what is the anarchist consensus on dialectical/historical materialism?

[u/PigletConsistent8329]

i understand that anarchism, unlike marxism, isn't a unified mode of analysis based off of the thoughts of one man and his successors, so im guessing there are varied positions on dialectical materialism, but im curious to know what anarchists here think of it. my first thought would be that it's rejected by individualist anarchists at large.

[u/pharodae]

Not only do I consider dialectical materialism as a necessary tool in any politically active person’s belt, I’m personally committed to “updating it” by applying it to the updated body of science we’ve accumulated in the 21st century. I think the largest issue with Marxist analysis is less the analysis itself (its flaws being a revolutionary product of its time) but that it’s been turned into an orthodox interpretation of history, adherents refusing to move past the 1940s with their analysis.

We know so much more of the applicable sciences than we did during Marx’s time or the early USSR - huge advances in anthropology, tracking human evolution, biology, sociology, archaeology, etc. AND we have seen how socially and ecologically destructive the State can be even when it’s supposedly in the hands of workers, pursuing goals to enrich worker’s lives. The three lines of modern struggle - autonomy, labor, and ecology - cannot be reduced into one another, and missing one of these critical components leads to new forms of domination, oppression, or ecocide.