Extremism is relative. To a monarchist, representative democracy is extreme. To a traditionalist, women having rights is extreme. To a feudal lord, capitalism is extreme. To a slaver, abolitionism is extreme.

Very often, ‘extreme’ views aren’t rational, true. But moderate views generally aren’t rational either. As General Sherman once opined, regarding why so many otherwise ordinary people blithely accepted slavery as a fact of life, even in the North, “Man is a creature of habit, not originality.”

Anarchism, or libertarian socialism, is not particularly irrational inherently. I think it makes some vital miscalculations, but history shows that anarchism, in practice, can work. Maybe not wholly in the way of idealists’ dreams, but what ideology does? I simply disagree that it is the optimal path forward for human civilization.