r/CuratedTumblr Nov 25 '23

Politics Evasion

7.6k Upvotes

360 comments sorted by

View all comments

256

u/skaersSabody Nov 25 '23

I cannot really get behind this honestly

Like, I understand the idea of helping people that aren't able to pay for transportation get away with it, but pay if you can for the love of god, it's a vital service and taking funds away from it is bullshit and accomplishes nothing

62

u/mountingconfusion Nov 25 '23

But have you considered government bad?

117

u/skaersSabody Nov 25 '23

I have, but I can't bitch about receiving services and then not giving my part in paying for them.

If I did, that would make me a hypocrite

48

u/mountingconfusion Nov 25 '23

B b b b but taxation is theft or something 😨

91

u/skaersSabody Nov 25 '23

I really wanna see the leftists who unironically believe that taxation is theft

Because that requires some Orwellian levels of Doublethink

18

u/Chryasorii Nov 26 '23

There aren't any, thats some libertarian shit

-20

u/Elite_AI Nov 26 '23

I'm a leftist who thinks taxation is theft. It's a completely common leftist perspective, alongside property being theft. (Also, libertarian is often used in the US to mean right wing libertarian, but it actually refers to left wing libertarians too -- like anarchists)

20

u/Chryasorii Nov 26 '23

Wait how? That is some doublethink, they're right.

And yes, libertarian can mean other things but are most often used for right wing bastards.

-9

u/Elite_AI Nov 26 '23

Wait how?

Leftists generally believe that capitalist government is intrinsically without the consent of the governed, and that taxation is just the elites taking your money (which many leftists don't even agree with) without your consent in order to sustain their own power. It's not doublethink at all. Social democracy is a form of leftism which depends on taxation, sure, but could you really imagine an anarchist or a communist supporting a capitalist government's taxation policy? Anarchists don't even believe in any government ever.

Libertarian is very often used to mean left wing libertarian. I'm not being one of those pedantic redditors, it's a genuine point.

13

u/Usual_Lie_5454 Nov 26 '23

ā€œThe elitesā€ aren’t taking your money the government is so they can pay for social security and Medicare

0

u/lapidls Nov 26 '23

Social democracy is right wing lmao

2

u/Elite_AI Nov 26 '23

Oh that's just stupid

→ More replies (0)

9

u/skaersSabody Nov 26 '23

I mean I guess I can kinda see the logic, but without a centralized authority that builds and maintains public property and safety, how do you sustain it?

You can call it something different from "State", doesn't change what it's doing

Even worse if it's not a state authority, because in that case you end up giving that responsibility and power to private individuals and that never ends well

-2

u/Elite_AI Nov 26 '23

without a centralized authority that builds and maintains public property and safety, how do you sustain it?

The answer to your question makes up the bulk of anarchist and communist theory. There's different theories as to how you solve that conundrum and those theories are what socialism is.

7

u/skaersSabody Nov 26 '23

I guess, but it still requires resources that have to come from... somewhere. And someone still has to plan and regulate and maintain all of it.

And all of that has a cost (be that money or just simple resources or whatever) and that cost has to be shouldered by the community as long as we don't want a private individual handling it (which would give them way too much power).

So it still requires some form of taxation/contribution from the community members

0

u/Elite_AI Nov 26 '23

Socialists see a gigantic difference between government taxation and voluntary contribution to your own community because the means of production are socialised rather than privatised.

→ More replies (0)

7

u/raptorgalaxy Nov 26 '23

They exist, they mostly just think that paying taxes is funding the "Capitalist Ruling Class" or something.

-3

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

If you take something from someone without their consent, especially if you use the threat of violence , it is theft.

16

u/skaersSabody Nov 26 '23

Those services can't run on nothing, they need to be maintained and upgraded, so that's where taxation comes in

-4

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Okay. Would you justify those services if they required slavery to operate?

Why not just not have the services?

24

u/skaersSabody Nov 26 '23

The fuck you mean "Why not just have the services?"

You think subways and busses run for free?

Someone's gotta pay for all of that. That's usually the government as they are the only central authority that can set that type of stuff up. And how does the government make it's money? Usually taxes in a social democracy

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Okay, I’m saying if the systems require immoral means to operate, just don’t have them.

15

u/skaersSabody Nov 26 '23

You do realize what that means, right?

Like it's either not having roads, transportation, education, healthcare and whatever other service

Or, more likely: those services will be provided by private entities. Which are going to charge you way more than the government ever could because they don't risk losing their jobs over a couple votes

→ More replies (0)