"Anarchist Cheerleader Elected"

She doesn't sound very anarchist to me, actually, but that headline is too good to ignore.

Comments

[John]

That is a good one. Last year the head football coach at Arkansas, Houston Nutt, decided to start a freshman quarterback, Casey Dick, against South Carolina, the Game Cocks. This lead to maybe the best sports headline ever:

"Nutt Wants Dick in Pocket Against Cocks"

[VM]

This is not a cheerocracy. *I* make the decisions and deal with the cheeronquences.

[Todd Fletcher]

"Anarchist" means even less than "Liberal" these days. Or "Conservative" for that matter. It's all the equivalent of Ford's Model T.

[Inigo Montoya]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[lunchstealer]

So how long has an 'anarchist' been synonymous 'radical populist'?

Meh, probably always.

*kicks pebble*

Go Cocks!

[sr2]

As if I needed ANOTHER reason to dislike Kurt Cobain. The only reason "anarchist" is thrown around here is b/c she probably aped the uniform from the "teen spirit" video.

So not only is she not an anarchist, she's also not original or radical.

[Number 6]

Anarchists don't favor more government. Why is that so hard for these folks to grasp?

[matt]

Note to Ruthless:

Don't read that article.

[Number 6]

My etymological dictionary says that anarchist derives from the negative 'an' and the greek 'archos.' Archos means ruler. Hence anarchist=against rulers. Of course, H&R folks are not the ones who need the language lesson..

[Warren]

She is so not an anarchist. That's the problem with the English language, everyone who speaks it, takes it as their right to alter it at their whim. Really good words never stay good very long because people start using them to express ordinary ideas. The one redeeming feature, is that this annoys the hell out of self-appointed language police, whose doomed efforts to regulate usage are the source of endless consternation such obstinace deserves.

So now anarchism apparently means fishnets and leather, and embraces such political positions as; "creating a plan to bring affordable housing to our town; ending gentrification, ... the need for a civilian police review board; the preservation of open space and green space; and ending beach dredging". What are we going to call those who advocate the complete abolishment of the state? Anti-statists, non-governmentalists, yournotthebossofmeists?

[Clean Hands]

Prisoners?

[Jason Ligon]

She's an anarchist in the way my sister was back in the day. You know, you carve A's and circles on things, listen to music, do a little illicit this and that, and complain about The Man making you get a job.

The irony is, if all of the illegal stuff were legal, or if she knew lawyers and doctors did it too, she'd never have touched it. No sense in conforming, ya know.

That phase passed a long time ago, but I still laugh about it.

[peachy]

I nominate "you-can-all-fuck-off-ers"...

[thoreau]

When people like that use the name "anarchist" it creates brand confusion. Clearly, the best way to restore the good name of anarch-capitalism is to have a bitter argument between two subcultures over who gets to use a label.

That will convince everybody that anarcho-capitalists are normal, balanced people with mainstream concerns.

🙂

[Ruthless]

matt,
Thanks for the warning, but I have already skimmed the article.
If that young woman is an anarchist, I'm Lyndon LaRouche.

As The Shadow said on the LaRouche thread, most people's minds are self-clouding.

[Son of a!]

anarchist (?n'?r-k?st), n., A person, usually an adolescent, who frequents Hot Topic.

[linguist]

That's the problem with the English language, everyone who speaks it, takes it as their right to alter it at their whim. Really good words never stay good very long because people start using them to express ordinary ideas.

That's the problem with walking, too. Everyone walks, and takes it as their right to walk according to their whim. Really good gaits never stay good long because people start using them to get from place to place!

(wink)

[fyodor]

That's the problem with the English language, everyone who speaks it, takes it as their right to alter it at their whim.

Guess linguist beat me to it, and she oughtta know about this stuff, but basically that's how all languages have operated since the beginning of speech. That is, they evolve and change. English, after all, is just poorly spoken Anglo-Saxon.

But fear not, as words take on new meanings, their previous ones do not immediately, or necessarily ever, become obsolete. That's why words often, as Robert Plant once observed, have two meanings, or even seven or eight or nine. We can go on using "anarchist" in its previous and likely original meaning even if the mainstream has taken it somewhere else.

