So called "anarcho-capitalists" are not
anarchists even a little bit. Let me be
really clear here *drumroll* : I'm not offering that as a criticism of ancaps necessarily...
Burritos, corgis, Steve Buscemi, none of
these things are necessarily anarchist
in nature but they're all universally
beloved. Not everything needs to be
anarchist all the time, that's okay.
I do think ancaps should be criticized,
and I think their ideology is whack as
all hell, but that is not the focus of
this video. I'm just here to explain why
they're not anarchists, that's all. Along
the way I might make fun of them a
little bit, because it's hard for me to
talk about this toilet ideology without
showing my contempt for it. Part one: What
do these words mean? Anarchism is a
spectrum of ideologies that are opposed
to unjustified hierarchies. Be they
political, social, economic, or any other
axis of oppression that people invent.
The term was coined to describe oneself
politically by Pierre-Joseph Poonhound.
An, meaning without, Archos meaning rulers
and Y meaning... make the word sound
cooler. Capitalism is an economic system
typified by these three things: 1. Private
control of the means of production
(that's a hierarchy). 2. Free exchange of
goods and services on the market.
3. Wage labor (that's also a hierarchy). It
sucks.
Anarcho-capitalism is the belief that
the state should be dismantled but
capitalism should somehow be *laughs* maintained.
Which they think would... would work.
They believe everyone should follow the
non-aggression principle which basically
means you shouldn't initiate or threaten
to initiate violence against someone or
their property. Part Two: How are these
things related? Ancaps and real actual
anarchists believe that the state is
illegitimate and should be dismantled.
Though they share this conclusion they
both arrived at it from very
different reasoning and those
differences make their goals mutually
exclusive. Anarchists believe the state
is illegitimate because it's a hierarchy
that does not meet the burden of proof
required to justify its existence. They
don't like for example, how states are
always doing genocides, and bowing to the
needs of a slim minority of rich
perverts at the expense of everyone else.
Anarchist praxis tends to revolve around
taking shit from rich perverts and
giving it to people who need it, fighting
systems designed to prevent oppressed
folk from being in control of their own
lives, and violating the non-aggression
principle all over a Nazis face. Ancaps
believe the state is illegitimate
because it interferes with the operation
of the market. The state prevents Adam
Smith's invisible hand from guiding us
all to laissez faire heaven, as it would
definitely do if the state just got out
of the way (even though the state is
necessary for capitalism to function).
Also they believe that taxation is theft,
and BOY do they want to tell you about
it. Their praxis tends to revolve around
protecting property rights, and making
absolutely sure that people who own shit
get to keep it, even if that mad sucks
for everybody else. You own the only well
in town? Well sucks for all those thirsty
chumps! That's your property and you
earned it fair and square by inheriting
it from someone else who built it and
maintained it with the help of all the
people you now prohibit from using it.
Ancaps believe that all rights derive
from property rights; the reason you have
a right to autonomy over your own body
is because you own yourself and you're
allowed to do whatever you want with
yourself, even sell yourself. Which I
guess if you sold yourself the money
that you get wouldn't belong to you
anymore because you don't belong to you... uh....
Following from this position their
reasoning is that if property rights are
not protected, no human rights are
possible. So while we may share a disdain
for the government anarchist and ancap
ideologies are not compatible.
Part 3: But what if they're the real anarchists and you're fake anarchists pretending to
be anarchists but they're the real ones? remember Proud Hound?
The first person to call themselves an anarchist? He was rather
fond of the saying "Property is theft."
Anarchists tend to agree, because
allowing property to be owned privately
inevitably results in the accumulation
of property by the few at the expense of
the many. That's an economic hierarchy
my dude. Hierarchies have rulers.
You can't subscribe to without-rulers-ISM
if you want rulers! Even if you think
those rulers deserve to rule, it's still
rulers ya dingling! Ancaps are quick to
assure us that, in the absence of the
state, all agreements would be made
between voluntary free actors for some
reason. So while it's a hierarchy it's
not coercive like it is when the
government wants you to vaccinate your
children. Except like, if the alternative
to accepting an exploitative agreement
is starvation ,as has been the case for
most people whenever unregulated
capitalism rears its ugly head, that's
you know a little coercive, maybe you
know not all that materially
distinguishable from state violence. Also
vaccinate your kids guys... it's... you're
gonna get smallpox and I... like... I don't
agree with with with what you say, but I
will defend to my death your right not
to get smallpox. Part 4: You sir are
biased. Yes that's true, I don't much care
for ancapiam, and I do very much like
anarchism and I want to kiss Peter
Kropotkin in that beautiful broom face
of his. So let's hear it from Murray
Rothbard...
Oh god did I did I say that? Murray
Rothbard is the libertarian economist
who you might recognize from those Six
Flags commercials.
The dude who pretty much invented in
Anarchocapitalism once said "we are not
anarchists and that those who call us
anarchists are not on firm etymological
ground and are being completely
unhistorical." Well, there it is. I agree with Murray Rothbard
about something, I guess. That's pretty
gross. Part 5: I'm not any kind of
anarchist why should I care about any of
this?
Why'd you click on the video? I think
it's fair to say I have some... misgivings
about ancapism. But my objection to them being called anarchists is not simply
because I disagree with them or I don't
like them. It's because their ideology is
not that thing. They're more like
turn-of-the-century Liberals than
anarchists, which is probably why they
stole the word libertarian because it
sounds kind of liberally and liberal was
taken ...well I mean I guess libertarian
was taken too, by anarchists, but who cares about anarchist you can take anarchist
words, nobody minds. Probably part of the reason ancaps want to co-opt the term
is to get into anarchist spaces and
drown us out. Our beliefs present a
threat to theirs, or I guess they would
if anyone took our beliefs seriously, and
I find that a little galling. I don't
like the idea that groups who don't like
my ideas are trying to make them more
difficult to talk about or conceive of
by changing the meaning of words to
suit their agenda. It would be Orwellian
if it was being done by the state, or by
smart people, but it's actually being
done by supplement chugging, econ 101,
anime avatars... so it's just kind of
irritating. *music starts drowning out the dialogue* Also, by the way, you can't
have capitalism without the state
because without the state and police and
the military there's no way to protect
property from the collective force of
the working class in fact-...
hey I got a little I got a little worked
up, and I'm sorry about that. Thank you
for watching my video I hope you liked
it, if you did please hit like and
subscribe. There's another video about
political correctness that you can watch.
That was the other video I did you can
watch that one.
