Anarcho Capitalism

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Anarcho Capitalism, or Ancap, is a right-libertarian meme built around a black-and-yellow smiley face that gleefully privatizes every public service. It grew out of Reddit and 4chan communities in the late 2000s and locked in its comic format by 2016.

political satire memesfar right memesculture war memessubreddit origin memeslate 2000s memes

Overview

Anarcho Capitalism, commonly shortened to Ancap, is a right-libertarian political meme built around the abolition of the state and its replacement by private property, voluntary contracts and unregulated markets3. Online it is instantly recognizable by its black-and-yellow color scheme, borrowed from the Swedish Anarkokapitalistisk Front flag, and by a smiley face mascot that shows up in most Ancap image macros1.

The meme circles a running joke where every social service, from roads to police to courts, gets replaced by a private company in cartoonishly literal ways. Ancap comics usually depict the black-and-yellow smiley face cheerfully proposing dystopian free-market fixes to ordinary problems, with the humor coming from how far the punchlines push libertarian first principles1. The underlying philosophy draws on classical liberalism and the American individualist anarchist tradition of Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker and Murray Rothbard3.

How It Spread

Ancap picked up cultural furniture across the early 2010s. On March 18th, 2011, YouTuber Morrakiu uploaded a parody of Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow" rewritten around the movement's flag colors2. Later that year, on October 8th, 2011, the Anarcho-Capitalism Facebook page was created and eventually pulled in more than 67,000 likes3. On May 9th, 2012, the Learn Liberty YouTube channel published a Nigel Ashford lecture that became a common introductory link for newcomers4.

The visual style locked in with the launch of the Anarchyball Facebook page on June 21st, 2013, which drew Polandball-style comics around anarchist factions6. Academic-flavored discussion moved to /r/AnCap101, created for less shitpost-heavy debate7. The mascot format hit critical mass on August 9th, 2016, when Redditor MemesThief posted a bundle of black-and-yellow smiley-face comics to /r/Anarcho_Capitalism1. The same day, a matching "Ancap Meme Thread" was posted on 4chan's /pol/ board, and by that month iFunny already hosted more than 2,300 images under the #ancap tag3.

How to Use This Meme

Ancap image macros typically pair the black-and-yellow smiley face with a caption in which a public service is privatized to an absurd degree, like a toddler being billed for using a sidewalk. The joke works whether the reader is a self-identified libertarian celebrating the punchline or a critic mocking it, which is why the same templates get shared across pro and anti-Ancap pages1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Anarcho Capitalism

2007image macroclassic

Anarcho Capitalism, or Ancap, is a right-libertarian meme built around a black-and-yellow smiley face that gleefully privatizes every public service. It grew out of Reddit and 4chan communities in the late 2000s and locked in its comic format by 2016.

political satire memes far right memes culture war memes subreddit origin memes late 2000s memes

Overview

Anarcho Capitalism, commonly shortened to Ancap, is a right-libertarian political meme built around the abolition of the state and its replacement by private property, voluntary contracts and unregulated markets3. Online it is instantly recognizable by its black-and-yellow color scheme, borrowed from the Swedish Anarkokapitalistisk Front flag, and by a smiley face mascot that shows up in most Ancap image macros1.

The meme circles a running joke where every social service, from roads to police to courts, gets replaced by a private company in cartoonishly literal ways. Ancap comics usually depict the black-and-yellow smiley face cheerfully proposing dystopian free-market fixes to ordinary problems, with the humor coming from how far the punchlines push libertarian first principles1. The underlying philosophy draws on classical liberalism and the American individualist anarchist tradition of Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker and Murray Rothbard3.

How It Spread

Ancap picked up cultural furniture across the early 2010s. On March 18th, 2011, YouTuber Morrakiu uploaded a parody of Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow" rewritten around the movement's flag colors2. Later that year, on October 8th, 2011, the Anarcho-Capitalism Facebook page was created and eventually pulled in more than 67,000 likes3. On May 9th, 2012, the Learn Liberty YouTube channel published a Nigel Ashford lecture that became a common introductory link for newcomers4.

The visual style locked in with the launch of the Anarchyball Facebook page on June 21st, 2013, which drew Polandball-style comics around anarchist factions6. Academic-flavored discussion moved to /r/AnCap101, created for less shitpost-heavy debate7. The mascot format hit critical mass on August 9th, 2016, when Redditor MemesThief posted a bundle of black-and-yellow smiley-face comics to /r/Anarcho_Capitalism1. The same day, a matching "Ancap Meme Thread" was posted on 4chan's /pol/ board, and by that month iFunny already hosted more than 2,300 images under the #ancap tag3.

How to Use This Meme

Ancap image macros typically pair the black-and-yellow smiley face with a caption in which a public service is privatized to an absurd degree, like a toddler being billed for using a sidewalk. The joke works whether the reader is a self-identified libertarian celebrating the punchline or a critic mocking it, which is why the same templates get shared across pro and anti-Ancap pages1.

Frequently Asked Questions