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StatistFallacies/TheStateIsUs

Fallacy:

It is asserted that in a democracy, "the state is us", so we are taxing and enforcing laws against ourselves.

Response:

A classic reductio ad absurdum for this fallacy is to point out that Hitler was democratically elected, that Jews were in the electorate, so those killed in the concentration camps weren't actually murdered but committed suicide.

More fundamentally, however, the fallacy rests on the false premise that VotingIsConsent and that infringement of individual rights (to life, liberty, and property) is justified if a majority wills it. But individual rights do not come from states or majorities, but are a property of individual self-ownership (see Voluntaryism).