"When you fail to fight for power, you concede power to those who already have it." -

So the people in Argentina right now who are forming workers collectives to take over factories and neighborhood assembelies are not confronting power? Just because people are begining to refuse to work within the framework of the state dosen't mean that they are failing to confront power, it just means that they are confronting all power, whether it is manifested in the form of the state, or everyday interactions.

"When you fail to put your movement forward as the alternative to those who rule, most of your ranks choose to support the so-called lesser evil as the "real" alternative."

? Anarchists have always shunned the electoral system, and opted instead to work in their own communities to replace the state and capital in the here and now.

"When you red-bait those who call for democratic socialism as AUTHORITARIAN socialists, you cut yourselves off from your true allies." -

As modern activist circles are turning away from socialist parties, democratic canidates, small reforms, etc, and instead for anti-hierarchal, anti-authoritarian, consensus based, affinity group structures, spokescouncils, etc, it seem that we may not be gaining people openly calling themselves anarchists, but we certainly are gaining people acting like anarchists. (Even the values and structure that make indymedia work so well...)

Calling statist socialists authoritarian isn't distancing them, they are authoritarian. They want to take over an authoritarive body that would end up controling the miliarity, the police, the economic system, etc. They would have control over force and coersion, they would be authoritarian.

We don't have to distance ourselves from you, you do that yourself.