Agnarchy

 

1. In an empire, the "use of force" is so commonplace that to cast doubt on the moral integrity of its leaders, calling them "mass murderers" isn't enough. We have to call them "pedophiles" or something like that.

2. "There is no anti-fascism under empire." - Angela Keaton. What DOES exist is the denial that the government of the United States of America is an empire. Those who still call it a "republic" or a "democracy" will call their political foes fascist. 

3. Empire is as empire does. That's why Australia's Julian Assange is in a British prison even though he broke no laws in either country. He's there because Trump wanted him there, and so does Biden. 

4. The American Empire is part of an axis of evil with Israel and Saudi Arabia to keep all other countries in the Middle East weak and destabilized. For example, the reason for sanctions against Iran is to keep Iranians poor. And therefore its tax base is poor. This is to prevent the development of not only its military but its domestic infrastructure, such as climate-friendly nuclear energy.

5. About the "pedophiles:" If something about that is true, perhaps the Empire's policy in Eastern Europe is to keep it sufficiently poor and unstable so that white girls can be more easily trafficked. My own Facebook ads include "Ukranian women want to meet you!"

6. Under the name "Democracy," the American Empire has committed so many atrocities abroad and against the American people, that it's surprising "Democracy" isn't rejected in the same way people reject Christianity because of the Crusades and Inquisitions.

7. Why has anyone ever trusted the FBI? "OUR country's secret police does the right thing." That's American Exceptionalism at its funniest. 

8. At its far most "leftist" point, the Democratic Party is a center-right party. And that's being generous. Democrats have continuously renewed surveillance programs that J. Edgar Hoover could never have imagined.

9. To call current divisions "tribalism" seems to me somewhat, if not overtly, racist. What did the American military wipe out in the 19th century? Tribes. Indigenous tribes only wanted to be left alone and survive. Tribalism wasn't the problem. Tribes weren't taking away anyone's freedom. And if they did, that was entirely on a local level and outside U.S. jurisdiction.

10. Money isn't a natural resource. It has no environmental impact. If money goes from one hand to another, and neither hand is mine, what is that to me? There is no reason for a government to regulate or monopolize what people use as money unless it's afraid to pay its own bills.

11. The first Google result for the two words (without quotation marks) "capitalism definition" is "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit." Some have equated "capitalism" with the "free market." They're not the same. In a free market, people buy and sell what they please without force or fraud; in capitalism, the most prosperous already-existing private owners have the incentive to drive out smaller private owners through government regulation.

12. Free markets exist in the organic community, and capitalism, especially corporate capitalism, exists in governments. It's a paradox: the corporation was birthed by the State and is controlled by the State. It goes back to the same owners who survived a previous regime.

13. The atheist doesn't believe in God, certainly not the God as literally understood in the Bible. More than that, the atheist actively disbelieves in such an entity and tries to persuade others to disbelieve.

14. The agnostic is different from the atheist: the agnostic doesn't believe in that monotheistic God but doesn't try to persuade others.

15. The anarchist doesn't believe in The State, or forms of "authority" backed with violence, and seeks to persuade others by theorizing better worlds without it.

16. I would call myself an "agnarchist", borrowing from atheism/agnosticism to mean "disbelieving in the State without wanting to spend my life pretending I have a better alternative to life as we know it."

17.  The agnarchist doesn't believe that institutions that claim to have my welfare in mind actually have my welfare in mind. This is especially true of the State, which has an authority backed only by the threat of violence against non-compliance. I don't necessarily believe a single word the "government" says, and the more senior or more powerful the authority figures, the less I believe them.

18. At the same time, this is life as we know it. I write this not because we're wrong to depend on the institutions we've been born into, but to suggest that they're not deserving our loyalty and devotion.

19. The only difference between gangsterism and the government is that gangs developed from ethnic minorities and the government came from the already-rich aristocracy and monopolized the loyalties of the people because they were the "status quo." Both seek gain for themselves.

20. If there's nothing else to be learned from literature that has taken on the status of "spiritual" or "religious" such as  the Bible, it's that there's nothing to be gained from idolatry, from placing your hope in the creations of other people. Far be it from me to tell others what to do. I can only say that I don't believe in authority.