Some interesting points in the rest of your post but this one feels really weak. This is the same stuff proponents of capitalism spout. The USSR got rolled so therefore communism is unconvincing, etc.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago

The fact that the USSR did fall justifies investigation. Is it intrinsic to socialism, or the specific struggles of the USSR? Much the same way Marxists have to grapple with that reality (and have), so too must anarchists grapple with the fact that they lost out. Either all of the anarchists combined couldn't overcome the Marxists, which means anarchism is entirely ineffective, or that a majority of them sided with and even joined the Bolsheviks (which is what happened). The former has even less evidence, considering the Marxists were the greatest ally of the Spanish anarchists, and the anarchists in Spain were fairly effective (especially once they adopted more centralized organizing methods).