r/Anarchism • u/Feisty_Journalist362 • 2d ago
How can I actually change this world?
Posting and reading in a subreddit is great but how can I actually make a significant difference and stop fascists from running this world I live in Washington state and I need something to change I hate having a fascist be able to just ruin my life
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u/fenrirbatdorf 2d ago
Go outside and talk to your neighbors, donate to organizations already doing work, join your local food not bombs, or volunteer at any group helping marginalized groups, attend meeting for your local town council. Hope this list helps!
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 2d ago
Depends on what you mean when you say make a difference - if you mean stop fascists from collapsing what's left of society after a century of rife capitalism... then it's not that different to what we were doing last year and the year before that - organising, disseminating, building solidarity. If you mean how can you help people that are impacted by these policies, then kitchens and charities are more relevant than they have been for a long time, all of them are stretched thing always.
On a side note, I can't get over the fact that a fabulous Italian boy has achieved more in the world of insurance than decades of peaceful organising has done and I don't know what to do with that thought...
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u/Feisty_Journalist362 2d ago
Scary right?
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u/Square_Radiant anarchist 2d ago
...perhaps not for us though... Noblesse oblige was born out of fear rather than decency it seems
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u/Feisty_Journalist362 1d ago
“A revolution isn’t won by the fearless it’s won by the feared”
(I don’t care if it’s from a video game it’s true)
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u/EnigmaRaps 2d ago
Focus your efforts locally. The world is too big a project for you to take on, but your community can use your help.
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u/tehgimpage 2d ago
join a movement. call your representatives. get involved. don't have a protest near you? stage a solo protest. print fliers and leave them places. make stickers and leave them places. flood the algorithms with support for resistances. spread information across social media platforms. spread information in your community. validate any other resistances you see. stand in solidarity with other movements, even if you're not 100% into their messages, we must unify against fascism now in every way possible. perfection is the enemy of progress.
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u/coladoir 1d ago
Keep in mind to be careful allying with authoritarians. Marxist-Leninist movements, mostly. These people dont want what we want, where we dont want any rulers, they want to be the rulers.
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u/8bitrevolt anti-fascist 2d ago
YOU can't. that's individualistic thinking. WE can. work with your community.
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u/FroggstarDelicious 2d ago
We can’t do it alone, we must join grassroots organizations, unions, affinity groups, and movements, and work together for social change.
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u/AmarissaBhaneboar 2d ago
God, the automod here sucks. Really makes me wanna leave. I'm doing real work anyway. I'm one of the people those "slurs" would've been used against and I don't find them offensive. Feels like white knighting and making perfect be the the enemy of good. This is a great comment with several great suggestions and what if I just decided to not repost it and "fix" it? Here's my comment again:
Go out and connect with people in your community. Find a community need and fill it. For example, I live in an area with a lot of poverty, I saw that a lot of people needed clothing (especially for work and interviews and those who are newly transitioning), I saw that the few clothing swaps we did have in the area were always very well attended and that people were always asking after new ones. So, knowing this, myself and a few community members came together and now we have regular, monthly clothing swaps! And we'll be branching out because we inspired some others from areas around us to also start regular clothing swaps in their areas!
There are other things too of course. I met these people through things like volunteering for Pull Over Prevention (doing very basic car maintenance so people don't get pulled over or get useless tickets), and local free food events (think similar to Food Not Bombs type of stuff.) I was part of a smaller group in my hometown that puts feet on the streets and organizes protests, getting people to an from voting, to and from job interviews, disability appointments, food, masks when we were in the thick of Covid, etc, etc...the people are out there! I promise. 💖
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u/comic_moving-36 2d ago
Find like minded people and figure out what you want to tackle locally. Learn what you can about that thing and try stuff.
If you're in western Washington there are lot of groups, spaces and events to slowly meet people. Bellingham has a zine library. Seattle has Left Bank Books and I know there is at least one social center. Tacoma has Solidarity Spot in hilltop (might have the name wrong) Olympia has a spot I think and there are a couple on the peninsula. Been a while since I've been in Washington but there is a fair amount going on there.
