Anti-authoritarianism

Anti-authoritarianism is the attitude(s) or movement(s) against excessive or unjust political (governmental) authority, also known as the libertarian movement (in Europe and about everywhere else in the world; in the United States it means something else). To a libertarian, almost any government authority (or force) is considered excessive and unjust; to an anarchist, any [force-backed] government itself is seen as excessive and unjust.

Some would say that there are two distinct movements of anti-authoritarianism, or two different areas of focus. One, the most conventional and widespread notion is that which focuses on eliminating authoritarianism imposed upon individual personal rights and freedoms (rights to beliefs, speech, and behaviors such as drugs and sex), and often to groups which represent such persons' freedoms or other interests which the established power sees as a threat (such as certain political parties, labor/trade unions, associations, clubs, cliques, gangs, tribes, etc.).

The second (alleged) anti-authoritarian movement (which is closely aligned with the U.S.-style libertarian movement) is that which focuses primarily on eliminating authority imposed on individual and corporate property rights and financial freedom (rights to profits, deals, bargains, trades, sales, purchases, without any government overseeing, regulation, taxation, or other restriction/limitation), and often extends its opposition to groups which it sees as threatening of their unrestricted business activities and profits, such as labor unions, environmental groups, minority/subculture movements, anything else on the "Left".

The "anti-authoritarianess" (or libertarianess) of both groups are widely unrecognized and challenged as being invalid by the other. The first (leftist; pro-personal freedom; non-capitalist) kind is the most traditional, but the second [alleged] kind seems to be gaining more and more ground in recent years, especially with the "Internet/blogger revolution" and cyber-entrepreneur crowd.