Five Reasons Anarchists Make Awesome Friends

1. Anarchists are each really unique because we highly value sovereignty and individuality. We’re all wonderfully weird in our own ways.
2. Anarchists are really brave. Anarchist is a loaded word that carries a lot of stigma. We’ve been painted as thugs who wear black and throws things. It comes naturally to humans to want to be accepted. So when you meet a self proclaimed Anarchist, know that they’ve been stereotyped and misunderstood, but they’ve had the courage to stand up for what they believe in and stand out from the crowd anyway.
3. Anarchists are tolerant. We believe in people’s freedom to be who they are and do what they want to do as long as it’s not violent or it doesn’t infringe on the freedoms of others. Again, we place a high value on sovereignty and individuality, so we tend to celebrate people’s differences.
4. Anarchists are really interesting. We tend to be out of the box thinkers, so we have interesting commentaries on society and creative ideas about how we can do things better. We spend a lot of time philosophizing and imagining a better world.
5. Anarchists are trustworthy. What we see in others is a reflection of what we see in ourselves. The reason Anarchists trust others to govern themselves is usually because they’re trustworthy and peaceful themselves. Anarchists see the good in our fellow human beings.

• Obligatory disclaimer: There’s an exception to every rule. There are annoying, intolerant, untrustworthy, uninteresting, violent people who call themselves Anarchists, too.

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