It wasn't that long ago that Washington, DC was just a normal American city, featuring a small cocoon of privileged white wonks surrounded by a seething and forcefully ignored black population. Standard stuff. But then the city was gobsmacked with a "young, hip vibe" that is in the process of turning the drab and nerdy confines of our nation's capital into a wacky blend of hip archetypes, each of which is good for at least one new Washington Post feature story. I mean, anarchist dog-walkers? It doesn't get any hipper!

Unfortunately, the classical anarchist texts don't address the dominance inherent in almost all human relationships with animals, Stevens says. It's only more recently that many animal-rights activists have started arguing that domestication is a self-serving form of oppression.

"I don't necessarily think they're wrong, but I also don't know that it's my biggest concern right now," [anarchist dog-walker Joshua] Stephens said. "I'm going to pick my battles, and that's just not one of them - and I say that as a 17-year vegan."

What will DC's young and fashionable animal rights community have to say about this philosophical anarcho-canine compromise? Paging the Washington Post! Hipness schism ahoy!

[Washington Post. Photo: Sam Felder/ Flickr]