is "anarchist" a group identity?

Question

socialist, conservative, woman, vegan, trans, poor, jewish, rebel, ....

we are probably all far too familiar with various identity groups, even though there is likely no agreement as to what that term really means.

do you think of yourself as an anarchist? what does that mean to you, in reality? does that meaning involve others you do not know individually? do you think of yourself as anarchist based on thoughts/ideas? political perspectives? activities? lifestyle? relationships? other...?

and the followup: how would you describe the difference between group identity and individual identity?

this is kind of related to the previous question (hopefully not completely redundant):

https://anarchy101.org/14410/is-identity-politics-compatible-with-anarchism

Answer 1

Apparently "anarchist" is an identity to some groups of people. I have noticed people refer to "anarchist" as being part of a "movement." For it to be a movement, I have deduced that it needs to be "a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals." Now I haven't been invited to any of the anarchist movement meetings where it is presumably determined what the common ideology is and the goals are. None. Zero. Not that I would ever go, but I think that it is a bit rude not to give me holler at least once. So I cannot tell you what's discussed during the anarchist movement meetings.

Do I think to myself what a wonderful world that I am an anarchist? No. I don't really think about it much and it doesn't mean much. It's kind of ambiguous. For an identity, anarchist isn't a distinct trait for a person. I feel it also depends upon other peoples interpretation of anarchist and that can open up whole 'nother can of worms of awkwardness. I think more of myself as a weird and I'd let people know that weirdness is, I guess, is an aspect of my identity. While it is vague I don't feel the need to explain what I mean by weird because people can just observe my behavior and/or talk to me, and it would become apparent. With anarchist I think I would have to provide an explanation.

Out of the terms you listed, I think woman would qualify as an aspect of one's identity. It's a recognized characteristic of a person.

Comments

well, i think it could become a distinct trait for a person if they say, threw a molotov cocktail  at a cop...but then the person could also be a radical left or right winger, you never know.