Anarcho-Capitalism

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About

Anarcho-Capitalism, often abbreviated as Ancap, is a libertarian political philosophy promoting individual freedoms, private property and free markets through the removal of state governments. As a right-wing branch of anarchism, ancap is distinct from traditional left-wing branches that are typically associated with communist, syndicalist and mutualist economic theories. Online, ancap-themed web comics often use black and yellow colors taken from the Swedish AnarkoKapitalistisk Front flag.

History

Anarcho-capitalism is rooted in classical liberalism, a political ideology promoting individual freedoms with minimal government intervention initially developed in the 19th century United Kingdom from Whiggery and radicalism. Classical liberalism later inspired the individualist anarchist movement in the United States, which was promoted by political philosophers Lysander Spooner, Benjamin R. Tucker and Murray Rothbard.

Online Presence

On April 29th, 2007, an entry for anarcho-capitalism was created by Urban Dictionary^[9] user Robin d'Hood, who defined the philosophy as "capitalism without rulers."
On November 18th, 2008, the /r/Anarcho_Capitalism^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions about the political ideology. On March 9th, 2009, an entry on anarcho-capitalism was created on Rational Wiki.^[8] On March 18th, 2011, YouTuber Morrakiu uploaded a music video parody of the 2010 rap song song "Black And Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa (shown below).

[This video has been removed]

On October 8th, 2011, the Anarcho-Capitalism Facebook^[6] page was launched, gaining over 67,000 likes in the next five years. On May 9th, 2012, the Learn Liberty YouTube channel posted a lecture on anarcho-capitalism by Dr. Nigel Ashford (shown below).

On August 3rd, the /r/AnCap101^[4] subreddit was created for academic discussions about the political philosophy. On February 16th, 2014, a Facebook^[7] page mocking ancap was launched titled "Still Laughing at 'Anarcho'-Capitalism".

Comics and Image Macros

On June 21st, 2013, the Anarchyball Facebook^[1] page was launched, featuring Polandball-style comics related to anarchism. On August 9th, 2016, Redditor MemesThief posted a collection of web comics and image macros to the /r/Anarcho_Capitalism^[2] subreddit, many of which feature various ancap-themed dystopian scenarios presented by a black-and-yellow colored smiley face (shown below).

The same day, a post titled "Ancap Meme Thread" was submitted to the /pol/ (politically incorrect) board on 4chan, featuring similar image macros and comics.^[5] Several days later another thread featuring various comics and image macros about anarcho-capilatism was submitted on /pol/.^[11] As of August 2016, over 2,300 ancap-themed images have been shared on iFunny under the tag "#ancap"^[10].