Goooo AnCap!
If Somalia were AnCap, you'd have a point. But it's not, now is it?
Away from the cities (where state influence was the worst, and where violence is now the worst), Somalia is primarily Anarcho-communist. Oops! You just proved my point.
Check out this research:
http://www.peterleeson.com/Better_Off_Stateless.pdfLOL! I think you should write your asshat libertarian friend with the news that Somalia is AnCom. His paper will need to be rewritten with fresh fabricated data.
LoL indeed... Nowhere in that paper does he mention "capitalism," nor "AnCap." He uses the terms "statelessness" and "anarchy" several times, though.
So... your point was?
Intelligent people maintain multiple sets of contradictory beliefs simultaneously.
No, insane people do that. Orwell even coined a term for it:
Doublethink.
The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.
and i still beg to differ. taxes for example are not oppression, as long as they do not threaten property existential for living or are being used as a excuse for other, arbitrarily applied measures like intimidation, harassment or inspections/surveillance.
So, it's cool, then, if I come and steal some of your money, as long as I don't take so much that you can't survive without it, and I'm using it to help my Grandma afford her surgery?
my main criticism of ancap is completely unrelated btw, mainly that there is no meaningful transition from existing forms of government, it is inherently unstable and if ever achieved is entirely barbaric in its treatment of those that cannot fend for themselves.
The transition is simple, there's even a method to do so against State resistance:
Agorism, though with the help of the State, the transition can be much more smooth. They need only give up their monopolies.
As to it's inherent instability, That's just plain false. Unless you can point to proof of that?
And it's treatment of those who cannot fend for themselves is entirely dependent upon the people who make up the society. If the welfare of those who can't fend for themselves is valued, then charities that take care of them will thrive.