And even more generally, Western liberal democracy which most flavors of anarchism and socialism view as a system that is neither based on securing liberty or particularly democratic.

Thank you, that makes more sense.

Tangent topic, but how does an anarchist system prevent popular leaders from gaining authority? Also, how does it defend against an aggressive authoritarian neighbour that wants to annex territory?

I like the idea of anarchism in theory, but I just don't see how it could be possible to get there from here where every existing power would see it as an ideological threat to their own power (similar to how capitalist powers reacted to communism), or how it would maintain stability if it was realized.

And as much as I don't like the monopoly on violence system because it seems to encourage corruption on the side with more access to violence, I can't help but think it would eventually devolve into a lot of in-fighting.

Like power constantly rises from nothing more than physical strength, charisma, or good strategic thinking in groups of humans. Some primates other than humans go to war with their neighbouring groups. Egypt became a kingdom when one tribe conquered the rest, and that one wasn't the first to try. Countless empires have risen and fallen, most of the time despite violent resistance of those who would rather be neighbours than subjects. The Vikings sailed around raiding for their own benefit and then later conquered regions like in France, Britain, Sicily, and Kiev. The Mongols did the same except using horses instead of boats. Then European powers did it. Then America started pretty much puppeting anyone who went against corporate interests while a cultural movement in Russia and China started out trying to move power out of the hands of their ruling class only to see even more authoritarian powers take over.

History is full of cases of "I don't care what you want, this is what I want and I'll just kill you if you don't go along with it." How could that change?

The great irony there is that the Tankies love anarchists. They want the west to burn themselves down.

It's honestly hard for me to believe there are more than a handful real Anarchists on the fediverse and not just a bunch of masquerading Tankies, because at the end of the day Anarchy will just bring any currently existing state one step closer to an Authoritarian taking complete control.

The real nail in the coffin is that there is a political party in the USA, in Canada, in Australia, and in the UK who would absolute regulate government and industry, keep courts clean, and protect and expand the rights of citizens: but anarchists more often side with the deregulating authoritarians.

We're apparently not speaking the language. I'm a liberal, and I'm a socialist.

Anarchist Socialist

OK, libshit

/s

Want to know how Luigi found what hotel Brian Thompson stayed at? It's right in his "manifesto." He used social engineering.

Social engineering is when you just take advantage of people's natural predilictions to give you info or access that you shouldn't have. For example, if he were to just call up UHC and ask them where the CEO was staying, they would likely just have called the police. Instead, he had to think of some plausible reason that someone might need that info through unofficial channels. I have no idea how he actually did it, but for example, Thompson was a famous womanizer who cheated on his wife. He was your standard sleazy executive scumbag. That can be exploited.

*Hi, CEO's office? I'm John Doe, an underling over at the CFO's office. My boss wants to give Brian a special surprise at this year's company meeting. We're thinking of hiring a few girls to come over and keep him company one evening. I need to know where to have them sent. I would send an email or look up the info in our records system, but, as you can understand, it's best if there's no paper trail. Can you let me know what hotel he's staying at?"

These social engineering methods are the same tools scammers use, but they work just as well for assassins.

She spent her entire life since 15 as a peaceful protestor, she's not on your side if you're some "burn it down, both sides bad" idiot.