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> The IRS did deliberately target conservatives though. A goverment agency in charge of something crucial like taxes targeting citizens based on their politica

> The IRS did deliberately target conservatives though. A goverment agency in charge of something crucial like taxes targeting citizens based on their political preferences? man, I am not from the US but that sounds utterly apalling for a democracy.

favorited 4y ago
That's OK, because "targeting citizens based on their political preferences" didn't happen.
- Octabrain 4y ago
  Just to be clear, was this some kind of conspirancy theory then?
  - hgsgm 4y ago
    The IRS is required to ensure that political lobbying groups pay taxes, but allow charities to not pay taxes. This job is impossible to do without raising controversy, because many political lobbying groups lie about their behavior.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    No. There are tax rules around political groups providing money for campaigns. The IRS is therefore obligated to look into political groups and make sure they are on the up and up on taxes. Under the Obama administration, the IRS used political keywords like "Occupy" and "Tea party" to make decisions about which groups to focus on, with limited resources. The IRS investigated both conservative and liberal political groups, with multiple investigations showing no evidence that the IRS sought to investigate more conservative groups than liberal, or of using the rules differently against conservative groups. It's just another instance of conservatives arguing that fair treatment is oppression because they get caught by rules more. It's the same as how facebook and twitter had to kneecap their "Fake News" filters because it kept labeling conservative posts as fake news. Conservatives bitched about this claiming they are being targeted but nope, just falling afoul of the same rules. Important to note that rules hitting one group more than others doesn't immediately signal the group is just bad actors. Consider poll screening tests from the jim crowe era. They consistently affected black people in worse ways, because it wasn't an honest and fair system, because it was designed to do so. I have not been convinced that facebook and twitter were applying their rules unequally. If you interview Fake News barons, they tell you that they just make more money and have more success targeting conservatives, often claiming that liberals are more likely to point out their articles are low trust or "Fake news" or should be taken with a grain of salt.

favorited 4y ago

That's OK, because "targeting citizens based on their political preferences" didn't happen.

Octabrain 4y ago
Just to be clear, was this some kind of conspirancy theory then?
- hgsgm 4y ago
  The IRS is required to ensure that political lobbying groups pay taxes, but allow charities to not pay taxes. This job is impossible to do without raising controversy, because many political lobbying groups lie about their behavior.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  No. There are tax rules around political groups providing money for campaigns. The IRS is therefore obligated to look into political groups and make sure they are on the up and up on taxes. Under the Obama administration, the IRS used political keywords like "Occupy" and "Tea party" to make decisions about which groups to focus on, with limited resources. The IRS investigated both conservative and liberal political groups, with multiple investigations showing no evidence that the IRS sought to investigate more conservative groups than liberal, or of using the rules differently against conservative groups. It's just another instance of conservatives arguing that fair treatment is oppression because they get caught by rules more. It's the same as how facebook and twitter had to kneecap their "Fake News" filters because it kept labeling conservative posts as fake news. Conservatives bitched about this claiming they are being targeted but nope, just falling afoul of the same rules. Important to note that rules hitting one group more than others doesn't immediately signal the group is just bad actors. Consider poll screening tests from the jim crowe era. They consistently affected black people in worse ways, because it wasn't an honest and fair system, because it was designed to do so. I have not been convinced that facebook and twitter were applying their rules unequally. If you interview Fake News barons, they tell you that they just make more money and have more success targeting conservatives, often claiming that liberals are more likely to point out their articles are low trust or "Fake news" or should be taken with a grain of salt.