Things will start shifting when people understand that "legitimate" and "illegitimate" labels are irrelevant. Government is just a privileged group of people wi

Things will start shifting when people understand that "legitimate" and "illegitimate" labels are irrelevant. Government is just a privileged group of people with a monopoly on violence. It is an institute of violence. All things you don't like are direct products of the first principle: these guys can use violence to get what they need, others cannot. When you stop thinking in terms of laws and start thinking in terms of negotiation, voluntarism and coercion, you will understand where 99% of social problems are coming from. Ask yourself a question: in practical terms, what power do you as a citizen have? Government can do all sorts of shit to you, but the worse that can happen is that someone somewhere as a scapegoat will be fired, or not re-elected, or not having a bonus in the end of a year. And non-governmental person will have hard time going through labyrinths of bureaucracy where no one is ultimately responsible for anything (ultimately, "voters deserve the gov they elect", the best excuse ever). You as a person, if you misbehave, you'll get all sorts of troubles from government that no government official will ever get from you. Your bank account can be frozen. Your passport can be revoked. Your business is never fully compliant with myriads of laws and their interpretations and can be shut down any day. Your taxes are not always perfectly declared because the whole process is so complex, you can never do it "right". You can vote for some dude or gal and blame them on the internet. But that's not power at all. You cannot vote for not having a government. You only vote for someone to control parts of your life. The truth is: it does not matter what government does good to you. Only thing that matters is how conflicts are resolved. In your private life you resolve conflicts on voluntary basis. You pay for service if you like it and don't pay if you don't. You can go writing about how Facebook is not nice to you, but you can always sign out and they will not run after you. Also, Facebook does not have guns and trained professional sadists. Government "solves" conflicts by force. Only government has trained sadists with well-oiled guns. Only they can shoot people and get away without imprisonment. Only government bullshits everyone how it is important and how loving government is the same as loving society. If you disagree with the government, you have no power and a gun pointed at you. All the time. You don't (re-)negotiate with government like you do with a waiter in a restaurant, your landlord, employer, employee or a business partner. If you dislike the war on drugs, the most effective way to protest would be not to support it with your money. But you cannot. You MUST pay your taxes and you MUST use your local currency (with hidden tax called inflation). You, of course, can run away and live under another government with all the same features. If you think that government is legitimate, then you must have some theory of justice. I don't have any theory of rights or justice, I'm just pointing out the violence that government tries to hide. If you are okay with it, then please don't get upset when government spies on you or kicks you in the ass. It's just how things tend to be when you allow violence to be at the root of your ideology.