2026-04-17 21:49 UTC
Replies (9)
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@c_reider@sonomu.club 2026-04-18 03:41
well, there's a couple of people telling me that the American people hold no responsibility for paying the taxes that fund the war machine. that's both true in a way, but also totally off the mark.
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@soundclamp@mastodon.xyz 2026-04-17 21:56
@c_reider Think about this every day lately.
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@tsrono@mastodon.social 2026-04-17 22:49
@c_reider damn. yeah. @RadicalGraffiti
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@neoluddite@aus.social 2026-04-18 02:23
@c_reider @RadicalGraffiti @allsumnull You've killed zero people by paying your taxes. Your taxes don't actually fund government spending, and if your government decides it wants to kill people, it'll just print more money... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory
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@TeflonTrout@beige.party 2026-04-18 02:31
@c_reider @RadicalGraffiti as somebody struggling with having been part of killing the people mentioned, I hate to say it but hundreds of thousands. On my first deployment we killed almost three hundred people, second was over a hundred. That was two aviation units, deployed for about a year each. My units were skilled but not particularly exceptional, so that's a reasonable range for an average aviation deployment. Ground units I have no idea about, but despite what it looks like from the outside currently, the DoD is really, really good at killing people at industrial scale.
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@flipper@mastodonapp.uk 2026-04-18 05:30
@c_reider @RadicalGraffiti I worry about that, but in actuality that's not how taxation works, especially not federal taxes and even more especially not in the US. In a country like the USA, the federal government doesn't need to wait for us to pay taxes to spend money, they just add zeroes to the end of a spreadsheet and issue funds. The point of taxation is to reduce the amount of money in circulation, to prevent massive devaluation. Ideally, it should also prevent massive inequality, but that's a different story. The myth of "tax and spend" is pushed by conservative deficit hawks who want to reduce public spending. It's actually "spend and tax". Yes, unfortunately, you probably are contributing, but not through taxation but simply through your daily production process. But it's not taxes, don't feel bad.
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@JeroenBaten@mastodon.nl 2026-04-18 16:31
@c_reider @RadicalGraffiti ow, this hurts....
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@falcennial@mastodon.social 2026-04-19 11:06
@c_reider it's a well meaning sentiment but if I may offer some information you may find a perspective that observes cause and effect as there are 2 ways that one does not: 1. taxes don't work like that. MMT shows us taxes alleviate inflation and that's all. (a good explanation is here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GyJckrwB4kA ) 2. responsibility doesnt work like that. the way you kill innocents indirectly is by not killing their killers. only by letting trump and its kind live do you have blood on your hands.
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@slembcke@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-04-20 05:09
@c_reider @RadicalGraffiti I had a terrible 2025 as a self employed type and got what money I paid early in the year in estimates back. (Like… worst since 2009…) I simultaneously feel relieved to not be paying into that, but also conflicted about not helping out with the good parts. :-/