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I feel like I'm in crazytown when I express distress about taxation - literally people forcibly taking away your property - and ppl act like I'm the crazy one. Sure, you could argue that this forcible theft is worth it, and I'll respect that, but it's still not crazy to be upset.

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Taxes are consented to by “we” as a collective, but probably not you or I as individuals. I think the nature of the distress is understandable, but if this is “force” then so is literally every act of government.

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I do think most things government does are in fact force and should not be done

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Is it force if it is (to some degree) consented to? You consent by living/working in the US and retaining citizenship. The alternative to, let’s call it, democratic “soft-force” that is consented to indirectly is far, far worse. 1

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Either you have a democracy, in which there is a degree of collective consent, or 1) authoritarian govt in which there is virtually none or 2) an anarchic state in which you are in extreme danger (which, inevitably, leads to #1 when a bigger guy decides he wants your shit) 2/2

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Excellent point. Libertarians always insist on private ownership, but they need to remember that without a Law, and a Government to apply it, and cops to enforce it, there's no owning things, there's only hoping nobody with a bigger stick will want to take my stuff.

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*sigh* for the absolute billionth time, libertarians generally support a government to protect citizens right to be free from force

6:12 PM · Apr 25, 2021

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Yes, of course. But my point is they also support a government that protects from theft but not a government that protects from illness: that's inconsistent.