Anarchist Death Camps

I don't engage in debates with statists as much as I used to. Part of this is because I've heard all of their arguments. They never develop new ones so each debate is just another rerun of a TV show I've seen dozens of times before. It's boring.

The first argument they always make is that without government humans would be ruled by the law of the jungle. Man would prey upon man. The strong would subjugate the weak. This argument is laughable on its face. First, the law of the jungle isn't a case of one against all. Many animals that dwell in the jungle cooperate. Birds flock together for common cause. Mammals do the same. Some birds even cooperate with some mammals by landing on the mammals and eating attached parasites. In this way, they both benefit. The bird gets a meal and the mammal is freed from a parasite. The law of the jungle is far more complex than statists claim. If we humans behaved the way statists claim, we'd never have formed communities in the first place. But we did, which demonstrates our innate ability for cooperation.

The second argument they always make is, who will build the roads? This question is really about large infrastructure projects in general. Building dams, nuclear power plants, water treatment facilities, etc. Unlike the previous argument, this one at least has some validity. Anarchists have a poor record when it comes to large infrastructure projects. However, displaying their usual shortsightedness, this question implies that large infrastructure projects are always a net good. They're not. There are a lot of large infrastructure projects that are downright awful.

How many death camps have been built by anarchists? How many genocides have been perpetuated by anarchists? How many nuclear weapons have been made or used by anarchists? The answer is the same for all three: none. If you ask the same questions about states, the answer is also the same for all three: countless.

Death camps, genocides, and nuclear weapons are either large infrastructure projects themselves or require large infrastructure to support. Death camps are an all to common form of state infrastructure. The Nazis can claim the most notoriety for building death camps and the auxiliary infrastructure to support them, but Imperial Japan, Maoist China, The Soviet Union, and many other states built death camps on a similar or even grander scale. Less countries like the United States and Canada think they're free and clear of such horrid behavior, let us not forget what they did to the American Indians. The United States and The Soviet Union both were in competition for building the most nuclear weapons. Both sides created nuclear arsenals that can irradiate every square inch of this planet's surface multiple times over.

The most commonly cited advantage of states is also their worst aspect. States can build large infrastructure, which gives them the ability to commit heinous acts on a grand scale. Anarchists aren't innocent of perpetrating murderous acts, but they've never been able to perform murderous acts anywhere near the same scale as states.

None of this is to say that all large infrastructure projects are bad or don't provide value to people. But you can't claim credit for only the good aspects. You have to acknowledge the bad aspects too. While anarchists many not have a good record when it comes to building roads, they also have no record of building death camps, committing genocides, or constructing means of ending all life on this planet.