Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Difference between revisions

* Music example: Punk rockers often invoked this trope, posing as [[Bomb Throwing Anarchists]]. The [[Ur Example]] may be the band [[Sex Pistols]], whose famous song "Anarchy in the UK" goes as follows:

* The Blow Out, a [[Looney Tunes]] cartoon, had [[Cross Dressing Voices|Lucille]] [[Large Ham|La Verne]] - [[Hey It's That Voice|aka]] [[Snow White (Disney)|The Queen]] - as [[No Name Given|The Bomber]]. He adorably is foiled by [[Characterization Marches On|a child version]] of Porky Pig.

* The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction Baader-Meinhof Gang] (claimed to be anarchists in the [[Cold War|West German]] media [[Shaped Like Itself|because they were bombers]]). [[Enforced Trope|Enforced]] insofar as they [[Terrorists Without a Cause|played to expectations as gun-crazed psychos]], squandering any popular sympathy for their cause. For more information, see ''[[The Baader Meinhof Complex (Film)|The Baader Meinhof Complex]]'', the events behind the film are [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/movies/16kapl.html?_r=2 analyzed here].

** The RAF ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction Red Army Faction], not [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force these guys]) actually had some measure of popular support: a poll showed about 25% of Germans under 40 felt sympathy for them and as many as one in ten youths was ready to hide one of its members.

** Four of the anarchist leaders were sentenced to death, and one killed himself in prison. Interestingly, no one actually knows who did it, and it seems like they never will - however, one of the main theories is that it was [[False Flag Operation|an agent provocateur]]. For that matter, the initial blast only killed one police officer; the other causalities were due to the police opening fire on the crowd, and, apparently, themselves (it was dark.) One report put the number of civilian deaths at around 50. The Other Wiki, of course, has more information and details. There were no charges over these deaths, and indeed the anarchists on trial were charged with inciting the violence through their writings or speeches, rather than committing it directly.

** At the time, "mad bombers" were all assumed to be anarchists, and vice versa, based on the notoriety of the assassination attempts, hence the origin of the stereotype. Ironically, in reality, most anarchists at the time were basically [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/council_communism council communists] -- the people who wanted Russia to be run democratically from the ground up by workers councils. They all got killed by Lenin. So basically, anarchism at the time was another name for communism ''without'' the dictatorship part, not nihilism. (In the US, they briefly took over East Saint Louis during a General Strike and turned local governance, mail, etc. over to the Unions until the Federal soldiers seized control of the city). The same thing happened with the Seattle General Strike in 1919.

* Italian anarchists and revolutionaries of the Turn-of-the-Century seemed to be particularly [[Ax Crazy]] when compared to others, and it wasn't rare for them to attack rulers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Angiolillo other] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennaro_Rubino countries] that had no relation whatsoever with Italy or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Orsini sympathised with it].

** Somewhat more plausibly in the 14-16th century, when some of the [[Torches and Pitchforks|peasant revolts]] during the Reformation ''were'' anarchist. The leader of the Anabaptists was drawn and quartered for proclaiming that he would rather the Turks invade Germany ([[Values Dissonance|a realistic proposition at the time]]) instead of having self-proclaimed Christians [[Technical Pacifist|rule by force]]. In England in the 1300s, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occams_Razor William of Ockham]'s seminary students were Socialists of sorts who tried to eliminate all rulers in England and set up... they weren't sure yet. Their Peasant's Revolt [[What Could Have Been|nearly deposed the monarchy]] [[Alternate History|in the 1300s]], but was turned back at the gates of London. The leaders then met with the king to discuss reforms. He promptly killed them all, promised reforms to their followers (that never happened) and pardoned them, staving off any further revolt. The Diggers in the English Civil War were also essentially Christian anarchists and [[Actual Pacifist|Actual Pacifists]], meaning they didn't last long when the government cracked down. This was also when the word "anarchist" was used the first time in the modern sense, referring to such radical groups.

[[Category:Trope]]