Brexit

[MadMojoMonkey]

The authority was cited. In the hypothetical, it became the law to take everything that only you use. Would this be okay with you? If it would not, why would it not?

If "the law" was my community's law, then I abide.
After, I may decide that this is OK, as it reflects my own standards, or I may decide that this is not OK and I would appeal to the community to change the law. If this failed, I would know that this community's standards are not my standards, and I would leave the community, as we made a poor fit.

If "the law" is some community of which I am no voluntary part, then I would appeal to them to change their law. If they refused, I would be aggrieved and appeal to my community for help. If no help were viable, I would leave or fight, but probably just leave. Leaving is almost always lower risk for nearly equal outcome.

When we spoke of this before, you said that leaving was not viable. Then later, in an entirely different thread and on a different topic, you were musing on the subject of moving to another state for socio-economic benefits. Do you still think that leaving is not viable?

I'm not interested in answering your judgments of my character and motives.

An example of the above.

First of all, my saying you ignored me is not a judgement. I don't understand why you assume so. When you keep asking me the same questions, and I keep telling you the same answers, and it keeps going in the same conversation, then why are you ignoring my answers? I'm trying to understand you, here. I'm not messing with you. I don't have the time to mess with you.

I do troll spoony a bit from time to time, now, because if you want an example of judgement, just read spoony's posts to me. And on that note... I could maybe care less about spoony's contempt, but not much, so I also don't even understand why you would be apprehensive about my judgement.

I mean.. I'm judging you for NOT answering the question just as much as I'd be judging your answer. I'm a person. I can't help but judge things as I come across them.
Here's my judgement on you, since you're so worried about it:
wufwugy is a cool guy who says odd things that I think at first sound dumb, but I know he's quite clever. He makes me think about things in a new and interesting light. Also, he's pretty funny when he wants to be, but will wall-of-text your ass without warning if you get him on certain topics. I've come to learn that he's passionate and caring and ultimately concerned about making the world generally less bad. And stubborn as a boulder, kinda like me in that regard.

That's it. The parts that sounds negative about you are more of a statement about me and how I perceive your approach to thinking.

It's interesting to me that you persist in assuming that I am judging you any more than my always-for-everyone-judging, even though I assure you that I'm only trying to learn about you and understand other people in the world who think like you do. It is different from the way that I think. I get it that in our culture that can lead to harsh judgement and childish name-calling, but that is not my interest.

I got over calling you names years ago... has it been years? anyway... a long time ago. I realized that my judgement was just a weird kind of self-reflection and that I was really angry about parts of myself that I didn't understand. Which I think I told you at the time when I apologized. I was being dumb and short-sighted and not introspective. The opposite of now. Well... prob still dumb, but trying to not be, so...

whatever. I'll respect your boundaries.

List all the things the government does that affects you that you did not have a choice in and then list all the things you did that altered something about the government. The first list will be endless and the latter will include a handful tops.

Seriously, dude. You get harsher judgement from me for *asking someone to share their perspective then telling them what it is before they respond* than about anything else you could do. How bad is it to be judged be me? Does it burn? Do you even notice? I would never let that single (what I perceive to be a) flaw overshadow the greater man. I'm far from flaw-free.

I'm not looking for any reasoning from the individual. I ask people to apply the elements of theft and taxation onto each other.

You seem to assume that everyone perceives "the elements of theft and taxation" the same way you do. Yet, when confronted with someone like myself who voluntarily and willingly pays taxes, you agree that it is not theft. The elements that I focus on are different than the elements you focus on, and it makes all the difference in the truth of your statement.

Ultimately, you're talking about feelings. You're saying that if taxation feels like theft, then taxation is theft. If it doesn't feel like theft, then it isn't.

But that's not as easy and cutting as saying, "Taxation is theft." so you open up the doorway to the conversation by gently misleading the nuance of your actual belief in the introduction. Which I don't judge as positive or negative unless your motives are known. If you're engaging in an open and respectful exchange of ideas, then great. If not, then boo.