Well that's the inherent problem of dealing with all political concepts isn't it? If enough people believe it, it becomes the reality. If enough people believe that the guy in a suit on TV is President, then he is. It's not like biology where if you believe really hard in breathing underwater, you'll still drown. I suppose we could all just ignore it, but the reality is that a lot of people do believe in the state and to turn them away from it you have to refer to their object of attention. I suppose you could ask if an atheist is inherently religious if they refer to God in an argument.

It's true, as an anarchist I or many of my compatriots could move to the boondocks. And a few do. The central issue is that we wish to transform a majority human life for the better. Moreover, most of us believe that without a radical restructuring of our political and economic processes humanity is largely screwed. I suppose the same question could be asked as to why the American Revolutionaries didn't just move west instead of bloodily fighting the English.

Personally, I want to try and spread the word as to what anarchism can be. Not just bloody nihlism, but also love, equality and freedom. Sounds pie in the sky and I'll probably never see it come about in my lifetime (barring some awful catastrophe), but I believe it's a goal worth fighting for.

It's just more wishy-washy sentimentalism, giving what was a very conflicted and volatile situation the "Crash" treatment.

Moreover, it's important to recognize that anarchists aren't just one lumpen movement. There are a lot of different agendas and ideas. There's no real cohesion, I mean, it's called anarchy for a reason! More often than not anarchists are arguing with each other over definitions and ideas than they are liberals or other such statists.

As Andrew said, there were a lot of people who didn't agree with violence and especially with random attacks on civilians.

Some of the best and most compelling critiques of hierarchies and the flaws of centralized power have been made by anti-statists. Let's not throw all these ideas out just because some people think it's a good idea to break stuff to express themselves.

I will, however, note that there wasn't nearly as much coverage of how the police reacted to the actions of a bunch of idiots breaking some windows. Massive force, teargassing, huge arrests of people who had nothing to do with it, brutality by the bucketload, illegal detainment and all that other fun state violence stuff.

Keep things in perspective. How many people have anarchists ever killed in the US? How many people die every day thanks to a bureaucratic mess that is state power?

As to your comments about trying to bring them in from the outside, thanks but no thanks. We've seen what it costs to "work in the system". When your aims are the complete destruction of abstracted power and the end of capitalism as we know it, you can't really go through the usual channels.

Just because they're propped up by your tax money is no reason to believe that they are managed with even a semblance of ability.

I have as much confidence in government managers as I do corporate ones.

That is to say, little at best.

If he doesn't nationalise or at least take temporary state control of some institutions, the US capitalist economy will collapse even further as businesses implode and jobs become even more scarce.

If he does nationalise, then we'll just see the same incompetent management we always see from government which will be a bandaid at best and will make Obama look like a dyed-in-the-wool communist to the press and hence the American people at large.

Hopefully he does neither and the US people actually learn to take some responsibility for themselves.

You have next to no idea what "far left" even means do you? How can you even have a discussion with people when they don't understand the language? Tragic times indeed.

This thread is one of the funniest I've read in a long time. Gotta love drudge for linking this otherwise I would have no idea what actual "conservatives" were thinking these days. I spend most of my time debating liberals but you right wingers are a class act. Encore!

Bravo for your misguided military service! Bravo for your indignation! Bravo for your unfailing unwitting sense of comedy!

Until the public realizes that they have to take responsibility for themselves and actually do some work for their own welfare, corporations and government will continue screwing everyone over. It doesn't matter which guy in a suit is in the big marble house.