I recently watched a documentary by Aaron Russo, America: Freedom to Fascism.
I wasn't totally sure what the movie was about and I can't remember what led me to watch it, but it certainly brought up some interesting points.
I'll summarize what it's about kind of, but wikipedia does a much better job of it.
It starts out talking about how there is no legal backing for a federal income tax. It is actually unconstitutional to have an federal income tax. But if you do not pay this tax the IRS has a FIT about you not paying your F.I.T. They put people in jail all the time, seize assets, and actually raid houses and business, when they can't even back the Federal Income Tax with a law.
Many IRS works are challenged to find the legal backing for this and cannot find anything. The higher ups who are questioned have nothing of any merit to say in defense of this tax.
We feel like the U.S. couldn't function properly without the citizens paying this tax; however, there was no Federal Income Tax before 1913, and things worked fine then. In face, most of the money paid towards the F.I.T. goes toward paying of interest of the U.S.'s debt to the Federal Reserve.
This is the second big argument of the movie. The Federal Reserve is ridiculous... it's not "federal" at all... it's a bunch of private banks that are not the government, but they can in some ways control the government since they control the money. These banks are the ones who print our money. They can create currency out of thin air that is backed by nothing but credit. Where paper money should be a receipt for something of real worth (gold, silver) it is now a receipt for the paper it is printed on... it has no merit.
It is for this reason that we see the U.S. dollar plummeting. We keep printing money that is backed by nothing. And the thing is, we don't even know the state of the gold that should be backing it. Where is the gold, where did it go, how much of it is there?
The U.S. can pay all of its bills on the other taxes that are legal taxes. The Federal Income Tax goes toward paying our debt and then the rest of it goes...? It's missing. Unaccounted for. Gone.
To real truth is that I didn't understand everything in the documentary the first time around, but I got a good gist. I also know that a documentary is inherently biased in almost every situation (except for anything Michael Moore has done, obviously). I have found misquotes (or at least not full quotes) from this documentary. The wikipedia page has a lot of criticisms of the documentary; but, these don't seem to argue the real points being made, only some of the minor backings of the points.
I would check out the movie if you can. There are some clips on the website, which I linked to at the beginning. If you want to borrow my copy, you can do that too.
I certainly think there is a lot of corruption in this country that gets fluffed over by politicians energizing with passionate talk of the "freedom" of our country. We certainly appear to be free, and we certainly are free-er than other countries, but are we as free as we think?
Thoughts are encouraged.
Welcome!
2 years ago
11 comments:
Having to pay income tax may be a bummer, but saying that "it has no legal backing" is completely untrue. The Constitution includes the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, which definitely says that the country has the right to tax income. I feel like lately you buy into anything and everything that criticizes American culture in any way, shape, or form. Good for you, I guess? It does get annoying because it seems like you don't care what aspect it's coming from, or what sources. Is it just for the sake of going against anything and everything in our culture? Is that what being a 'radical' is all about? Are you sure you're not turning people off to your ideas? I know you might come back with some extensive defense of why and how you're right. Just so you know I probably won't reply any further about this. I'm not that passionate about taxes. Just wondering where you get the energy to argue everything ever.
95% of this post was just reporting of what the premise of the documentary is.
I haven't done extensive looking into this, but I thought it was interesting. The bigger issue by far, as presented in the film is not the income tax, but the way the federal reserve is set up.
I know I have a tendency to scrutinize and examine very common things, and I'm sure it does turn people off. I believe it turns you off in some ways. But if it finds something corrupt and exposes it, I think there is something worthwhile. If nothing is shown to be corrupt, good.
The blog is to bring up ideas and reexamine them and discuss them. I'd love your input, and I love your input of the code of 1986.
Looking up the Revenue code of 1986 I found this site.
http://en.wiki.globaltruth.org/America:_Freedom_to_Fascism
I would say it's pretty unbiased, although I think wikipedia was pretty unbiased too.
