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Hypothetically should Americans stop paying taxes? Their government has a history of arming extremists/conflicts worldwide. I understand the Ukrainian invasion

Hypothetically should Americans stop paying taxes? Their government has a history of arming extremists/conflicts worldwide. I understand the Ukrainian invasion is sickening/a travesty but I struggle to square what appears to be an underlying hypocrisy.

FabHK 5y ago
Indeed. And given the state of democracy in Russia and in the US (for now), you could argue that the average US citizen bears more responsibility for the actions of the US government over the last decades than the average Russian for the actions of the Russian government.
lostmsu 5y ago
Civil disobedience is a personal decision. Judging other people on their decision to practice it is also personal. In the U.S. it is even coded into the Declaration of Independence.
lostmsu 5y ago
Specifically Re: hypocrisy. The scale of the issue is the crux to the yes/no answer to your question. Plenty of people drew the line to choose "yes" for the US war efforts in the past. I personally do not believe it would be justified right now.
morpheos137 5y ago
Yeah but the main point is America mostly doesn't kill Europeans, certainly not western(ised) ones.
- strfrthwb 5y ago
  So you are saying it’s ok to kill people with some other skin color or language, like, Iraqi people for example?
  - fleddr 5y ago
    No, it's not OK, but the drive that some people have to make it an issue of skin color is misguided. It's not skin color, it's relevance. Equally cruel, but still different. The world is organized by a small group of countries and power blocks that are in charge, whilst the other 90% has no meaningful economical or military relevance. This in no way makes it "more OK" to do harm, I'm just saying the selector is relevance, not race.
bobthechef 5y ago
Nobody remembers Iraq anymore and the million dead Iraqis, the destroyed country, the resulting vacuum that produced ISIS, the destruction of Syria, and all under false pretense. Oh, and Afghanistan, that unconquerable land that makes a mockery of all its invaders. Or Libya. Or Arab Spring. Or... And these are just the last 20 years. Of course, Putin should be condemned, but it is interesting how nobody held the US to a similar standard.
- anonAndOn 5y ago
  Well, more than a few of those conquests were prevented by Russia. Assad wasn't spared because of his tactical genius. The calculus might change for a few regime changes this year...
tomjakubowski 5y ago
Quakers in the United States have been lobbying for this for decades. It has no hope of succeeding but, hey, at least they're trying.
stickfigure 5y ago
I know at least one person who, around the time of the Iraq war, mostly stopped working and no longer pays taxes. It can be done, but it's a pretty serious lifestyle choice. While there's a lot to criticize about US foreign policy, invading a western nation with a democratically elected government isn't on the list. You really can't sympathize with Saddam Hussein or the Taliban. I wouldn't (and didn't) stop paying taxes over it. If the US government invaded Mexico or Canada, I might.
ulzeraj 5y ago
Taxes stopped supporting war in the US a long ago because people don’t like paying for wars they don’t support. The “department of defense” finances its wars by borrowing from the FED. These credit card wars inflate the money supply instead and although everyone still loses its a sneaky way to steal money from people.

FabHK 5y ago

Indeed. And given the state of democracy in Russia and in the US (for now), you could argue that the average US citizen bears more responsibility for the actions of the US government over the last decades than the average Russian for the actions of the Russian government.

lostmsu 5y ago

Civil disobedience is a personal decision. Judging other people on their decision to practice it is also personal. In the U.S. it is even coded into the Declaration of Independence.

lostmsu 5y ago

Specifically Re: hypocrisy. The scale of the issue is the crux to the yes/no answer to your question. Plenty of people drew the line to choose "yes" for the US war efforts in the past. I personally do not believe it would be justified right now.

morpheos137 5y ago

Yeah but the main point is America mostly doesn't kill Europeans, certainly not western(ised) ones.

strfrthwb 5y ago
So you are saying it’s ok to kill people with some other skin color or language, like, Iraqi people for example?
- fleddr 5y ago
  No, it's not OK, but the drive that some people have to make it an issue of skin color is misguided. It's not skin color, it's relevance. Equally cruel, but still different. The world is organized by a small group of countries and power blocks that are in charge, whilst the other 90% has no meaningful economical or military relevance. This in no way makes it "more OK" to do harm, I'm just saying the selector is relevance, not race.

bobthechef 5y ago

Nobody remembers Iraq anymore and the million dead Iraqis, the destroyed country, the resulting vacuum that produced ISIS, the destruction of Syria, and all under false pretense. Oh, and Afghanistan, that unconquerable land that makes a mockery of all its invaders. Or Libya. Or Arab Spring. Or... And these are just the last 20 years. Of course, Putin should be condemned, but it is interesting how nobody held the US to a similar standard.

anonAndOn 5y ago
Well, more than a few of those conquests were prevented by Russia. Assad wasn't spared because of his tactical genius. The calculus might change for a few regime changes this year...

tomjakubowski 5y ago

Quakers in the United States have been lobbying for this for decades. It has no hope of succeeding but, hey, at least they're trying.

stickfigure 5y ago

I know at least one person who, around the time of the Iraq war, mostly stopped working and no longer pays taxes. It can be done, but it's a pretty serious lifestyle choice. While there's a lot to criticize about US foreign policy, invading a western nation with a democratically elected government isn't on the list. You really can't sympathize with Saddam Hussein or the Taliban. I wouldn't (and didn't) stop paying taxes over it. If the US government invaded Mexico or Canada, I might.

ulzeraj 5y ago

Taxes stopped supporting war in the US a long ago because people don’t like paying for wars they don’t support. The “department of defense” finances its wars by borrowing from the FED. These credit card wars inflate the money supply instead and although everyone still loses its a sneaky way to steal money from people.