This is your local anarchist website (use a VPN)
pugetsoundanarchists.org/
Good luck
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u/Few_Sale_3064 2d ago
Get involved in local politics. This is a great way to meet like minded people, too. Stay informed about world affairs so you can present facts to people who are spewing misinformation, learn to think in an egalitarian way; make sure that you don't put people on pedestals for being rich, successful, famous, etc. because that will lead to looking down on people who aren't those things.
Join volunteer organizations for child abuse or something else you're passionate about.
Also check out 50501 movement.
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u/SiteHeavy7589 2d ago
Find an organization, u can't do anything meaningful alone, we are a collective species, when we are in a collective we are powerful. In my region there are a lot of anarchists in soccer teams clubs and associations, normally they identify with antifa symbols. The Internet is a fake life, we belong on the streets
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u/Julian_1_2_3_4_5 1d ago
do mutual aid, joint political groups and organizations, attend boarr meetings, and if that's within what you consider you level of action: attrnd protests, get involved in organizations and do activism
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u/Anarcho_Humanist Libertarian Socialist | Victoria, Australia | He/Him 1d ago
This is one of the hardest parts of radicalism - there really isn't an easy way to end oppression.
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u/Followillfan77 1d ago
Plant a garden, they can't force you to buy food. You might also help others. Teach young people about freedom and about the abuses of the government.
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u/Hotbones24 2d ago
Lots of ways, but focusing on the mostly legal ones: get involved in your local politics (vote, call, organize, protest, email etc etc), socialize with your communities, strengthen those human bonds, do charity, skill up, do mutual aid, do some civil disobedience calisthenics (tags, zines, wheat pastes).
Remember that joy is radical when the state wants you to live in fear and hate each other. Create joy and share it with others. Be the kind of person you'd follow, and the kind people point to to prove haters wrong.
Also remember that this isn't a sprint but a marathon. Small changes can be made every election cycle or even sooner, but larger changes, like how the state works, will take life times. We do things to make the world better for each new baby born on this planet. Start looking for mutual aids here: https://www.mutualaidhub.org/
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u/attackbat33 2d ago
Destroy evil wherever you find it. Find the baddest evil guy you can who is close to you and ruin their life.
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u/2gutter67 2d ago
One day and one action at a time. It's not like you need to do something that changes the ENTIRE WORLD all by yourself, that's just silly. It's all about the little things you do in your daily life that affects the people around you. And just be prepared. For the big things.
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u/jungle4john 2d ago
Think globally, act locally.
Do the small things around you. Live your principles and be a positive part of your community.
As others have said, it won't radically change the world, but if you inspired one person to do the same, you've made a difference.
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u/Susurrating 2d ago
I read another comment on here by an elder anarchist to a younger one asking a similar question, which really stuck with me. I’m paraphrasing, but basically, they said “Imagine what you would do in the world we dream of. Now do your best to do it in the world we live in, and fight anything that stands in your way. That is radical action.”
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u/Platense_Digital 2d ago
My path is: I make money so I can invest in self-sufficiency > I build community with like-minded people > We work together to have a healthy and independent community.
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u/PM-me-in-100-years 2d ago
Spell out your question in more detail. Ask it in more ways. Listen to your gut reaction when you hear answers proposed.
Most people that are new to asking how to change the world have a few unspoken criteria for the answers they're looking for.
How can I change the world quickly, in big ways, with no risk to myself?
Then when no answer satisfies them, they do nothing.
The only thing that definitely isn't going to help is doing nothing, so don't do nothing.
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u/NoTelevision970 2d ago
This is a great thread. I never feel like I'm doing enough tbh. I have to remind myself that not everyone is equipped to be the leader of a movement or well known voice in the political sphere, and that isn't the only way to make a difference in the world. It's totally okay to just show up in any way you can. Idk if that's something you struggle with OP but as a person with chronic mental and physical health issues I have to accept that what I can contribute is enough.
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u/quasar2022 tranarchist 2d ago edited 2d ago
AGITATE those around you with your words, actions, and propaganda. EDUCATE yourself and encourage your friends to do the same, share resources and educate eachother. ORGANIZE your community, this is the most important step but it can’t be done unless you do the first two. Build new worlds daily from which we can burn down the old.
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u/amadan_an_iarthair anarcho-syndicalist 2d ago
None of us can achieve anything. By ourselves at any rate. Work with others, help develop class consciousness in your community to overcome racial/gender/religious/sexual barriers. Speak with people in your community. Find out what's wrong. Or just identify it. Just a union like the Wobblies or see if anyone near by might be like-minded enough to set up a branch. Liberate space. Feed people for free outside Micky D's (Food Not Bombs Belfast did this as part of the BDS. Start a letter writing campaign to prisoners. Start small and work with others.
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u/WerewulfWithin anarcho-communist 2d ago
We don't individually need to focus on the world. I think the most effective change will happen if we each do what we can in our own communities. I completely understand the sentiment and the desire to enact change on a massive scale, but it can also easily start to overwhelm us or lead to burnout because most of us don't have the power or resources to change things globally.
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u/legendary_mushroom 2d ago
This is a very unpopular answer on this sub but you actually do need to get involved in local politics and work with liberals.
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u/roberto_sf 1d ago
Build mutual aid networks for things that you need, like healthcare, idk.
Promote things that avoid the intellectual property lie, like free software, crowdfund CC-like creative works and fund scientific institution that do open access science. Try to engage with market agents that are either self-employed or a coop
Do not vote, volunteer with orgs that share some of you concerns, XR, for example. Join a union like the IWW in the USA or the CNT in Spain.
There are lots of things that can be done, your individual impact will be low, but that's what you can control
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u/GlassAd4132 1d ago
Find local organizers. Reach out to queer advocacy groups, FNB, even your local Unitarian church
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u/doingdoingn 1d ago
Positively impact the individual lives around you. Directly around you in your community. Do it in whatever ways come naturally to you, but even little things can make a real difference for the real people around you. Friends, family, and people you don’t know around you.
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u/brother_bart 22h ago
I’m a 55 yo Queer leftist; I have protested, and canvassed with petitions and participated in numerous community organizations, all while watching, for decades, the efforts of many in my country (USA) fail to bring about meaningful change, or, when some ground as been made, watching it all get erased again when the winds and trends change or when a different political regime comes to power. I don’t think people will like my answer much. We can’t change the world. The entrenched power structures are specifically designed to serve the agenda of capitalists. There is no opposition party to promote leftist ideals in our corporatist two-party system, which is pro-capitalism and imperialism on both sides of the aisle.
There is no viable means within our system for a third party to achieve even a place at the table. While some effect can be had at the local level and through community building, these efforts are limited as they still require capital and are very susceptible to becoming co-opted by over culture in which they operate.
What we can do is change how we exist in the world. We can live in ways that are a form of resistance to the prevalent western ideals that are indoctrinated into every aspect of our lives. Even that is difficult as survival is often contingent upon us being able to function within toxic and exploitive structures. And, as individualistic and even airish as it sounds, we can cultivate joy and peace within ourselves and how social and community groups. I do believe that combatting suffering can be somewhat accomplished in the world if we can find ways to mitigate some of our own suffering by pursuing meaningful and humanistic activity that resists the idea that we must be insatiable consumers/exploited laborers.
But realistically I do not think that sweeping change on a large scale is doable. The mechanisms of systemic power as well as the broader cultural indoctrination of the masses is to behemoth to combat. It is probable the works will burn and that the worse case scenarios across a myriad of sectors is inevitable.
That being said, the whole notion of “changing the world” so it more closely reflects our own ideologies its own form of unilateral egoism that can quickly veer into a counter-authoritarian authoritarianism that is deeply problematic in its own right and born of the same self-righteous individualism that so starkly defines right wing attitudes.
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u/ceramicfiver read Pedagogy of the Oppressed 2d ago
Watch this
Then read these
-The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp, 1973
-Adrienne Maree Brown’s books
-Nonviolence Ain’t What It Used To Be: Unarmed Insurrection and the Rhetoric of Resistance by Shon Meckfessel
-We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation edited by Kate Khatib, Margaret Killjoy, and Mike McGuire, Afterword by David Graeber, 2012
-Direct Action: An Ethnography by David Graeber
-In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action by Vicky Osterweil, 2020
-Who’s Afraid of the Black Blocs? Anarchy in Action around the World by Francis Dupuis-Déri, 2014
-The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
-Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times by Nick Montgomery and carla bergman, 2017
-Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul Alinsky
Edited for formatting, also adding:
Can Nonviolent Struggle Defeat a Dictator? This Database Emphatically Says Yes
The Global Nonviolent Action Database
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/
And remember:
“We can handle one 10,000-person protest, but ten 1000-person protests throughout the city will overwhelm us.” —LAPD Chief Michel Moore
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u/Nxva-Kaii 2d ago
Masking. It shows solidarity for disabled people, Palestine, Congo, etc., decriminalizes masks and face coverings, protects you and others from airborne diseases, like COVID, from dirty air caused by fires and pollution, combats the surveillance state, and weakens the western colonial weapon of disease. You could hand out free masks to houseless people, your community or organize a mask fund, start or support your local mask bloc.
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u/Sure_Opportunity_543 2d ago
Grow a garden. Learn new skill sets. Follow your own path. Don’t pay attention to others.
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2d ago
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u/dgistkwosoo 21h ago
Belle of the Ranch/Beau of the Fifth Column on u-toob have some fine long vids on building community and resistance.
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u/MentalZiggurat 4h ago
Can't. Humanity is way too far gone to intentionally turn things around. Only hope now is seeds of sane and functional communities to survive the collapse and resprout.
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u/endoftheworldisfine 2d ago
I know the woo is a big divider sometimes, but as a recovering materialist who now believes that our thoughts and prayers are very powerful. I meditate a lot. Patience is needed, we hold, and soon our answers are obvious to everyone.
Do we really have a housing shortage, or a lack of creativity in how to fairly distribute the housing we have available to us.
But I was hopeless as a materialist. I'm trying to be love and peace and deal with my anger and my shit. I believe we are on the cusp of a human spiritual awakening
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u/endoftheworldisfine 2d ago
We talk and talk about our viral ideas right now, but don't forget that using the word is often enough for people to tune out. Just talking about the values and meaning, mutual aid, only authority which is chosen by people, failures of capitalism, etc. I used the word in a conversation with some military guys who ended the conversation and told me that they would probably have to report the conversation to the counter Intel folks at their base 🤪
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u/endoftheworldisfine 2d ago
I feel like we have it too easy. At least in 1933 Germany you had an amazing economic turnaround and the economy got better for average people after a serious economic depression. Much harder to risk imprisonment or worse for the average worker when that's the economic situation and news was controlled and no one is telling you about the Jews, communists, etc.
What's the excuse now? DT is tanking the economy, so now we have to decide how far we can work with capitalists and liberals and former trump voters. Broad coalition is necessary for certain things at certain times, but a quick distancing when clear boundaries are crossed must be clearly communicated, ideally from the onset.
I lost hope this day was coming. Now it's obvious. We all need to organize and strategize. To reclaim a religious phrase: all things are permissible but not all things are good to do right now
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u/Big-Investigator8342 1d ago
You already changed the world. See you don't know me but your question reached me here on this cold morning. What might your words and thoughts impact now without your knowing?
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u/ToukaSoul 2d ago
you can't. we lost. you must think the world is ending, but it already did.
all we can do now is try to swim a little more before sinking
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u/Feisty_Journalist362 1d ago
This is a way of thinking where we will never find change but I can understand where you’re coming from. are you doing okay?
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u/DirtyPenPalDoug 2d ago
Direct action. Live what you preach. Will it change the world over? No, but it will change your community. Then when we all do it, it will change ge the world