Some of the tens of thousands of people in the Netherlands, who believe in the concept of an “evil elite” and refuse to recognise the state or the rule of law, are prepared to use violence, the Dutch counter terrorism unit NCTV warned on Tuesday.
The warning comes in a new analysis of the phenomenon by the NCTV, police and homeland security service AIVD.
For the folks down voting me, please help me understand the essential difference between these people and anarchists.
To me, it seems these “sovereign citizens” don’t want to live under any government, and seem to be an extreme version of libertarians (as we call them here in the US). I understand other anarchists might beg to differ with some of their stances (or all, I don’t know) but in general terms, how are they different?
I’m an anarchist ( a bit of an outlier, I call myself anarcho-solarpunk), I’ll try to answer, of course I can only speak for myself.
Sometimes anarchists right wing libertarian types sound similar and seem to have the same goals, and on surface level that has some truth. There’s horseshoe theory that says that the far right and left are effectively the same.
But there are critical differences
Anarchists are typically motivated by empathy and sympathy. They want everyone to have freedom and view the state/government as a tool of oppression wielded by the elite. That without the state and capitalism society could take responsibility for itself and form communities based on the needs of the people rather than the desires of a hoarder class. And that to do so would take a lot of work, it wouldn’'t just happen automatically when state/government is removed.
Right wing libertarian types on the other hand are motivated by greed and power. They want the government out of the way allowing them to exploit others and the environment without restriction, but most are disingenuous about even this. They believe this if they are winning, if not then it’s ok for them to control the state to limit their enemies/competition.
I didn’t read the article yet, but from the headline, this sounds like a group of right wing libertarian types who don’t want to pay taxes and think not paying taxes and sabotaging the government through terrible right wing policy is an effective means to their end, they are wrong there too.
I’m straight up 100% anarchist according to the political compass, and yeah that’s pretty much it. It feels like it put me over there because all the questions were like “should babies be used as a substitute for coal?” And I would always say “Fuck no! Wtf?!”
Thank you. This is very helpful.
It was?
Yes, for helping me understand where the down votes are coming from.
In my basic understanding they’re apples and pears. Anarchism is a philosophy and refuses all hierarchy. These people just believe the current government is a bunch of reptiles abducting children but as soon as they overthrow it and install their government all problems will be fixed.
Anarchy doesn’t mean lack of responsibility. Sovereign citizens are the epitome of american thinking. I myself am the most important person and nothing else matters as long as I get what I want.