Start Opening Your Damn Eyes

There are only two things that can stop a “government” from becoming totalitarian: 1) a hard and fast, unbreakable “rule” that specifically and clearly limits what political “authority” may be used for; 2) the good graces and self-restraint of politicians. The problem is, neither of those exist in the real world.

Anarchy and Islam

I’ve met Muslims of every school of anarchist thought from anarcho-socialists to national-anarchists. Prominent among them are Hakim Bay’s “ontological anarchism” and Yakoub Islam’s “post-colonial anarcho-pacifism” but this is my story.

When So-Called Anarchists Look to the State as Savior

This is a crisis! Government needs to act! Look at all these scary stories about incidents of immigrants committing violence! Is that what you want?! If you oppose closed borders, you must approve of the violence going on! Sure, not all people trying to immigrate here intend to do nasty things, but some are going to, and the only way to be safe is to enforce laws stopping anyone from crossing the border, or at least requiring that people can only cross the border if they get permission from government first!

Trump Assumes Command of the American Church

As Donald Trump demonstrated in his first address to Congress, no matter how loathsome a ruler may be, he can bring an assembly of politicians to its feet and disarm some critics simply by invoking the quasi-secular faith — Americanism — and eulogizing the latest uniformed war-state employee to sacrifice his life for it. Trump has indeed shown he can fill the job expected of any president: supreme head of what Andrew Bacevich calls the Church of America the Redeemer.