re: #26 ProLifeLiberal

On that note, didn’t much of the Western World go through this Anarchistic phase a century ago? I’m pretty sure McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist.

this is a complicated question. there were theoretical sorts of anarchists, like baukunin, who postulated a sort of libertarian paradise of voluntary association, but didn’t do much about it. there were also “revolutionaries of the deed”, both anarchist as well as communist, who hoped to spark a violent revolution much the way that the oklahoma city bomber did - except with more socialistic ends in mind. these “revolutionaries of the deed” were the ones who assasinated public figures or set off the occasional bomb

but anarchists and other assasins were a background feature to the socialist agitation of the day, which feature activities such as newspapers, speeches, marches and strikes, and whose program from the 1870s through WWI included such radical ideas as no more than 60 hours week to be required of workers by employers, a minimum wage, laws against child labor, and the right to unionize

it bears mentioning that all of the above were condemned by the conservatives of the day as sure to destroy business and lead to the downfall of the american economy