There is no rule of law, then what are we doing here? Why are we playing ball?

Ok, MAGA wants to burn it down. Good for MAGA, they still don’t get to decide for everyone.

I won’t be able to do this for long. Why aren’t we in the streets? What’s so great about your life that authoritarian rule is not a threat to you?

  • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
    558·
    2 months ago

    You are free to do whatever you want to do, however, there are consequences to your actions. If you believe that the US government will collapse and there will be no one to start garnishing your wages when you don’t report your taxes, then by all means, stop paying them.

    Your reaction is “reactionary”, though. You come across as though you are looking for a reason to not pay taxes, and you think you’ve found one. Instead, you should be looking for ways to correct the problems you see. If you don’t like Musk, then find ways to undermine him. Refusal to pay your taxes isn’t it, though.

      • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
        3810·
        2 months ago

        You are giving false equivalency arguments. You are equating Musk’s abilities to some direct link in your taxes, as though the 25% you pay each paycheck is funding him. It isn’t. It is still funding garbage collection, national parks, welfare programs, and other critical infrastructure. Your taxes haven’t started going to new places. They are doing the exact same thing they have always done. You are being reactionary, and it comes off like you are either 15 years old and just learning about taxation, or 55 and learning about Libertarianism. Get a grip on yourself, realise that there is still work to be done, and being an infant about this shit isn’t doing anything but wasting people’s fucking time. If you don’t want to pay taxes, don’t. But don’t lie and say it’s about Musk. It’s selfishness. It’s because you can’t manage what money you have, and you think that little bit extra is going to make a difference. It won’t, though. You’ll still be broke because you spent all your money on weed and black light posters.

      • distantsounds@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        You are not alone. You have the ability to make positive change. If you would wish to have a larger impact, organize, find strength with those in your community and it will grow.

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    Because the state has a monopoly of violence.

    The only thing stopping me from just robbing food from a chain corporate store and redistrubuting it to everyone is the potential of going to prison (or getting shot on the scene by pigs).

    Same thing with taxes.

    I won’t be able to do this for long. Why aren’t we in the streets? What’s so great about your life that authoritarian rule is not a threat to you?

    Ask anyone in an authoritarian country (that was already authorian before 2025).

    One of the answer is: No one would take risks until there is nothing left to lose. Most people are not brave enough to take action (including me 😓 I’m afraid of the authorities). Survival instincts would overrule any desire to resist, its just the nature of living beings. It takes a lot of courage to even go to a protest, and much much more courage to revolt. There’s a scale between a peaceful protest and a revolt. Not paying taxes is leaning 90% towards the side of revolt.

    And many people still view the US as a full democracy, they don’t see the backsliding and regression to a hybrid regime (or are in denial about it), and eventually, authoritarianism.

    Some people are still trying to just “wait it out” until the next election. I’m not saying that this is right or wrong, but that’s just some people’s view on the trump situation.

    As a Chinese-American, I’m particularly afraid that by attending a protest, if I get arrested, they would start blaming, not just Chinese-Americans, but also the entire Asian-American community.

    Can you imagine how much more fucked this timeline would be, if the trump shooter was a black person, or hispanic person, or asian person, or some other non-white racial/ethnic group? (Or LGBT+, or any identity that’s not a Republican Straight White Person) Magats would be rioting and burning down places. We’d have a “Bleeding Kansas” right now.

    And its even harder for Asian Americans to find the courage to go protest, because there is often a lack of Asian American solidarity, where as Black Americans tend to have a stronger bond with each other in their community. Black American communities would encourage each other to take a stand, while Asian Americans don’t have as strong of the sense of community. (I mean, I would get called a “chng chng” in class, and my classmates who are US-born kids of Chinese ethnicity, would just sit there and watch me get bullied, like wtf dude?!? stand up for your bros/sis)

    TLDR: Most US Americans are just “waiting for the next election”, because direct action is very risky.

    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      2 months ago

      We are probably past the point where any sort of small conflict or skirmish can change anything. We need to think how we can establish a long term, sustained, counter to what the trumples are doing.

      This is just an example, but another poster wanted to say this is all a conflict of country vs city. Suppose that’s true, well then we a clear path to solving it. If rural people can attack city folks politically, there are certainly ways we can retaliate. Rural people are so isolated they have no idea how much they depend on the manufacturing and industry residing in cities. That doesn’t have to be the end of it either. We can leave the urban centers and do work from home or get by through other means.

      These are just examples of how we need to be thinking. We tried really hard to change the laws that oppress people and what resulted was an attack on equity and people who believe in it. We need to regroup, understanding the law has never been on our side, and form new strategies that accomplish the same goals.

      The last thing we should do is abandon our beliefs.

  • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 months ago

    Ok, but depending on your situation, you’ve already paid your taxes and filing them is you telling the IRS to give you a refund.

  • marshadow@lemmy.world
    71·
    2 months ago

    Because not paying your taxes will draw attention from what remains of the system. I’m not thrilled about paying taxes to the dead and looted corpse of our government, but it’s better to stay under the radar.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 months ago

    Just throw away all your money and live like half the rest of us, broke. If you have no money, you have nothing to tax.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        14·
        2 months ago

        You get a check? Like, those paper payments?

        I haven’t found one bank or establishment that’ll cash any of my former employer’s checks in over a decade. They tell me the companies I worked for aren’t registered as trusted employers/check issuers.

        My past employers all had to cash their own damn checks and hand me cash money. And that’s largely why I quit repairing computers, tablets and phones back in 2017, apparently all the tech companies here are shady, to the point even their own banks don’t trust them.

        Wish I knew what it was like to have an honest employer…

        Edit: I was even denied direct deposit from my own bank. Why? Shit, even the bank manager didn’t know. So I closed my bank account and have been on paper cash money for about a decade. I have no reason to trust banks that won’t even let money be deposited into my account.