Notice: This post discusses politics and religion, so it may rustle some jimmies.
Here in the US, April 15th is the deadline to file taxes with the federal government. When I was a librarian, this meant dealing with the last-minute filers as they tried to handle online forms without much computer experience, or find paper forms for them to fill out at our tables and desks. There was also some concern about people just clicking the first web search result to scam sites for "tax help."
I don't miss that part of the job.
People say, "nothing is certain except for death and taxes," but that sounds like a proverb coined by a tax collector, as does, "taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." What is civilized about institutionalized extortion to fund a bureaucratic mess which hides behind secrecy?
People say, "but without government, who would fund education, roads, welfare, mail service, police, fire protection, and innumerable other services?" I ask in turn, if these services are necessary, why would you need to force people to pay for them? A government monopoly funded by extortion guarantees waste and abuse, not provision of necessary services.
Additionally, taxation means we are compelled to fund systems we may oppose, including the war machine turning our neighbors into cannon fodder around the world. People focus on the government projects that give warm fuzzy feelings, but ignore the police state at home and militarism abroad. The US is among the most egregious at both in spite of proclaiming itself the "land of the free."
The Left acts as if Republicans pulled their authoritarianism out of thin air while ignoring their own party's trespasses and overreaches, and vice-versa when power switches party. But the war machine rolls on, and people die, sometimes long after the conflict officially ends. That is what taxes make possible.
And how do we fix the war machine? Is it by electing new leaders? Bush campaigned on a humble foreign policy in 2000. Obama offered hope and change, and won a Nobel peace prize, but then escalated every single Bush war and opened new fronts like Libya. Trump ran on "Make America Great Again," but largely failed to end the militarism while doing plenty of his own sabre-rattling. One of his last acts was the assassination of an Iranian general in Iraq with an airstrike.
Wouldn't it be a shame of peace were to break out instead?
I don't know whether that is possible, but the war I fight isn't one of guns and bombs, it is one of ideas. I can only poke at the assumptions people have about the world we live in, and ask you to question those preconceptions.
Christians, you claim to serve the Prince of Peace. Can you truly support war for the pride and ambition of men? Christ said to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's," but what is Caesar's? Not your soul. Not your life. Not your love. Not even necessarily the denarius with his face on it.
Replace the sophistry of political excuses with scripture and reason.
The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell in it.—Psalm 24:1 (WEB)
Therefore, whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.—Matthew 7:12 (WEB)
Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed.—2 Corinthians 13:7 (WEB)
Of course, test anything I say against reason and scripture, but I remind you to also do the same with your own ideas just as vigorously as you challenge mine.
"activated almonds" seems to be a consistently underutilized expression.
Posted using Political Hive
Can't say I recall that meme/saying.
Perhaps a bit more esoteric, it may have been in more right wing commentary circles.
When the Republicans abandoned Ron Paul, I abandoned the Republicans. That never made headway in the libertarian circles I was following
In more modern societies, war is an affair as bureaucratic as any other, and so war is perpetuated by the inefficiency of bureaucracy so leviathan that no king can command it to stop. - Kveta Nikolaievna Vamaruchenko, Forever Warrior: Confessions of an International Arms Dealer
The reality of forever wars is even more nightmarish than you describe. The order to assassinate General Qassim Soleimani was drawn up by the O-bomb-a administration, and Trump simply signed off on it because he is far too trusting of the top brass, which he eventually came to regret given that they lied to him constantly. Between chucklefucks like General Milley and Colonel Cringeman, the US military is effectively a rogue entity that only obeys its own commander-in-chief as long as he's willing to adhere to the long-term global destablisation plan that Bush Sr and friends came up with in 1992, because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, no more proxy wars. I should remind you that the USSR only came about in the first place because the international banksters funded the Red Army, which almost no-one knows about because the revolutionary communists completed their takeover of academia back in the 1970s and ever since have been perpetuating the narrative that the CIA is single-handedly responsible for every single socialist government collapsing, which is absolutely laughable given the CIA's track record of failure. That being said, the "intelligence" agencies are the true power centre in the US, so any genuine "president of peace" (I am laughing my arse off at Tulsi Gabbard's simps right now) will not be able to do anything, and considering that most "pacifists" in politics are all gung-ho for waging war at home, this is just the state (pun intended) of things. The RevComs are right when they say "we are not voting our way out of this," and they are not our friends.
"It makes no difference what men think of war," said the judge. "War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way." - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
But obviously the US is responsible for the collapse of any socialist regime ever, because there is no way enlightened socialist leaders could fail to account for the needs of the people. Socialism guarantees freedom and prosperity! Only reactionary late-stage capitalism in the midst of collapse could break the peoples' revolutionary republics!
As the Fallout games remind us, "war never changes." But we don't have to play that game. We don't have to join the chorus of ex post facto justifications for mass murder, demonize peoples because of their rulers, or cheer sending our enslaved to fight theirs.
We don't, but we do need to recognise that we live among people who think that way. Honestly, I think I have more respect for the Judge Holdens of the world than I do for the General Milleys. The former have no shame and are honest about the way they view the world; the latter are so cowardly that they frame their warmongering as protecting peace. The former cannot be reasoned with; the latter are so slimy that they will manipulate all but the most stubborn into agreeing with them. On his payroll is the man who says we should teach the Earth is flat so that artillery can't hit its target.
But Kaja, the Earth is flat! A shirtless man shouted at me on a TikTok video about how I was sheep if I believed science books, so I am totally convinced! After all, if I don't trust the DoD and CIA, obviously I can't trust NASA!
(Hopefully unnecessary sarcasm reminder)
TikTok is the Fake Ass Panda of social media. I refuse to believe it even exists.
Even charity was largely the domain of churches and nonprofits.
Pete Hegseth has a book in which he lays out how the progressives started squeezing out religion from schools. They sought to replace God with the State.
Progressives replace God with the State. The Christian Nationalists believe the Kingdom of God is built by politicians.
with sniper like accuracy.