Ideologies primarily evolve as a consequence their social base and recruitment channels. Who you recruit and why shapes the direction of your ideology because some people have stronger affinities to some aspects than others.

Thus STOPPING certain recruitment can be critical.

There are infinite examples but the most resonant for me was the anti-globallization movement. We recruited a wide base ("teamsters and turtles") and you could get a lot of people quickly by playing to "sovereignty" arguments. Which meant a ton of folks trended fascist.

Instead of a more complicated and less accessible (but correct) critique of neoliberal globalization in terms of power accumulation and global apartheid, the standard narrative became 'outsiders influencing local stuff is bad, nations must be independent.'

This kicked open the door not just to Alex Jones et al through to the lefties that joined Trump but -- more intimately in radical circles -- to the fascist horrorshow that was "national anarchism."

Fighting battles like this has strongly impressed upon me the need to make *central* certain aspects of anarchism so as to avoid compounding corruptions by folks who get 'recruited' because they are attracted to certain superficial aspects but have no affinity for the rest.

You can call this gatekeeping, but who cares. I've watched so many examples of folks going "I just really hate the cops" flip snitch or "anarchism just means no government" turn MAGA or whatever that I firmly believe in having hard conversations at the door.

eg I tend to instantly write off and avoid folks going:

"lol i just love weird theory and being an edgelord"

"i just don't want to face consequences or people telling me what to do"

"i want left-liberal policies but have given up on electing dems and think the cops are mean"

What we had to learn through eons of struggle with ancaps, national anarchists, ecofash, etc was that if you don't emphasize how anarchism is an ethical/moral position about rejecting domination at all scales in every form you get overrun by folks with no interest in such.

And when it comes to social recruitment channels this basically means I gravitate very strongly to -- for lack of a better phrase -- 'anti-abuser action' because the kid who hasn't read theory but hunts their friends' rapists is far more likely to stay fucking solid.

Someone who nerds the fuck out -- even in a completely uneducated way with no contact with Formal Theory -- on the micro-ethics of their relationships with other people isn't going to go "um telling people not to rape isn't very anarchy"

To be even more concise: the best recruitment base for anarchists are the people who demonstrably sacrifice and hold themselves accountable, and who see anarchism as a way to *deepen* casual feminist ethical examinations.

"but this base isn't that big!"

Yeah. The best insight from post-leftism was that "building numbers isn't equivalent to winning." Anarchists can punch well outside our weight so long as we remain anarchists. And this means *stopping* certain watering down recruitment channels.