussion.