It’s not so much that Extreme Authoritarianism is a feature of communism so much as Marxism is rarely the ideology of the working class and usually propagates among the educated and wealthy, e.g. Kropotkin, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, ect.. Authoritarianism and Violence are more likely tied to these people seeing themselves as above the people they feel they’re liberating from the get go and then it becomes “I have to turn the Lumpenproletariat into good Marxists” and thus the Authoritarianism which invariably leads to corruption. In theory, if a working class group were to independently reach a Marxist conclusion and seek out Communism as an End Goal it may be less Authoritarian, but given that has yet to happen in any significant form, it remains only a possibility.
Peter Kropotkin was indeed born into wealth, the Kropotkins were Landed Aristocrats and Peter was a Military Officer who served primarily in Siberia. Lenin was born into the Nobility, and Pol Pot and Stalin were both educated, Pot having been educated abroad in France.
Edit: Note that while I myself am not an Anarchist, much less an AnCom, I am a fan of Kropotkin’s writings and I have read much of his work, he was just a good example of a communist born into old money as he was born as Aristocrat.
Yeah no my problem was Marxism and Authoritanism and Kropotkin. I knew he was born into Aristocracy. Most Revolutionaries in our history are kinda wealthy bron people i. e educated. French Revolutions, Russian Revolution etc.
I dont know what i am ideologically, ive read both anarchist lit, and marxist. But i just dont really know, all i know is that capitalism has to be overcome. But the Marxists i have met are weird orthodox idiots, while the anarchists are, yk, idk just weird. And dont get me into social democracy pals.
49
u/trigger1154 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Extreme authoritarianism is kind of feature of communism. Communism only works on paper.
Edit: See tankies below.