Ok, to be fair, maybe not all anarchists are idiots.  But there are certainly a lot who are. 

Ok, back history here:  I haven't been on this forum for a while, largely because I've been on facebook so much lately.  Right now, though, I got a 30 day suspension which is kinda funny and stupid and..... I'll explain.  See, I was talking with a self-describe anarchist who claimed that the free market will cure all our social ills, that the government never did anything good and that nobody should have any authority over anyone else.  I took a more nuanced position that there are good points and bad points to either government regulation of the free market and laizze faire capitalism.  The big difference in our debate styles seemed to be that while I made specific references to specific events, people and policies, the anarchist mostly made insulting comments about my family; I believe the term "cum guzzling faggot" was used multiple times by him.  Eventually, I got sick of it and called him on his immaturity.  Specifically, I said "First rule you learn in any English Comp class: if you say something, you need to be able to prove it.  We've provided evidence that the government created Arpanet, which was the foundation for the internet.  [NAME] hasn't proven anything except that he's a fou mouthed little moron."  The response from someone who claims to despise all authorities and promotes freedom was to report my post to the facebook authoities, which resulted in the 30 day ban.  Clearly, this is the kind of "anarchist" that reeks with hipocracy.  

But he isn't alone.  I've seen a lot of self described anarchists who will adhere to authorities left and right, as long as those are the authorities who agree with them.  I've seen feminist anarchists who despise the state, but never seem to question the behavior of their own feminist hive-mind and I have to wonder, if feminism became the state, would they be on the front lines, locking peopl away for the crime of misogyny?  I've seen right anarchists who despise government regulations, but want the government to regulate abortion, homosexuality and a host of other things.  Hell, the way they throw around their buzzwords like "statist" or "sheep" feels an aweful lot like a kind of jingoism that they despise so much when it comes from governent.

Is it just me or is there a strong immaturity streak in a lot of self described anarchists?

Many of the anarchists I've encountered are just edgy teens or young adults who really haven't experienced much of the world and its complexities.

Immaturity or naivety or maybe both. Whichever it is it seems most appealing to those who feel indestructible. So yeah, mostly a young people thing - along with those who strive never to grow up.

(June 23, 2015 at 12:41 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Many of the anarchists I've encountered are just edgy teens or young adults who really haven't experienced much of the world and its complexities.

That too, but I've seen the mainstream Republican party moving in that direction more and more lately.  I mean, did you watch the 2012 presidential election?  Their party slogan might as well have been "We don't need no government for nothin'!"

(June 23, 2015 at 12:38 pm)TaraJo Wrote: Ok, to be fair, maybe not all anarchists are idiots.  But there are certainly a lot who are. 

Ok, back history here:  I haven't been on this forum for a while, largely because I've been on facebook so much lately.  Right now, though, I got a 30 day suspension which is kinda funny and stupid and..... I'll explain.  See, I was talking with a self-describe anarchist who claimed that the free market will cure all our social ills, that the government never did anything good and that nobody should have any authority over anyone else.  I took a more nuanced position that there are good points and bad points to either government regulation of the free market and laizze faire capitalism.  The big difference in our debate styles seemed to be that while I made specific references to specific events, people and policies, the anarchist mostly made insulting comments about my family; I believe the term "cum guzzling faggot" was used multiple times by him.  Eventually, I got sick of it and called him on his immaturity.  Specifically, I said "First rule you learn in any English Comp class: if you say something, you need to be able to prove it.  We've provided evidence that the government created Arpanet, which was the foundation for the internet.  [NAME] hasn't proven anything except that he's a fou mouthed little moron."  The response from someone who claims to despise all authorities and promotes freedom was to report my post to the facebook authoities, which resulted in the 30 day ban.  Clearly, this is the kind of "anarchist" that reeks with hipocracy.  

But he isn't alone.  I've seen a lot of self described anarchists who will adhere to authorities left and right, as long as those are the authorities who agree with them.  I've seen feminist anarchists who despise the state, but never seem to question the behavior of their own feminist hive-mind and I have to wonder, if feminism became the state, would they be on the front lines, locking peopl away for the crime of misogyny?  I've seen right anarchists who despise government regulations, but want the government to regulate abortion, homosexuality and a host of other things.  Hell, the way they throw around their buzzwords like "statist" or "sheep" feels an aweful lot like a kind of jingoism that they despise so much when it comes from governent.

Is it just me or is there a strong immaturity streak in a lot of self described anarchists?

Umm... certainly that ban was just sort of an automatic thing, and you can appeal it, right?

I don't understand why you were banned. It doesn't sound as if you said anything offensive.

"cum guzzling faggot" ??

Oh, my!

Free market my ass.

It's hard to lump all people in one single category - Personally I'll take a lefty anarchist anyday - I absolutely hate libertarian anarchists who advocate the free market as some sort of god - Freedom from authority, freedom from oppression, except from corporate dictatorship and wage slavery.

My experience with social networks and internet communities is that you can find all sorts of crazy people and it doesn't really represent everyone - Revleft is a website for communists, socialists, marxists, etc, but a lot of people there are batshit insane and even devout lefties have pointed so. r/libertarianism is another example of batshit crazy libertarians, and even r/atheism is really not a good sample of atheists.

Personally, I see the State as a useful tool that should be used - The state isn't just the government and its institutions, it's us (the people), the territory, the common culture, etc - It's an immaterial concept that goes far beyond those in power (the establishment). I live in a capitalist society and take advantage of it, but I don't discard the chance of creating a better one, at the very least because eventually we'll run out of resources really fast at this rate.

What annoys me about right-libertarian anarchists is that they are very quick to discard all regulation as oppressive but when it comes to their job it's just an "agreement" between "private enterprises".

Anarchism has always struck me as a rather naive and childish world view.