I mean it in the more direct sense of “no rulers”, not molotov cocktail-throwing goons.
The #1 problem of philosophy is that the human languages we use to communicate (ex. English) are irrational. There is no fixed authority on the meaning of words. An appeal to etymology is considered a fallacy.
In the popular usage of the word “anarchy”, it means “no hierarchies” - even on the basis of Property Rights, contracts, and other things that right-libertarians consider to be the foundation of a free civilization.
Paraphrasing Ayn Rand, it’s either Property Rights or molotov cocktails. The overwhelming majority of self-proclaimed “anarchists” reject the former. They are low-IQ burger-flipping mental-teenagers who hate work, fail to progress in life, and rationalize away their sense of failure into a false delusion of righteousness. Such delusions can be more addictive than heroin, with the brain refusing to see the more painful reality. Anarchists want to be “equal” to their so-called “oppressors” - successful people who work hard and do the right things (and whose ancestors worked hard and did the right things).
Vacuums of power cannot exist. If you overthrow an existing government, you get a bloodbath until another one takes its place. What we want is for the power to be held by the Property Owners over their own Property - which for everyone begins with their own body, their health, their time, their mental and physical ability, their reputation, etc.
Pure free market “anarcho-” capitalism is a meta-system, like a kernel of a computer operating system. No one just runs the kernel - you use it to run other “apps”. It isn’t an absence of government, but the slow result of governments fragmenting, facing more international competition (including from a zillion new startup micronations, like seasteads and space stations), evolving into voluntary systems of governance, and becoming more accountable to their subscribers.
As much as I morally support secession and complete liberty, I don’t see how that’s an option when others with guns will not allow you to do that.
There are limits to all earthly power. Governments are successful, not because they have a gun pointed to everyone’s head at every moment, but because they control what’s happening inside the heads of those they govern. They want their sheep to think that government is warm, fuzzy, and benevolent. If they start killing peaceful charismatic media-savvy secessionists like Gandhi, ever-more of their sheep will see the contradiction.
We need non-violent, dedicated, active civil disobedience and tax resistance making the government look bad. And it would then become in the government’s own self-interest to let the dissidents secede.
