Ancapism can easily be defeated when you point out that their oh so precious corporations they want to directly rule us with regularly betray their own free market principles when the moment suits them.
Tariffs. "Protectionism but it's ok because it's for the rich!"
IP laws and the way they are selectively enforced.
Capital regularly "unionizes" too, business owners know that they are one class and regularly try to cooperate instead of compete.
Certain NIMBY laws and zoning. "You see we HAVE to stop building the more profitable infrastructure that's dense and walkable because muh property valyooz! Plus we can stuff the poors in cars they can't afford!"
"What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?"
"Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins."
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. "What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?"
"Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so."
"Easy, chief," I said. "Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair."
Alright, so all of us get together, of our own accord, and get a lot of guns. And then we take everything we want, and distribute it through some fair system, say, from each according to their ability to each according to their need. And we defend this construct with violence. Lots of violence. But we say it's totally not a state, just a mutually agreed upon construct. Surely the ancaps would be on board, right?
I like how ancap ideology poses itself as opposed to existing governments, yet also permits everything including those governments. It's the perfect ideology for a frictionless spherical mind.
"Having reviewed the facts of the case, I rule in favor of the Defendant on the grounds that the Plaintiff's failure to protect her own property constitutes a willing forfeiture of said property. As such, neither insurance company will be required to pay out any money, and since no crime was actually committed, the Plaintiff will be required to cover all legal fees incurred by all involved parties."
I always wonder, how do ancaps plan to administer a change to their proposed system? Through elections? Through revolution? What happens to existing billionaires when we go ancap? Do they just keep their wealth? What happens to everyone in prison? Let go because it was under the old corrupt system? Is school abolished along with the age of consent?
Like most idealistic fantasies, they seem to think that if they can just get enough people to support their idea, it will manifest entirely on its own without any need for direct action. The idea that the people who benefit from the system as it is opposing a new system where they won't benefit is completely incomprehensible to them.
I always wonder, how do ancaps plan to administer a change to their proposed system? Through elections? Through revolution?
You’re presuming a level of foresight and connection to reality that’s not present for most ancaps. All the ones who actually think about this sort of stuff tend to just be neoliberals
What happens to existing billionaires when we go ancap? Do they just keep their wealth?
Of course. Billionaires are good and if any aren’t then just do more free market stuff
What happens to everyone in prison? Let go because it was under the old corrupt system?
probably
Is school abolished along with the age of consent?
You’re presuming a level of foresight and connection to reality that’s not present for most ancaps. All the ones who actually think about this sort of stuff tend to just be neoliberals
Oh I know, it's just fascinating to me that someone could have relatively radical political views but simultaneously not have any theory for how to actually execute those political views.
The ones who really want it to happen usually think it'll come about after some great calamity, in the modern day after nuclear war and civilizational collapse. Otherwise they think it'll just be a mass vibe shift
Whenever I ask about this, they're usually pre-occupied with everyone following the ancap's specific rules rather than whether anyone would be motivated to do or believe in those rules.
My experiences with AnCaps, I honestly think most of them are doing a bit. Like I think politically they're actually just regular Libertarians but they crank it up to 11 to get a rise out of people. They are aware their ideas are bologna, but they're hoping by advocating for it hard enough they'll achieve their actual goal, a society where the central government is weak enough that you can marry multiple of your under-aged nieces and smoke homemade meth in your unlicensed car.
Honestly idk why these AnCaps just don't move to Idaho, their utopia already exists.
If you think court fees are steep now wait until You have two billion-dollar security companies duking it out on your dime and then you have to rent a courtroom and hire an arbitration service on top of lawyers.
I think its a great idea to live in a system where literally any conflict could devolve into a war between to private security firms, but its okay because we have for profit courts which would obviously work perfectly
the only property ADT is going to be able to seize from me is the bag of hamburgers I stole from mr ancap, the rest of it is encrypted metaverse synthetic estate speculative futures NFTs hidden in shadow wallet derivatives only I know the assphrase for
what if instead of a state, we had multiple slightly smaller redundant states all competing to fine you the most while also attempting to offload as much responsibility as possible onto each other and you
I love how ancap ideology gets completely exploded when you ask if people can team up
"to avoid the enormous costs of war" lmao one cartel will already have gone to war previously in order to attain absolute supremacy and Marie has no choice of security provider as everything has now been rigged to benefit a small group of elites who run the cartel. Walker robbed Marie because that's his job.
Wait so if I’m not subscribed to a private protection company I lose my rights to body and property, or at least enforcement of these rights? Classic statist arguing for taxation and the limiting of freedom in property ownership!!
Bureaucratic nightmare is putting it lightly, imagine if private courts and “protection agencies” had different standards of punishment, like freaky people can go to Freaky Adjudication and have anyone who steals from them spanked or something
I didnt pay my gang subscription and noe no one cares my husband(/owner) was shot in cold blood, also my house is burning down and i skipped paying my fire protection fees
Honestly a chaotic dystopian ancap society would be preferable in at least some ways to the kind of gangster state dictatorship of the bourgeoisie that we have now. Which is why it will never exist, because smart capitalists know the state is their most powerful weapon
a dystopian ancap society is a "gangster state dictatorship of the bourgeoisie" and they would have a state either way because "state" and "government" are related but not the same
Why isn't Ring protecting Walter and his property from that unjust ruling? They're gonna lose all their customers because of that, no-one wants to subscribe to a protection company that won't protect them.
either they are consumed by their ideology and in the clash of material reality their ethereal ideals are snapped like twigs and thrown into the fires of history or their internal pragmatism casts aside their ideology and bends the knee to material reality and allows it to be assimilated into the status quo
I love whe "An"caps do these "but it could like totally work man!" explanations. They never fail to come up with a convoluted bureaucratic scheme full of glaring flaws that could only ever possibly work under the most perfect conditions.
And the most funny thing is that they never even attempt to explain how their proposed castle in the sky monstrosity is going to be better than the alternative.
What would actually happen is Marie reports the robbery to ADT, and ADT denies the claim because it doesn't fit their definition of robbery on some technicality decided by a council who doesn't know any of the details of the robbery because it's more profitable than costly arbitration.