[Eric the .5b]

OK, let me make sure I'm up to date.

"Liberal" means a centrist to moderate leftist, often affiliated with the Democratic party.

"Conservative" means a sort of "liberal" who's usually a member of the Republican party and is often in denial about resembling a "liberal". May be more open than other liberals about possessing bigotries based on religious beliefs.

"Progressive" means a "liberal".

"Anarchist" means a young "liberal" who likes to act rebellious.

"South Park Republican" means a young "conservative" who likes to act rebellious.

I love the smell of meaning being destroyed in the early afternoon.

[MikeP]

What are they -- anarcho-statists?

"We had to make the government an instrument of social justice in order to destroy it!"

[MainstreamMan]

Stevo-
Not arguing that she is an anarchist. She did run for office after all...

But the Anarchist Cheerleaders are opposed to the power of capital, one of the three sources of power that Proudhon identified... and after all..."To attack one of them is equivalent to attacking all of them."

[Peter James Bond]

You're a total dumbass, Jason Ligon, sr2, et al. Did you read the article?

She's not in school drawing "A"s on her notebook, she's a special needs coordinator at a public school. That's after she and her sister invented THE most fun and entertaining protest tactics in the last decade. Gripe all you want about boring, humorless anarchists, but you aren't describing the Jennings sisters.

Maybe if she didn't freely discuss the contradiction between being both an elected official and an anarchist, the derision of these commenters would be justified.

We're all forced to live with contradictions between our beliefs and the world we're stuck with. Can you be a libertarian if you pay taxes or if you use the post office? What crap.

[Wild Pegasus]

Some of her positions are correct, such as opposing gentrification (which usually means "eminent domain" and plenty of giveaways to political connections). Not forcing people to pay for beach replenishment is also anarchist.

Transparent local government is a wash - my hometown holds open meetings all the time, and no one goes. They're dreadful. Civilian police review boards is exactly the kind of reformist statist claptrap that is profoundly NOT anarchist. Worry less about review boards and more about making fewer things illegal.

- Josh

[Wild Pegasus]

Oh, and on the subject of great headlines, upon the death of the XFL:

"He Hate Me, Us Hardly Knew Ye"

- Josh

[Larry A]

Some of her positions are correct, such as opposing gentrification (which usually means "eminent domain" and plenty of giveaways to political connections).

"Opposing gentrification" can also be a code word for "We need rent control."

[Dogzilla]

"Anarchist Cheerleader"...I knew it was too good to be true. Those two fantasies probably shouldn't be combined anyway.

[MainstreamMan]

Jason,

I think you are about right with one exception. In its original formulation, Anarchy was absence of coercive power, no matter the source, so absence of state is not anarchy if there other coercive power structures around such as the church or a capitalist exploiter.

How such a society would end up functioning is beyond me. My guess is that coercive power structures would arise quickly in one form or another.

[MikeP]

other coercive power structures around such as the church or a capitalist exploiter

And somehow a proletarian mob is never a power structure...

[Ruthless]

"Nobody comes to anarchy with the primary belief that there should be no state, whatever the result."

Hello, MikeP,
I do.

[MikeP]

Ruthless,

Color me mistaken.

But, do tell, how would you react should something that looks like a state and quacks like a state -- but calls itself a voluntary mutual aid society -- arise out of an anarchist society?

[Aflac Ruthless]

MikeP,
It would arise out of an anarchist society.
Nevertheless, state is the problem, not the solution.
Anarchy to suit me will only arrive in some parallel universe.

Wait!
"voluntary mutual aid society"?
Pshew!

[John]

I'm hoping the headline's a typo and the ACTUAL headline is "Antichrist Cheerleader Elected!"

[MainstreamMan]

"And somehow a proletarian mob is never a power structure..."

Like I said, I think a coercive power structure would arise quite quickly...and I think Ruthless and others would see it for what it was and oppose it.

[Andrew Ian Dodge]

Wow a cheerleader who is an idiot? And this is news?