Kicking Down the Stereotypes of Anarchy

in #anarchy7 years ago (edited)

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Everybody knows the stereotypes I'm talking about. When pop culture talks about anarchists they paint the same picture. In steps a tall skinny boy with a ripped t-shirt , and destroyed dirty jeans. He obviously is also white, and not only covered with tattoos but at least one of them is a swastika. The cuts on his wrists and up his arm show that his hate is not only for others but for himself as well. His favorite hobby is beating his white trash girlfriend so bad that her meth riddled teeth fall out as he pisses on her. The needle in his pocket displays that he prefers heroine. As he turns his head and pushes his long unkempt blue and green hair out of his eyes he reaches into his pants and pulls out a gun. He spits on a cop then shoots him and three children sitting in front of the church as he throws a bomb In its window. I think that just about covers it.

Here is a picture of me and my wife. We are both Anarchists.

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One of my jobs is as the Press Secretary for Adam Kokesh. My other job is for a school system. I can't tell you where or exactly what I do or I would lose that job, see description above. That being said it is part of my job to work with special needs kids. We have a special bond I believe. It gives me a lot of enjoyment watching them smile and communicate even when it is sometimes not verbal. My wife works for an elementary school. We have four well adjusted children and one grandchild. My youngest daughter and I are talking about sharing videos on this page on Dtube. She is seven and a sweet insightful little girl.

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Are there anarchist that fit any of the descriptions above? Probably. That being said I am going to dismantle the propaganda that our enemy, the government want you to believe. I say enemy not because I am at war with them but because they are at war with all of us. Government is unjust and immoral. You own yourself and do not need governed.

Let me give you my definition of anarchy. It is really complicated. Anarchy is a state of freedom without government coercion and violence. Sometimes I call myself a Voluntaryist. Which is someone who only believes in voluntary associations between individuals. Either way not exactly what is portrayed by the nightly news as they link us to antifa, or neo nazis, or anybody killing or hurting people.

The fact is as I sort of said in my definition of anarchy, I don't agree with violence. No I am not a pacifist, I believe in self defense. I just don't believe in aggression.

Compare that to government which kills daily through war and other activities. Another form of violence and aggression that the government uses us is theft, they steal from us through taxation. Obviously I think theft is wrong as well.

So lets take apart my first paragraph. Understand that I am not passing judgement on anyone who might look like anything in that description that we are linked to. Some people fit those descriptions, hell I have fit some at one time or another in my life.

So here goes. Skinny, I refer you to the above picture. The reason they picture us as skinny is to show us as malnourished as opposed to the well fed statists. Look anywhere on the planet to see where the real malnutrition is and not far from them will be the State in all its glory.

Boy, I am male but I am 43 years old. I also would again point you to the picture of my anarchist wife and myself.

Messed up clothing is supposed to show irresponsibility. The dirt is supposed to show that we don’t even have the sense to wash. Did I mention the job and family.

As for white, well yes I am white. I also know several anarchist who are of any number of ethnic groups. Recently Cynthia McKinney, former member of the US House of Representatives who happens to be a well known African American, said publically at a gathering in Mexico called Anarchopolco that she was an anarchist.

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That brings me to the tattoos. Yes I have one tattoo, as do many people. Mine is interesting. I have a small terrible one on my shoulder. You see an African American friend of mine in college was jumped by some neo nazis and after a bonding evening that involved Jim Beam, I got a tattoo of a Jewish six pointed star to show my solidarity.

As for self hate, I guess you'll have to trust when I say that I love my life.
Beating women, I adore my wife and my personal religious beliefs are complicated, just read my article on Deism, but when I try to imagine God, more often than not it is a woman I see.

Drugs, I've done a few and do not think they should be illegal. Meth and Heroine are not ones I have tried. I used to smoke pot and I have done some mushrooms. My job requires that I pass random drug tests and my responsibility to the kids under my care ensures that it has been quite a long time since I did those.

Guns, I believe that everyone has a natural right to self defense and to property. So yes I think guns are needed for self defense. Again I am non violent.

The spitting on the cop, really there is a lot there. Spitting is a show of disrespect for authority. I have no disrespect for individuals but I certainly do not respect people who want to control, violate, or steal from me. Cops, well that is complicated. I acknowledge that in a voluntary society there may be a need for someone to investigate things like murder or theft by individuals. In our culture the police by Supreme Court ruling are not required to serve and protect. Many times cops are no more than an arm of violence for the state or revenue generation. All of that aside, I recently had a great conversation with some local police who were not only on the same page as I am about government abuse but took a copy of the book Freedom, by Adam Kokesh.

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Church, I as I have already said have different religious beliefs but I also respect them all. I think all religious people have similar goals. It is more important to believe something even if that is purely science.

So, that just about covers it. I know that I created the set of descriptions I used at the beginning of this post but these are all things that I have personally heard as a description of anarchists. Hopefully you can look at me, read my posts, and find out that Anarchists are just like you and as varied as you. We love, hate, get angry and laugh. We are human and we are not your enemy.
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Thanks for sharing your insight. There are few things I truely hate and labels is one of them. Hicups and spiders are 1 and 2. Again thanks for opening up with your beliefs. I am if I had to label myself it would be a libertarian constitutionalist. Why can't we combine libertarian politics with conservative values. I mean we already have a set of precepts that worked for many years . Instead of changing into something else why can't we go back to what we was. I'd love to see a post with your opinions about our forefathers and the constitution . In the mean time I will muster up some strenght to hit the upvote, resteem and follow button for you

I actually have exactly that. I work for Adam Kokesh and I have been posting a series called Forgotten Freedom Fighters, see it on Adam's Steemit @adamkokesh. The series includes several influential people. The one I suggest is Thomas Young.

https://steemit.com/freedom/@adamkokesh/forgotten-freedom-fighters-dr-thomas-young-the-first-american-revolutionary

Thanks for the comment

Anarchy to me at this exact moment is giving out free water. Here in a very small town in Alaska the government came in and shut down the businesses that gave free water to the community. A lot of people haul all their water and it completely screwed them. Now we are getting illegal water because thank god there are anarchists!

