you can’t follow the teachings of the anarchists who came before you. Therefore you can’t be an anarchist.

lol, Anarchism isn’t about following teachings of others. That’s completely optional. The entire point of Anarchism is to reject authority. It would be self-defeating if we set up prominent anarchists of the past as authority figures.

You can read their stuff and learn from them, if you want to. Learn from them, don’t follow them. And that might help. But, again, completely optional.