War tax resistance started long before the internet — in people’s living rooms, where you had to know someone who was already doing it in order to get involved. […] Last spring, Jacoby, who had never been a tax resister before, took over for an older woman who ran the group for 40 years.
In extreme cases, tax protesters could face wage garnishment, property seizures or prison time, though criminal prosecutions are rare, according to University of Chicago law professor David Weisbach. “They don’t often do that, but they can. And so it’s a form of civil disobedience that comes with all the consequences of civil disobedience, which is that you are subject to legal sanctions, and they can be quite severe,” Weisbach said. “It’s certainly one way of protesting, but it’s a risky way, and it could be a very, very costly way.”
Weisbach said the tax protest movement isn’t necessarily about making a dent in the federal budget. “The whole point of civil disobedience is to change people’s views about the matter,” he said. “Martin Luther King, that’s what he did. They march on a bridge, they break the law, the law was unjust, and they changed people’s views about race. But did he directly change a law? Not so much. He changed people’s views, which caused laws to change.”
(Posting here not because I think it’s funny, but because it seems like satire exploring extremes of protest that aren’t mutual aid and on such overground groups that have been around for so long. Satirical actions need not be reprehensible.)
Yeah, that’s never going to go well.
Eh, I probably get in some kind of trouble for this, but I think it’s immoral to pay taxes to the current admin.
I’m too chicken shit to not do it. Next best thing I can do is not buy anything, and after than, is to stop working.
Make sure to post the followup story a few years down the road when all of these people are up in arms over their wages being garnished to make the interest payments on their tax bills for the rest of their lives.
Why would I? No taxation with out representation and I am not being represented in current affairs
so technical question are they just maxxing their exemptions on their W4 or are they skipping their required estimated payments? Weisbach is correct, they could be punished, but like, unless the government decides to make an example it’s going to just be a fee. that’s how the government punishes “tax cheats”, unless they are high profile, egregious (high dollar value, like hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in taxes owed), intransigent, and encouraging others to also cheat (see wesley snipes)
obligatory boilerplate this is neither tax nor legal advice you may not rely upon this for planning or blah blah i think i’m supposed to mention circular 230 it’s been a while
I would be worried about not paying anything and making it obvious. They collected everyone’s info, built up databases, and now have a secret police force that has a budget more than the Ukrainian military. If you pay very little they will say your smart and maybe make you president, if you refuse entirely they will say your anti-American
The older I get the more I tend to favor anarchy. It seems preferable to the current system.
i mean, the older i get the better i understand anarchy so yeah.
as an aside, i think we would all be well served to give at least a cursory study to the different schools of thought around politics. not to believe them or anything, just sometimes the anarchists have the most effective, concise lingo for mutual aid. sometimes the statesian republicans might have the best lingo for gerrymandering. the demsocs probably have the best lingo for the third thing [i haven’t had coffee yet give me a break], just like maga has the best lingo for jamming your own head up your own ass.
of course that makes agreeing on terms before a discussion hard as hell, but once you do you can have really productive (and fun!) discussions
Been practicing consensus for yrs. If done right, it is far better than our current decision makimg prpcesses
Imagine a world where the rich and the ones who seek power have completely unchecked ability to buy out, crush, and take control of any industry they want. No more worrying about health codes or what pesticides are used. No safety regulations. No fire police and EMS services…
That’s not what anarchy means.
No. It’s exactly what it means. There would be no government oversight for safety or regulation. No ability to prevent or slow concentrations of power, and no entity to prevent the rich and powerful from overtaking any markets. Anarchy is an extreme lack of government size and oversight.
Anarchy is also the abolition of property and profit incentives.
Which flat out will not work. There’s nothing in place that can prevent it.
If organizing has gotten to the point where an anarchist revolution has happened, then enough of that spirit will be left so that the people are brave enough to stop those who try to create property again out of nothing. Anarchy is governance by society and social pressure instead of government force.
If an anarchist revolution did happend, a sub-group of people would form a government and murder/enslave the people who don’t.
That’s the breeding ground for violence and power. Some people will always want more and that’s a simple recipe to cause violence to make it happen.
It’s being against unethical hierarchies. So not what you said, like, at all.
And how is that supposed to happen? A kumbeya moment where all the billionaires hold hands with everyone else and divest away all the shit they have?
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We kill them and take their money. Ezpz
So… We just like waiting for the exact right moment?
Ya because you are old enough to have experienced what you wanted to experience and have enough supplies to probably do fine if society collapses.
I would know, I’m an old man who is thinking the exact same thing. Just restocked on gas filters and MREs.
Just take care not to mistake rugged individualism for anarchism!
No,no,no you see years of propaganda have conflated the word anarchy with chaos therefore it must mean that!
I don’t care that I have unlimited access to the world’s information at the push of a few buttons that clearly show anarchism to be a broad political movement with mutual aid and cooperation at its core. I have preconceived notions that I must uphold!
YOU ARE NOT MY SUPERVISOR
instance name checks out 🔥
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
Palantir has entered the chat, scraped it for data, and will send ICE to murder these people under NSPM-7.
It was the proto-MAGA, Tea Party “patriots” that lauded whackjobs Ed & Elaine Brown for not paying their taxes.
Just deserts for Trump
During the standoff, a number of supporters were camped outside his home and were encouraged to record any attempt to take Brown from his house. This policy of opening the door to supporters led to the successful arrest of the couple by United States Deputy Marshals who disguised themselves as supporters.
I’m pretty sure this is a typo, but something about “just deserts for Trump” feels more appropriate.
(fwiw note that this was a case of Sovereign Citizen tax protesting, not tax striking/resistance. i couldn’t find info on Tea Party supporting this though the movement is tangentially related to SovCit)
I was there. It was tea partiers and libertarians
There is a group thats been organizing this type of resistance for a while, I learned: https://nwtrcc.org/
403 verboten!