David S. D’amato, September 8, 2020
As myriad commentators have lately observed, conservatives generally and President Trump, in particular, are becoming increasingly preoccupied with anarchists and anarchism. As an anarchist speaking only for myself, the present moment seems like a fitting time to explain some of anarchism’s longstanding ideas and debates
Earlier this year, Trump announced that the federal government would take steps to designate antifa — a loosely-affiliated network of antifascist activists, many of whom self-identify as anarchists — a terrorist organization. Recently, Trump signed a memorandum that aims to withhold federal funds from what it terms “anarchist jurisdictions,” to be identified using several factors set out in the memo (e.g., “whether a jurisdiction unreasonably refuses to accept offers of law enforcement assistance from the federal government”).
Trump has even taken to Twitter to denounce anarchists, several of his tweets over the past several days making reference to them, one such tweet asking, “When is Slow Joe Biden going to criticize the Anarchists, Thugs & Agitators in ANTIFA.”
