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StatistFallacies/StateIsSociety

Fallacy:

"The state existed before I did and built this society I live in. The state has legitimacy. You do not." (Daniel Punaniel)

Other forms include just generally referencing "government" when "society" is meant, e.g., "The government creates a place we can all live and work together in."

Response:

  • The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, including classical Aristotelian and Thomist philosophers, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State. —Murray Rothbard

Ah, "legitimacy". The state has legitimacy because it says it does. So do I. Stalemate.

You falsely confuse "society" with the state. They are different; the state does not build society, but people do, of their own initiative. The state frequently interferes, by coercing people on their own land, and extorting them, but it is not "society"; it is the disease that infects society.

  • It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. —Adam Smith

Voluntaryist "reliance on society" goes no further than voluntary trades (or gifts) and other voluntary interaction, creates no obligation, and does not justify violence against peaceful individuals. (DBR)

Related: ../PublicProperty