The Anarcho-Geek Review was an online journal that reviews pop culture media from an anarchist perspective as well as media created by or representing anarchists. It ran from 2014-2018 and remains online as an archive.

Anarcho-

We are anarchists. That is to say, we believe in a world without coercive authority. To quote from the introductory anarchist text Life Without Law, “We anarchists want a world without nations, governments, capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia… without any of the numerous, intersecting systems of domination the world bears the weight of today.”

It’s more than an abstract philosophy for us — we are actively trying to move towards that freer world. We confront authority and oppression whenever and wherever we can and we’re hard at work building alternatives to capitalism. Contrary to popular supposition, there’s nothing inherently anti-anarchist about us working together, either — we’re not opposed to organization, we’re opposed to other people telling us what to do with our lives.

Geek

We’re geeks. We like geeky things, like books about dragons and TV shows about people with superpowers. You’re as likely to find us at a steampunk convention as at a protest. Some of us might even own up to playing videogames or Dungeons & Dragons.

But there’s a tension to be found in holding anarchist beliefs and participating in geek culture, a tension we’re all too familiar with. Mainstream geek culture has more than its share of misogynists and would-be-fascists, of colonial apologists and homophobes. Almost everything we read or watch was written by someone with at least some values that run counter to ours, so we’ve had to become quite the critical thinkers.

We love how Lord of the Rings depicts diverse peoples coming together to fight against fascism and industrialization, but we’re not just going to turn a blind eye to the story’s racism and celebration of the British bourgeoisie.

Review

We believe in the power of story, of myth. Stories normalize ideas in culture. Stories of revolt give us hope. Stories of solidarity make us strong. Stories that show the beauty of interacting as equals help us, well, see the beauty of interacting as equals.

So we’re drawn to piece apart the lessons available to us in the media we consume, to help ourselves and others think critically. And since we’re geeks, we’re drawn to participate in the culture around the media we love. So we write reviews from an anarchist lens. We hope you find something useful in it.

Editors

At the moment, our editorial collective consists of authors Margaret Killjoy and Sadie the Goat.

Submissions

We are no longer open to submissions.