• shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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    1 year ago

    Cops are just gangsters most people trust sadly. They are a protection racket that steals from you (taxes) and is actually not required to protect you at all.

      • SyJ@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        tax bad
        cops bad
        corrupt military dictatorships good

      • frevaljee@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        What do you call taking someone’s money without their consent, using force/threat of violence?

        • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Taxes pays my education and healthcare, it funds the military that makes russia think twice before invading my country, it builds and maintains all the roads and bridges I use every day to move around, it pays food and housing for the people that can’t afford that themselves.

          I’m gladly paying taxes as long as it’s not all going to the pockets of corrupt politicans.

        • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Listen, I hate cops too, but if you’re taking part in and benefitting from modern society, you’re gonna have to chip in for that convenience. If you don’t like it, live off the grid.

          • frevaljee@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Sure, but that wasn’t my point. My point is that you have no say, and therefore it isn’t voluntary, making it theft technically.

            • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              If you’re using definitions of a word that can not effectively differentiate between two very distinct things, you’re using the wrong definition or the wrong word.

              Taxation is not theft. Piracy is not theft. Using definitions of theft that include them triggers George Orwell alarms in anyone who knows better.

              • frevaljee@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                How are they very distinct? If I am forced to pay someone money against my will, with threat of violence if I don’t, how is that not theft? Just because a state does it, does that make it different somehow?

                If I didn’t vote for it, it is by definition against my will.

                • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  You are committing what is called an oversimplification fallacy. I’m assuming you’re an anarchist? If not, how is it very different, you are opposing government’s right to run themselves. If so, please understand that arguing definitions is not how you will convince the 99% of the world who think anarchism is nothing but puerile stupidity that it isn’t.

                  That said, you seem to have ignored half my point, that piracy isn’t theft. Or are you saying you think it is, as well? Was it theft before it was illegal?

                  Better than trying to pretend taxation is theft, you should probably just affirmatively attack taxation with real reasons.

                  • frevaljee@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    You are committing what is called a fallacy fallacy, and do not address how they are different — you simply say that it is an oversimplification and call it a day. But arguing about definitions aside, taxation is not voluntary, at least not by default. And my opinion is that transactions should be voluntary.

                    I take it you refer to online piracy? It is in some ways a grey area. On one hand you are not taking anything away, you are just copying. But on the other hand, to cite yourself, that is of course an oversimplification. As you are stealing potential income. But it is virtually impossible to measure that “theft” in currency, since you don’t know if you would buy the good if you didn’t pirate it. A tax slip, on the other hand, is defined in dollars and cents.

            • mild_deviation@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              It’s not a very good point. You do have a say: vote.

              Though it can be reasonably argued that voting doesn’t work because of all the corruption, in which case all I can say is we need to stop the two party tyranny by ending FPTP voting and promote/enact ideas that reduce the influence that money can have on politics.

              • frevaljee@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                I would argue that voting doesn’t make it voluntary. Even if I don’t vote for a particular taxation, it might go through anyway if the majority wants it. Majority rule goes against the will of the minority.