Just for reference, I am personally a voluntaryist/an-cap, although I like Anarchism Without Adjectives and believe we should all be working together instead of infighting and debating who is and who is not an anarchist. In my mind, and most an-caps, anarchism is the opposition to government due to its oppressive nature and constant initiation of force. The adjective just describes how we would like to live in an anarchic society.

I’m sure this has been discussed before, probably recently, but I will ask it again. What is with the hatred/disdain for an-caps? We all believe that government is coercive and should be eliminated. That is our common goal, but I think other people put too much weight on the capitalist part of an-cap.

First of all, I think a lot of people do not understand the difference between our form of capitalism and crony-capitalism/corporatism. We hate corporations just as much as you. They are an arbitrary entity created by the government. People should be held responsible for their own actions and not be able to hide behind some government created entity. This possible misunderstanding of true capitalism as we define it really does not matter though.

The biggest thing I think some people falsely think is that we want the whole world to be capitalist and everyone must participate in capitalism. That could not be further from the truth. In reality, we want people to do whatever the hell they want, so long as they are not initiating force against someone else. We just prefer to partake in capitalism because we think it will bring us the greatest happiness. We do not care if you want to get together and create a commune to live and work on. We do not care if you want to get a large group of workers together to start a company run by and for the workers. We do not care if you want to make resource for resource exchanges instead of using cash. The only people who participate in capitalism do so voluntarily, the only people who dedicate their lives to a god do so voluntarily, the only people who collectively get together and own the means of production do so voluntarily, etc. Capitalism is only oppressive when the state imposes it, communism is only oppressive when the state imposes it, religion is only oppressive when the state imposes it, etc.

All that being said I realize that our biggest disagreement is probably over property. I’m sure this has been discussed plenty of times and likely won’t be resolved anytime soon. You have heard our scarcity arguments and we have heard your arguments. In reality, I don’t think this will be a huge issue. Private property people are not going to go to a piece of land being publicly used and public property/property doesn’t exist people are not going to wonder into the home of someone who believes in private property. The reality is, you can only claim what you can defend, and all people, no matter their side of the argument , will fight to protect where they live/do business. Deep down I really don’t see it being a huge issue in the real world.

A side note on property: It is human nature for people to claim territory as their own, just like most other large animals out there. For humans to accept that property should be mutually owned by everyone or that the concept of property does not exist, a fundamental change in human nature will need to take place. I am not saying this can’t happen, just that I don’t think it will happen anytime soon.

To wrap up this long piece up (which hopefully some people will read), why are all sides spending so much time infighting? For all the reasons mentioned above, we are way better off working together to eliminate government first and foremost. It is the most oppressive, intrusive, and violent organization in all of our lives. Once we are liberated from the grasp of government, we can then begin to try and advocate for our “adjectives.” You all can try to convince people that the concept of private property is wrong and we will argue otherwise. I encourage that discussion at that time. But again, right now, government should be our top priority, not what the definition of property is or what economic system you choose to participate in would bring you most happiness.

I know this is long, but are there any thoughts/comments/questions/etc.?

BTW I’m not singling out any one group, all groups have their problem people that just argue with the others all the time.

(I will be back tomorrow, hopefully someone has read it by then)