OdiousOutlaw wrote
Reply to comment by hirao in What kind of anarchist are you and why? by hirao
Nonsense.
You know what speaking truth to power does? Absolutely fuck all.
If I were to walk up to a cop/judge/president/king and demand that they justify their power over me, what the fuck do you think they'd do? Best case scenario, they'd laugh and tell me to piss off. Worst case, I'd be executed for daring to question the rule of law.
Telling power to justify itself amounts to nothing; people with power do their best to preserve a monopoly on violence through force or propaganda otherwise they lose their power.
Do you think a slavedriver would suddenly stop being a slavedriver because one or more of his slaves told him that he should justify his ownership of them over a spirited debate?
hirao OP wrote
You people really need to stop using the word "power" as a pejorative. What about the people's power? Power is only bad if it's utilised for badness.
If a person refuses to justify his authority then that proves his authority isn't justified and they are an oppressor.
OdiousOutlaw wrote
A Chomskyist: "Hey, you, justify your authority!"
A ruler: "Okay." [Proceeds to use state-backed force to crush all dissenters, justifying their authority].
The ruler: "Anyone else think my authority is unjustified?"
The ruler's supporters: "No, sir."
The ruler: "Then by democratic rule, I'm a justified authority."
hirao OP wrote
That's isn't a justified authority.
OdiousOutlaw wrote
According to the dead dissidents, sure.
According to the ruler and all of their supporters, the ruler is a "justified" authority.
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