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a "reactionary" is not someone who reacts, but has concrete political meaning; it refers to people who wish for a return to some status quo ante where people knew their place, where the rich and powerful were accorded unquestioned deference and respect, where the unwashed masses knew they were to keep quiet, and where crazy ideas like justice and egalitarianism were the harmless pipedreams of professional philosophers, housebroken intellectuals, and other court jesters. being a reactionary does not necessarily mean that such a person has a plan of action for turning back the clock; it's more a wistful nostalgia for simpler times of rigid hierarchy and unchallenged physical and psychic domination by patricians over the proles. it is always a right-wing phenomenon. your use of the term has much more to do with what it sounds like (and how pop psychologists use it) and almost nothing to do with the way it's used as a political signifier. reactionaries are certainly reacting to something, but what? the term describes folks who are against progress -- specifically the many ameliorative policies promoted by progressives. The binary is Progress versus Reaction. reactionaries are not those who have an instinctive/emotional response/rebellion/refusal to something or someone (like your characterization of Crimestink and plenty of other people, anarchists of course included), but those who are reacting to the erosion of traditional values more at home in the Middle Ages. read better books.