Why the Unwillingness to Call Them (Trumpettes) Anarchists?

[Roy Rolling]

The current gang of miscreants occupying government are anarchists. They wish to destroy government. Just because they don't set things on fire in a traditional sense, they are still anarchists---those who want no government to exist because they don't need/want regulation.

There are actually some people who don't need close government supervision, who live peacefully and don't exploit others. You could say they are the good anarchists---people who don't need the government to tell them to act "good".

But these 99% right wing, AM radio-educated leaders are bad anarchists---they wish to destroy government and abolish safety regulations for their own greedy benefit, to hell with the other people in the society. They are anarchists, pure and simple. They don't want regulation for the same reason criminals don't want cops.

They are anarchists, not capitalists.

[Squinch]

1. Who refused to call them anarchists? What prompted this?

[Roy Rolling]

2. Where have they been labeled "anarchists"?

The lack of any mention makes it conspicuous by its absence. Even you sound surprised.

[Squinch]

3. No, I'm not surprised. I haven't seen them called poopy heads either. Why do

people keep yelling at DU for very, very bizarre things?

[Roy Rolling]

9. What?

Who is yelling "very, very bizarre things?

[Squinch]

11. Your OP accuses DU of a bizarre "unwillingness" about a topic has not been discussed here before,

hence there could never have been any "unwillingness."

What is that about?

[Roy Rolling]

13. You are saying things that aren't there

I said nothing about DU.

[QC]

4. Because they're not anarchists, perhaps.

Anarchism is not what many people think it is--everybody just running around burning stuff.

It's an actual political theory, a Leftist one, that has a history all its own.

Trumpettes are just assholes.

[marylandblue]

6. That's correct, they are not anarchists

They just want to restore the government to its proper function of starting wars, oppressing minorities and serving the 1%.

[QC]

7. Or they're useful tools for those who want to do such things.

Useful Idiots, to put it more rudely.

[Leith]

5. Because They Aren't Anarchists

They're authoritarians. And they hate regulation because it gets in the way of making a few cents more - and that makes them cutthroat capitalists.

[DBoon]

16. anarchists hate government because it oppresses the poor

Libertarians hate government because it constrains the wealthy

[JI7]

8. Because they aren't

[Squinch]

10. But I never saw any conversation where someone required that they be called

anarchists and someone else refused.

There is really weird shit going on around here. And a lot of it is in the form of, "Why do people on DU refuse to X?" when "X" was never a topic that was discussed. Or "Why do people say (Y Democratic value) also has to mean (Z example of bigotry)" when no one ever equated the two.

It seems like this kind of thing is being used a lot.

I think of them as the "when did you stop beating your wife?" OPs. They make me suspicious.

[Roy Rolling]

14. Don't participate then

Your participation is voluntary, your "suspicion" is unfounded. Not once was DU mentioned. This is a broader discussion than just DU.

[Squinch]

17. And a dopey one. And FYI I'll participate where I choose.

[Roy Rolling]

12. They *are* anarchists, from top to bottom

Anarchists do not want or desire an organized government to control their lives.

The whole Trump movement is based on selling the idea that government is useless, collects too much tax, and gets in the way of people's freedom.

My post is to ask why there is no discussion of this in the media and elsewhere, maybe it's because there is no agreement on what anarchy is. And this deliberately confusing framing is what allows it to advance while we scratch our heads and ask "why?".

Calling Trump, his handlers, and his followers "anarchists" would go a long way toward framing the debate correctly, and be a strong response to the never ending right-wing propaganda.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. They want hyper-controlled borders, and a pumped-up military; they want authoritarian police

They want people discriminated against based on religion, and, for many of them, based on ethnicity too. They want to ban abortion. None of that is remotely anarchic.

I agree that there isn't a great agreement on what 'anarchy' is, and your OP is a prime example. Your idea is different from most others'. Maybe you're only thinking about economics and the environment? And, thinking about it, they're not that anarchic in economics, either - they want tariffs, and to control international trade as well and movement of people.

[Roy Rolling]

19. Thanks for your reasoned reply

Point taken.

[DBoon]

15. they might be nihilists

They are more properly fascists

Peter Kropotkin is crying from the left wing afterlife at the very suggestion they are anarchists.

[Roy Rolling]

20. Agreed

But nihilists are anarchists, too. And there is no purity and clear cut, card-carrying anarchist. It's like the old joke, "anarchists unite!"

I am speaking of the underlying movement to deregulate everything and abolish government programs. Those people are anarchists at heart, because they wish to tear down government and replace it with the unworkable idea that people and corporations can regulate themselves.

They *can* regulate themselves, but they won't. They will just want to regulate others as you have pointed out.