>> The part where you have to do semantic contortions in order to make it a true statement. If anyone's guilty of butchering everyday language in order to make

>> The part where you have to do semantic contortions in order to make it a true statement. If anyone's guilty of butchering everyday language in order to make an obscure academic edge case, it's your redefinition of extortion to include taxation Actually, the definition of "extortion" is not controversial, and needs no twisting to fit taxation: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extort http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extort to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence, intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or the like. When a mafia threatens people with violence to make them pay "protection money", it's clearly extortion and clearly immoral.. but when governments threaten people with violence to make them pay taxes, that's.. perfectly fine? >> Common sense does not make people think "extortion" when they hear "taxation". Actually, it's brainwashing that prevents people from connecting these dots. Wake up.