The difference between being coerced and coercing

[bkholdem]

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Just to be clear, do you concede that government is an acceptable form of self-defense against my fellow man?

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A government isn't a form of self-defense. It's a tool, like a gun. That tool can be use in self-defense, but the tool itself isn't a form of self-defense.

This tool can be used in "acceptable" ways and in unacceptable ways. How is your government funded?

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It extracts funds from some of those who I feel are a threat to me, in order to sustain itself and reduce their ability to do me harm. Sort of like me taking the knife from you when you charge at my child and using it to fend you off.

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Who is subject to it?

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Anyone I "feel" might harm me.

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In the knife weilder example we are not going on 'feel', we are going on observable behaviors that result in severe bodily harm in the immediate future.

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Really? Every time someone runs in your vicinity while wielding a knife they inflict severe bodily harm on you (or your kid or whoever)? Sorry bro, I was in the Boy Scouts. I call bullsh*t. You're trying to prevent an "attack" before it happens and you want to duck the question of when that attack begins.

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Bzzzt. Wrong. There are a multitude of behaviors (including complex facial gestures, posture, etc) that are being demonstrated and the person is not merely running, they are 'charging at' someone. While it is possibly true that 1 in 100,000 times a person assuming the posture and demeanor of a knife weilding killer and charging with a menacing look about them may be a psychotic person not intent on murder or someone hallucinating on drugs and immagining that they are charging at the devil who has a child in his clutches and is intending on killing that devil, or the person just saw the man who raped his 3 year old daughter and is going to kill that man.... the overwhelming majority of the time by a landslide...the person is a dangerous maniac and is going to do severe bodily harm to someone (who doesn't deserve it). No system is perfect. No human is perfect. No person can see the future.

You are silmply looking for a rationale to justify your violent means of keeping slaves to do your bidding. Admit it.