Question on Bakunin and nationalism

Question

I have seen many neo-Nazi/nationalist blogs featuring some nationalist quotes by Bakunin.

Was Bakunin really a nationalist? How can someone be both a nationalist and an anarchist? (I despise nationalism)

Comments

i suppose that a person can use any ideology or quote or phrase as motivation to act in any way they want, or as propaganda for their own views.

people hold contradictory views simultaneously quite often....i don't about bakunin in particular (i haven't read much by him).

and as a general thought (and also in relation to this question) -  what does it mean "to be" something (any label) ?...

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Yes. He was involved in nationalist mumbo jumbo. He writes about it in Appeal to the Slavs. He was possibly also an anti-Semite.

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Bakunin was a complicated dude, no doubt. His pan-Slavism came before his anarchism though; there was a chronological development to his ideas. His antisemitism mostly had to do with his personal feud with Marx (whose own antisemitism was pretty pronounced, and Proudhon's was more explicit, and much worse than either).

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nation doesn't always mean state. there is a slippery slope between the concepts, but they are not always the same thing.

in today's parlance, consider those who are fighting for black liberation. it is possible to see that fight as a defensive one against people who target black people specifically. it is also possible to see it as an offensive one to get more power for a particular group. (both are true to varying degrees, of course.)

[i haven't read much bakunin either but have certainly read about him that he said contradictory things, and was speaking to different audiences at different times and would use different words to try to be clear.]

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As dot mentioned, nation ≠ state. nationalism is kind of a broad term on what it's describing, but in general it's members of a nation that concern themselves with some sort of identity of said nation and seek self-determination and/or some sort of political power. but then that leads to what is a nation and identity of it, and a bunch of other stuff that gives me a headache on defining it, so i don't really bother.

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nationalism is whatever a dominant group says it is in order to keep them in power...pretty much. a great case-study for the US, i think, is david roediger's _working toward whiteness_, especially with the goof-ball 'white-tribalism' bandied about these days.