SHUT UP! Just STFU!

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Yes, that is likely true that people do cling to ideas for the sake of social identity. I know it seems apparent to me that people will cluster around a belief-set of such a nature.

I find your last comment sort of interesting, actually, as even though I don't bring it up too much, I am one of wp's self-proclaimed anarchists. Either I have to be an exception, or that was just an attack on my basis for believing as I do. I do think that such an stand does make sense for a lot of the high school anarchists though, perhaps not individuals who are more rationalistic with such ideas, such as David Friedman, whom I mentioned in another thread.

Well, I think Hans Christian Anderson said it best in his story The Emperor's New Clothes. The swindlers were able to get away with their hoax because anyone who disagreed with them obviously had s*** for brains. And nobody wanted to be labeled as such, because we all know how society treats those that are less mentally endowed, so they all went along with it. The same thing is happening now. Pick your cause. The minute you declare yourself for or against anything, out come the knives. We have become so polarized that we can't even see the other as human. Or see any merit in the other side.

There have been many times where I have felt like a minority person undercover at a KKK rally. As long as the hood is on and I keep my mouth shut everything is fine and dandy. But when the hood comes off and my true colors are revealed, look out! I am now considered the enemy. I feel like I have to go about living my life in disguise. It's not fun knowing that you know something about the other person, that you know, just by listening to them, that if they ever knew the truth about you, they would turn on you so fast it would not be funny. The Emperor's New Clothes is a great story, but the ending is completely unrealistic. What really happened when the little boy said the emperor had nothing on was that all the adults hustled him off for psychiatric treatment. They intimidated him into silence. And everyone was happy.

^

So AG, as a rational anarchist does it annoy you when dumb teenagers or mindless morons like Eugene's "Black Bloc" claim to be anarchists? I think a lot of people hold the whole anarchist thing in bad odor because of people like that, and I know that I would be irritated if I held your beliefs.

Well, I figure it is part of being an anarchist at this point. I mean, generally anarchists just aren't respected as thinkers, and the term is considered a reductio ad absurdum. I am personally not irritated for that reason, and I generally keep most of my beliefs to myself unless prodded, usually preferring to come out to seem moderate or even libertarian. Honestly, I actually get more pissed off at stupid libertarians(because they are more respectable and are close to my belief-set), such as one guy I remember who presented to a crowd for a political debate. He first started off with this point that he admitted seemed weak to other people(the complete legalization of drugs), and then he used a weak/terrible argument to counter it!! What is more terrible than that?? And the guy was even a local big shot for the party as well!! I had to groan because of this.

Around here, when people hear the word "Libertarian" they think of a few kooky groups of tax protesters that we have nearby that set up little communes, I'm always having to qualify what I mean when I identify myself as a libertarian. What you're describing is almost exactly the sort of thing that inspired my OP in this thread, people who are ostensibly "on your side" but do more damage than good to you. I got the thread title from a skit on The Chris Rock Show where he claimed that Colin Powell speaking at the UN set black people 3 steps forward, but Mike Tyson speaking in public set them 8 steps back, concluding with "Shut up Mike! Shut the f*ck up!"