Also, I don't quite think taxation is theft. Have I been brainwashed OMG haha

haaahaha.

Well, do you choose to pay taxes or do they make you? If you don't pay (not sure how it is in your country, but in the US) eventually men with guns will come to your door and kidnap you.

So it's forced. Which seems about the same as the mugger on the street threatening me to hand over my wallet.

What the money will go towards doesn't seem like it should matter. Maybe the mugger on the street is starving and had a good reason, but technically theft still happened.

I do think it's a little nuanced in the sense that in a perfect world we wouldn't have nation states as they currently exist. And the principled point of contention with these nation states I think comes down to their claim of territory (that a small group of kings or elected people or whatever don't legitimately own the land that they claim to own).

Once you accept their legitimate ownership of the land, everything else can be kind of fair. (Similar to how I could say "if you want to cook lunch in my house, I get half of the sandwich.")

Maybe I'm being a bitch, but it wouldn't really be theft.

And these state structures do need and depend on a stream of money. So if taxes ended overnight, it would be chaotic and disrupt the life we currently have. So I definitely see where your mind is at.

It's possible that "state laws are backed by the use of force and fundamentally violent in nature" (and therefore we ought to rethink the role of these structures and if there's something better) might be more accurate than "taxation is theft".

I think the statements are similar. But the word "theft" might have to do with a legal definition, by which the government would be cleared. Because they write the laws and have expressly allowed it, lol. And also because it flows consistently out of the idea that they legitimately own the land.

So "taxes, like all government rules, are backed by punishment and the use of force" might be more crisp and indisputable.

So in short, no I don't think you're brainwashed!! 😌😅 whewww

I think it's nuanced. Essentially because we live under very flawed and imperfect structures.

But I do think on a p2p level, the idea that someone does something or creates something with their life's energy and Bob or Joanne asks the government to take some of that and give it to them.. is certainly an attitude of theft and kind of like a gross belief that they own another person's will or energy.