I also found this blog post...
http://moebiusdick.blogspot.com/2006/10/america-from-freedom-to-fascism-part-1.html
The guy who wrote it goes through the whole Income Tax aspect of the movie, but still doesn't address the Federal Reserve stuff, which I think I said before, is the far bigger issue. The comments are kind of good on the blog too. Lots of law talk, but I got enough out of it to understand what he was getting at.
I'd at least check out the second link, the first one is okay.
The problem is that you're focusing your energy in 70 different directions. Nothing is ever going to change when you feel like criticizing EVERYTHING. People are turned off. I am way turned off. Second of all, you seem to only look for research that supports your views. You should probably look at both sides of the coin.
PS: This is not about you as a friend. Your friendship has always been an awesome blessing to me. You are an amazing friend. And trust me, I know we live in a flawed culture...hugely flawed, and we have a flawed government. But it's impossible to change everything for the better if you can't stop and say, "I'm really going to focus on this for now, and see if anything can be done to better it." Plus I think some of your thinking is way off base, I'm not going to lie. As a whole, yes the government is flawed and so is our culture and it affects people negatively etc., but here we are, living in America... you should probably focus on some of the positives as well. We are very blessed to live in a nation that allows us so many opportunities. That doesn't mean we shouldn't reach out to others in our society and in other nations. But maybe you need to think about some of that.
I agree that I cannot change everything, it's impossible. You are right that focusing my efforts on too many things will diminish the return on all of the things I do.
This blog is not me declaring my rightness on everything. This is not me saying that I will dedicate my life to every issue I bring up.
What this blog is, is a hope to inspire others to take on a cause, or at least educate themselves about an issue (and educate me as well). If I ever stumble upon a revelation or just some information that could possibly prove that there is a wrong doing going on, I want to be aware of it. I want to or I want someone else to research it, explore it, play with that idea and the countering ideas to find what is real. I can't be the spokesperson for every cause, but I can be a spokesperson encouraging people to find a cause or two to uphold justice in. And I can realign my life as to not contribute to the problems I discover, and instead have my day to day life contribute to the resolution in whatever large or small ways possible.
I don't think you are against this notion (although maybe you are, what do I know). The issue seems to be something more as how you perceive me to be through my endorsement of searching. Maybe I come off as prideful, demeaning, and/or just hard to relate to anymore. There is something necessary in informing me of those things. I don't want to be arrogant, belittling, or unapproachable due to peculiarity.
I don't want to be ignorantly biased. This is a public forum. Sure I choose the starting topics, but anyone who comes on here can contribute facts, philosophy, personal thoughts, etc. that are in favor, against, or just somehow related to the idea. I'm not using this page to be some mean guy who thinks he's always right. I want it to encourage well-roundedness of everyone who comes here, but the ultimate goal is to come across some truth.
The link I posted supports the Income Tax. It debunks the movies basis for that issue.
As I read over this, I must say I'll try not to be too cruel or assuming in my bias I maybe I have been once or twice on here.
I think its kinda unfortunate for anyone to think "you can't change everything." You certainly can try. I'm glad the founding fathers (who incidentally did not implement an income tax) didn't think you can't change everything or we would be eating tea and crumpets at high noon and talk funny and have snaggly teeth. I'm glad Gahndi didn't think "you can't change everything" or who knows where India would be or if there would even be one. I'm sure glad Dr. King didn't think you can't change everything.
Look, maybe some things are the way they are and won't change. But I guess we'll only know living under the idea of "you can't change everything." By saying that is the only guarantee that everything won't.
Hope and love and passion have the ability in their very nature to change everything.
One person can't change everything in their lifetime. They can start some movements that can change things. God is the only thing powerful enough to "change everything." I know by His presence in our lives, and only by that, we can make positive changes. But I'm glad you two are on the same page. None of those people you mentioned "changed everything," either. They started things that had an impact on everything, though. All I mentioned was for Steve to concentrate on one thing at a time. And in doing so, I think some differences can be made. I also mentioned that I am not "passionate about income tax." I was just making a point. But your motivational speech was really moving. In my ignorance, I had forgotten anyone has ever made positive changes on this earth. I hope it gets published somewhere. :)
By the way - I didn't mean for any of that to sound degrading. I was making a joke at the end. :)
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