-clears throat-

Marxism-Leninism is not a step forward in maturity from anarchism, and if you changed from an anarchist to an ML as you matured, you probably didn't engage with anarchist theory and history the way you do with ML.

If your anarchism was wearing black shirts and being angry and not a whole lot else, then yeah. No wonder you matured out of it. Most of us mature out of that whether we call ourselves anarchists or not. Being angry takes a lot of energy.

If you actually take the time to engage with anarchism, it turns out that you can use that anger in revolutionary ways. Turns out that anarchism is actually a useful philosophy for engaging with oppression. Turns out it has a storied history and tradition of political rebellion.

If the anarchism you're imagining is just "white dude wears black and doesn't like authority" may I also draw your attention to the fact that that man is made of straw.

Here are some good things you can check out if you want to burn your straw man:

Some articles, if that's more your speed: https://blackrosefed.org/from-union-renewal-to-self-managed-society/

https://blackrosefed.org/movements-gave-rise-to-teachers-revolt-not-bernie/ https://blackrosefed.org/towards-anarchist-theory-of-power-correa/

And if you're looking for bare theory, anarchism has evolved a lot since the 19th century, but people like Kropotkin, Malatesta, Goldman, and Bakunin are always good for a re-read. If you need a good drama, read what Marx and Bakunin had to say about each other.

Also there's a fucking lot in the world to be angry about, and there's nothing wrong with wearing black. Most of us "mature out of it" because we're forced to dress to standards for our fucking wage labor jobs, which are another good reason to be angry.

Don't get me wrong, anarchism gets recuperated into a toothless commodified aesthetic just like everything else in a capitalist world, and those stereotypes do exist, but ML and anarchism are distinct, robust ideologies and "maturity" is kind of a shit concept anyway.

It just blows my mind when MLs will say anarchism doesn't acknowledge class struggle or some shit bc I don't know how they can believe that if they've ever seriously looked at any anarchist theory or history, unless they're just uncritically repeating Lenin for the sake of it

It should be a disagreement about methods and strategy, not ideological team sports. And focusing on community-based praxis should make disagreements about your favorite character in the Russian revolution irrelevant anyway.