Anarchy Isn't Rioters and Vandalism
"I'm so mad at the government that I'm gonna smash some stranger's business!"
That train of thought indicates either utter stupidity or agents provocateur, not consistent anarchist philosophy. Consistent anarchists don't try to imitate the State. Rioters is not a synonym for anarchists. Violent chaos is not anarchy, it is indicative of a desire to control others without the sophistication or veneer of tradition employed by governments.
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Rioters and vandals often attack the elements of society that promote peace and prosperity through trade. The labels they claim and slogans they chant are irrelevant, because they still use the political means of plunder rather than the economic means of production.
Politics is parasitic by nature. Civilized society is its host. A human without a tapeworm is better off than a human with a tapeworm. Tapeworms don't cure other diseases. Look at the world around you. Every voluntary association and exchange in your life is anarchy in practice. While we live in a world with politicians and police, they are not responsible for civilization. Government is not society. Governments wage wars. Governments build police states. Politics creates chaos and violence. There is nothing magical about the services government has monopolized that immunizes them to the faults of monopoly. Elections don't actually produce representation for the governed. Politicians are not endowed with special knowledge or virtue by their office. Instead, the consequences of their ignorance and vice are unrestrained by the need to gain consenting customers.
People choose instead to cooperate in peaceful ways because it creates a win-win opportunity for everyone. We disagree perhaps on how we prefer to associate, but without the zero-sum game of politics, we don't need a single socioeconomic system any more than we need a single church denomination. Of course, one can always expect to be asked what we would propose instead of government. Abolitionists didn't need to explain how to harvest cotton, tobacco, or sugar to say slavery was wrong. All we need to say in response today is that consent is superior to coercion, and the real consequences of central control schemes are more dangerous than the liberty bogeyman.
Violence is a tactic.
Diversity of tactics is essential to not being ignored.
How much exposure are the nonviolent getting the ideals required to have anarchy?
I agree that we will not war our way to peace.
Hating will not bring us love and healing.
But, until the average moron stops being passionate about their apathy, what we have is what we get.
Insurrectionary anarchists keep the stew stirred.
We serve as a reminder to others that rule by force is the disease.
Our difference is that when folks stop pointing guns and telling us what to do, we won't step in their place behind our guns, we go back to the farm.
If you are an anarchist, by definition you are an enemy of the state.
Please don't bash those of us that are willing to sacrifice our freedom in hopes of securing your's.
If you prefer to remain passive in the face of being controlled by thugs, please don't bash those of us who are not.
We got enough problems with cops without 'anarchists' siding with them.
I'm not siding with the cops, I'm saying misguided violent "activism" is destructive to the cause of liberty. If violence harms the people you need as your allies against the State, it drives them into believing the State protects them from hooligans, and enemies of the State are their enemies too. We need to be free to criticize the means of those whose ends we approve, because the ends they will achieve are contained in the means they choose.
We need to draw a distinction between initiatory aggression and self-defense. Violence can indeed be necessary in the latter case. However, we must always strive to avoid committing the former when exercising the latter, and there are way too many self-professed "anarchists" who fail utterly at this.
I suggest reading Ben Stone's book Sedition, Subversion, and Sabotage Field Manual No. 1.
Lol, i did read that when he first got here.
I'm just defending my part in the revolution.
I put my life in peril to bring my part of freedom to all.
The 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars it cost them to deal with me put pressures on joe schmoe to pay more tax, at some point joe says no, and that is the point that must be reached, if anarchy is to appear.
To diminish my contribution because it doesnt fit into a neat package needed to be rebuffed, imo.
I think we can agree that entering the free speech cages and ranting will only be ignored, or shadow banned.
I also agree that insurrection must fit into the larger strategic planning that includes the militantly nonviolent.
It is bad form to get teargas rained on the family outings, and put kids in peril, they don't get a choice of which side of the rule by force divide to be on.
Thanks for bringing your part, too.
Together we can end rule by force.
Yes, thank you for telling the peaceful truth about anarchism!
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