Thursday, April 15, 2010

Kevin Carson on "Census" Fascism

...You’ll also notice, in the same agitprop, assurances that the form is “completely confidential.” Sure. Tell it to the Japanese-Americans who were rounded up in 1942, in part, thanks to the kindly assistance of the Census Bureau’s sharing results of the 1940 census. Your mama probably taught you years ago that anybody who buys something on the word of the person who wants to sell it to them is a damn fool. And this applies to government as much as anyone else. History is littered with the bodies of formerly free peoples who accepted government’s promises of how it would use the powers granted it.

I don’t encourage anyone to evade the census if it entails any serious risk or hassle — but if you can do so without either, then more power to you! I somehow managed to miss the census last time around (much to my chagrin), but this time I may not be so unlucky. You see a lot of helpful information out there about the penalties for census evasion — and more power to them, of course! — but unfortunately, deliberate census evasion is almost impossible to prove. Maybe you didn’t get the form, maybe you went out for a walk and left the car in your driveway, maybe you’re just hard of hearing and didn’t notice those good folks hammering on your door.


Census: They Can’t Move Forward Until We Send it Back…

11 comments:

  1. The Census is "required by law" in the sense that the Federal government is required by the Constitution to conduct a census every 10 years. The penalty for failing to fill out your census is 3 at-home visits and 3 telephone calls, and the maximum sentence is a 10 minute interview.

    This article is a joke. I urge more people to not fill out their census so more unemployed people can get jobs as enumerators, and I especially urge Republicans to dodge the interview so their districts shrink.

    [Also, kudos on joining the Censorship club on your comments. I guess it's true... libertarians support freedom until it annoys them. DM is not worth ignoring your own ideology.]

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ginx, since your comment has been published, how is it censorship? It's no more censorship than when YOU delete DM's comments, as you have in many instances. Does your deleting of spam comments mean you don't believe in the First Amendment?

    Please learn the difference between real censorship and protecting private property from a spamming troll. It has nothing do to with libertarian "ideology", nor is editorial control "censorship".

    Please try to show some kind of consistency in your own ideology, whatever the hell it is, because you are so inconsistent and confused that I never can tell what it is you really believe. You seem to have no coherent worldview whatsoever.

    And comment moderation is only turned on when the trolling blog terrorist is hyperactive. I don't want comment moderation to discourage you or anyone from commenting here, and it's a bit disingenuous on your part, considering the personal abuse (not from you, from others) we've let stand in the comments on many posts and the open dialogue allowed on Skeptical Eye from the beginning, to suggest we favor forbidding opinions we don't like from being published here.

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  3. Ginx,

    We don't censor anyone except retarded spammers. And the census is BS. I hope *everyone* does their part to hassle and interfere with the government's stupid project.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Census is "required by law" in the sense that the Federal government is required by the Constitution to conduct a census every 10 years.

    SE and I are both opposed to the Constitution. Just because a criminal gang writes some garbage on a piece of paper doesn't make their rule legitimate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you love wasteful government spending, don't respond to the census so government can pay someone 17 bucks an hour to hassle you a couple times.

    You hate the Constitution? Too pussy to leave the comfy US, though, I see...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh please, you sound like a conservative with those kinds of arguments. "Amurka: love it or leave it!"

    Perhaps you could help the state come out with a new slogan. "Fill out the census! We won't use it to put minorities in camps again--honest!"

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ahh... your words say "Bitter resentment at your hypocrisy" but your actions say "Moderation should be removed because it stifles the free exchange of ideas."

    I see a huge different between deleting a cut + paste spam comment (whether it's a psycho Canadian off his meds or asian dating sites) and enabling comment moderation. I guess you do too.

    I don't care if you stay, I don't even care if you hate the Constitution. I'm just curious: why stay? Go back to Somalia ya nihilists!

    I seriously considered leaving when Bush was president, but you would not believe how hard it is to become a Canadian citizen. It would have been easier to just kill Bush.

    ReplyDelete
  8. FTR I would actually be more than happy to move to another country (not that their governments are any better), just because I like trying new things.

    Unfortunately, finding a job overseas is a pretty big pain in the ass, especially when you'd most like to live in Europe or Australia.

    So frankly, I'm just going to stay here and complain as much as I damn well please ;)

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  9. You inspired me to write a bitch about how other countries have wretched immigration policies. I can't believe how easy it is to move to America... and yet I still think it should be easier... while most other countries are harder to get into than an Ivy League school.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Exactly.

    I would *love* to live in Britain for a few years (if not just move there) and was even considering dual citizenship at one point. The hoops you have to jump through to do it are unbelievable though.

    ReplyDelete
  11. but your actions say "Moderation should be removed because it stifles the free exchange of ideas."

    Ginx, you're not making any sense (but what else is new). As the comment form clearly states:

    Comment moderation may be enabled from time to time

    That means it will be off a great deal of the time (as it is now) but enabled whenever necessary. Nothing has changed in this policy, and your comment on the comment notice is therefore a non sequitur.

    ReplyDelete

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