That is great and a fantastic way to hep out humanity.

Yes Yes yes a wonderful post! When I tell people i'm an anarchist the looks I get is brilliant often followed by a laugh. The importance of changing the media driven stereotype is paramount. Great work 💯🐒

This is wonderful, thank you! I think that the public perception of an Anarchist is a person or movement of people who simply hate everything. Teenage angst and a disturbed mind? Well that sounds like an Anarchist. Mob rule is another characteristic I think people associate with anarchy, which is such a wrong notion. Genuine practical peace is what we strive for... a practice that is so much more practical than the greedy immoral government paradigm we currently live in.

We respect people, therefore we are Anarchists. And that may surprise some people!

Yes, right, they put many labels and stereotypes on people who are against the government, and use all available means of communication, movies are one of their means frequently. Now, I am a minarchist, and my main problem with the anarchists, is that there are many communists and socialists infiltrated in that group, I have no problem with real anarchists, but it is quite difficult to find some.

We certainly are on the same team. Adam Kokesh posted about this a few days ago. In the post he says that the separation between minarchists and anarchists is minimal and usually nothing more than minor details.

When I visualize "anarchist" in my mind's eye, I see those Antifa soyBoys smashing window and throwing stuff in the street to prevent free speech in public venues. The guys with the Swastikas usually want a heavy handed state. no?

I would say, NAPster anarchoVols have a way to go, organizing communities before any paradigm shift takes place in the American mindset. But with AnarchoForko, it could happen faster than expected just 2 months ago.

It amazes me that either antifa or the tiki torch mafia are called anarchists, they both call for more government to further their ends. But like Emma Goldman said, the government looks for any violent act and labels it an anarchist act to discredit real anarchists who mostly just want to be left alone

So what is your take on AnarchoForko becoming a catalyst towards the rise of a NAPster anarcho community(ies)? It can only get so far with Steem.

So tell me about AnarcoForko. I am not familiar with it. Until I met Adam and joined his campaign I was just an Anarchist out here in Indiana. The more organized stuff is new to me. I have been involved politically but not in any particular anarchist group.

There is a term the anarchistVols use called "Agora". Since anarchists won't really have anything to do in the political sphere, what do they fill their time up with? Living life; trading with each other. Creating. Developing. Entertaining. Worshiping. Right?

From what I gathered, it was Larkin Rose and his girlfriend (wife?) who came up with the idea a few months before this year's Anarchopulco to "fork" off it and create an impromptu agora, the following weekend. To get a feel for how it ended up, follow "kennyskitchen" here in Steemit. Go to that blog and watch the interviews. You'll get up to speed, quick.

I believe anarchoforko also has it's own Steem blog, as well. After watching some of that stuff, too, please get back to me and I will discuss with you, how linking with this, Adam's campaign could seriously benefit. Because most of them are what I call "neoHippies", they don't usually subscribe to the "rough stuff" that AnarchoCapitalists roll in.... and they tend to be like Amish pacifists. So they are TOTALLY reliant on persuading people to leave them alone; they don't want to fight with predators and parasites. That's where they have serious incentive to help us distribute Adam's "Freedom!" book. Yes?

I'm here in Lansing, MI. LCharles14@yahoo.com Anyone. Anytime.

I follow kenny, and I am familiar with agora, I think that we have to engage if we truly want to rid ourselves of the force of the state. For me that is being active in the Lp. Thanks for the info

multiTask, my good man. We can grow NON-GMO food and be active in the LP, simultaneously. LOL You wouldn't happen to live in Elkhart Co., IN with Sheriff Brad Rogers "on duty", would you? ..the sheriff who stood down the feds while protecting his Amish constituency.

Oh and we already have a non GMO garden, we can and the like. We are as independant as we can be in this government controlled world, and our budget allows.

Nope, central Indiana, i am familiar with Elkhart though, have some good friends from there.

I don't know any antifa activists who want more government or who want the government to further their ends. Most of them are hardcore ancoms, and they don't want the government to infringe on anyone's right to speak or anything. They'd rather deal with neo-Nazis, white nationalists, etc. themselves, obviously.

Isn't trying to run for president already minarchism instead of anarcholiberalism?

Doesn't the NAP apply to antifas who only defend themselves instead of attacking nazis? I think you should read about the paradox of intolerance by the liberal Karl Popper.

Also, what do you think about the work "No Treason" to be against constitutionalists?

I think that titles really don't matter but if it makes me a minarchist to actively try to give natural rights back to people I am ok with that. I am not in competition with people over what they or I call ourselves. It is my goal to get to a voluntary society. @adamkokesh talks about that here

https://steemit.com/libertarian/@adamkokesh/ending-the-anarchist-vs-minarchist-debate-once-and-for-all

I can see @radtext point but how else are we to beat the system without using the system? Therefor that is why I'm jumping on team @AdamKokesh . He is now holding out his hand with
https://steemit.com/freedom/@adamkokesh/ifh0na4x
so I will shake it instead of slapping it

I respect anyone trying to set us free. Sometimes I may disagree with their methods but I can still cheer their attempt.