• hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    Actually, there are a lot of people who do tax resistence for religious reasons. Quakers regularly resist taxes because they assert their religious right not to pay for war. There are both legal and illegal ways to resist.

    Let’s compare two scenarios: (1) a large number of people carry out a peaceful tax strike and are arrested, (2) people start killing “the rich.”

    In scenario 1, even after arresting people the system is still starved of resources. A violent reaction could even elicit more people to join or prompt a violent resistence that would overthrow the system.

    In scenario 2, if people actually end up killing anyone they’re arrested or just straight killed. They are seen as crazy people. The dead rich people are replaced with new rich people. Nothing changes. This has been tried a lot of times before. Even getting to the point of killing one billionaire would take several people working together. Spend some time just imagining how it would actually work, like how a plan like that would actually work, and you’ll understand why it’s not a good first option.

    • guacupado@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      The dead rich people are replaced with new rich people. Nothing changes.

      It will absolutely change things. The only reason this won’t work is because things aren’t actually bad enough yet that anyone is willing to go to jail for this. I don’t even want to go to into detail because I don’t know if that’ll get my banned or put on a list (lol) but if enough if the rich are publicly brutalized, it’d make the next person hesitant. This isn’t a movie where there’s always another evil general ready to replace the first.

      • hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        If that was going to work it would have on September 6th 1901. It didn’t work then, or any other time. Do whatever you want, but if you want to be useful there are much more effective things to do. Honestly, rich people are also trapped in this machine.

        Capitalism, like patriarchy, means suffering for everyone involved. This includes the dominant group. They are also victims, just in a very different way. Brutalizing them would do nothing because they’re already afraid. That’s why they’re killing us. They’re afraid that if they give up power we’ll exact revenge. That’s why they can’t just stop even though they know we’ll all die.