Today was somewhat stressful at the library. April 15th is normally the deadline for filing tax returns, and many people who had put off their paperwork were frantically trying to file online or make copies for physical paperwork. I try my best to educate them about web searches and the potential for phishing as they try to file at the last minute, but I wonder how much effect I have in helping them avoid those scammers. This has also led to a disjointed chain of thoughts I will attempt to put into some semblance of order here.
Public domain
Fortunately for these procrastinators, this year has an ironic reason for postponing the deadline until Monday. April 16th is Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. Naturally, this means it is a pubic holiday with closure of federal government offices, and if it falls on a weekend, that also means the nearest workweek day is cancelled in observance of the holiday. Since Saturday is the 16th, Friday the 15th is a day off for the thugs and bureaucrats. That means the filing deadline is pushed ahead to Monday the 18th this year.
I find this celebration of emancipation ironic because income taxation as commonly practiced is slavery. Government claims to own your life and labor. It decides how much you may keep. Fail to comply, and you will be extorted further. Resist extortion, and you will be kidnapped. Resist kidnapping, and you will be killed. We have the illusion of freedom through vestiges of a market economy, but we must show papers when asked, pay whatever is demanded, and beg for permission at every step in our lives to remain in compliance with the ever-changing landscape of legality. It may not be the chattel slavery of the antebellum era, but we are all treated as property of the State today.
April 19th is an interesting date, though, especially in light of Biden's latest firearms overreach and the constant burden of taxation on top of inflation and trade concerns. It's easier to go along to get along, but ask yourself, are you really represented? I don't want a new civil war or revolutionary war, but the seeds of conflict are being sown with wild abandon by the petty tyrants in D.C. so I advise preparing for the worst while we try to build our alternatives in the cryptosphere. If conflict comes, know whether you will fight, retreat, or surrender.
Public domain
Perhaps we can undermine the State and watch it wither away, but people who rely on plunder will not surrender their power easily. Would you rather let the leviathan state continue to grow, or work to starve it? Will future generations need to suffer for our tolerance the way we are suffering now for the failures of past generations to resist its growth? History does not repeat itself, but it does tend to rhyme. In 1775, the Regulars were coming. In 2022, the Thin Blue Line has replaced the Redcoat, and the Deep State of faceless bureaucrats demands total control. What is the best tactic for today?
