The reason is called “the refractory period.” 
That a bully country would be allowed to invade other countries on false pretense to gain control of its oil reserves. It’s my own country doing it I’m ashamed to admit.
Along similar lines, that citizens of countries like the US supported war criminals, just because they’re “their” war criminals. Dubya is clearly a war criminal, he started a war on false pretenses with a country that was in no way a threat to the US (Iraq, in case you are wondering – there is SOME justification for the invasion of Afghanistan). So is President Obama – drone strikes are clearly war crimes, killing hundreds of innocent women and children.
I’d be perfectly OK with seeing both men in a docket in the Hague being tried by the international court for war crimes, but I know many Americans would regard me as a traitor for that. I’m not a traitor, just fair … a war criminal is a war criminal, no matter his country of origin.
So I was extorted by the speed limit sign this morning on the way in to work? And just now I extorted my work lunch-buddy into getting Indian rather than Thai? And years ago I was extorted by my parents into a bedtime at the threat of a spanking? And I was extorted by my teachers into doing HW like a sucker or else they would withhold grades from me?
Basically any time someone makes another person do something that the affected person doen’t want to, it’s extortion?
We cured that in 2150. 
If the Honor System were effective, WillFarnaby, we’d probably rely on that instead. But as you helpfully demonstrate, it would fail miserably.
Private ownership of firearms. Hunting will be unheard of as wilderness disappears, and we will be so civilized that the notion of needing equipment to kill humans will seem positively barbaric.
Private cars. As urbanization is complete, there will be no need to use other than mass transit.
(bolding mine)
The others are up for debate, but an obsession with (small, controlled) amounts of novelty is very much a part of human nature.
I can’t remember what it was for, but there was a commercial on TV a couple of years ago that showed IIRC a whole bunch of people cavorting in various watery ways: hoses, water parks, Slip’n’Slids, throwing water balloons, etc. My husband turned to me and said solemnly, “Some day, that footage will be considered obscene.”
My contribution: highly gender-specific toys for small children.
I think the difference is in the quickness of the change.
Sure, trying to stamp out religion or reproductive choice in a short period by force is going to cause quite a major conflict. But letting them go slowly due to demographic and cultural shifts usually goes pretty smoothly. Look at, say, religion in western Europe, which is mostly just going away peacefully over time. No pogroms required.
There was a big to-do when we tried to stamp out slavery in the country, too. But I don’t think the size of the conflict has any bearing on whether we consider the past practice barbaric.
We’ve decided that lots of natural things are immoral; nature is amoral after all, not moral. Murder being one example; it’s perfectly natural to murder people to get your way, but we’ve long since decided that murder is immoral no matter how natural it is. And “aberrant” isn’t the same thing as immoral either.
It’s called “paying your debts”. You along with everyone else owe society in the form of government the money needed to keep it running and pay for all its benefits. Your ideal of the elimination of government force would lead to the destruction of civilization, since that’s exactly what civilization is founded on. “Taxes buy civilization”.
This. The notion that your rights depend on a piece of paper is even stranger than having them depend on your race. Nationalism is obscenely immoral. And yet we don’t want to see it because it is not in our interest.
The thing is, powerful countries throwing their weight/spears/gunboats/ICBM capabilities around isn’t new - it’s been going on since antiquity.
As far as Empires go, the American one is really a cameo appearance compared to the Roman, Greek, Spanish and British Empires.
Debts are mutually agreed upon by all parties, usually with a signed contract. Hobbes was wrong; none of us had any say in the “social contract”, and certainly never signed it.
Whether you support them or not, taxes are theft. Legal, bureaucratic armed robbery. You may be correct, however, that “Theft buys civilization”. We’ve never tried any alternative.
Note I’m not taking a stance for or against taxes here. I’m just interested in calling a spade a spade, for honesty’s sake.
Your parents agreed to the social contract for you when they decided to have you and raise you in this country. Thus making you an American citizen.
There is no government force to make you stay in this country. You are not forced to pay taxes unless you voluntarily decide you wish to remain living here. You are perfectly free to go somewhere else that has no taxes. The only ‘extortion’ is what you are doing to yourself by deciding to remain an American citizen. No one pays taxes as a child, so once you are old enough to work and take on the responsibility of paying your share to keep society running, you are perfectly free to renounce your citizenship and move somewhere else. Therefore no extortion. It can’t be extortion if you are perfectly free to exercise another option. The fact that you may not desire that other option does not make it extortion. The choice is, and always will be yours to make, 100% free of government coercion.
So when I break into your house to take stuff using force, I’m not a thief as long as I give you the option of leaving the country first?
That argument would be a lot more valid if humans could freely migrate from country to country, but they can’t. Even if they could, “give me your property or permanently lose your home” is still pretty much textbook extortion.
Are you really making the claim that taxes are “100% free of government coercion”?? In Great Debates?
Even if you find a way to legally emigrate you’ll still owe US taxes.
Your parents decided to make you a citizen of America by having you here. Take it up with them. They decided for you to accept the social contract.
Also your analogy is nonsense. For it to be apt, America would actually be your house, not a thief coming to steal from your house. You are crying about having to pay upkeep on the house you’re living in. Your housemates would rather everyone split the maintenance bills, but you don’t want to, so you are then invited to move to a new house. No extortion. You are free to find a new house to live in with new housemates that may be more accepting of your desire to freeload off of them.
No I’m not, and I don’t really believe that you are sincerely under the impression that I did. I explicitly said that your choice of where you want to live is 100% free of government coercion. The U.S. is in no way forcing you to live here, are they?
No. Theft itself is an artificial construct itself built on another artificial construct, that of private property. In a state of nature, nothing belongs to anyone: you’re just able to use something until someone bigger or meaner or with more friends comes along and takes it from you.
You can’t have private property without having a state. And you can’t have a state without having a tax base. It makes no sense at all to say that taxation is theft, since the very concept of theft requires a tax base before it can exist.
You can make so many awesome petrochemicals from crude oil. There exist plastics with any property you desire. But granddad, you say you just burned the stuff?
But again, that’s just projecting from current trends. By definition, it’s going to be hard for me to predict something that I’m not expecting. I could definitely see reproductive licenses needed to have a baby. Abortion could go either way: if we find an easy way to transplant a fetus it will become illegal, but if population seriously becomes an issue abortion and infanticide will become very accepted. Nearly free water has been mentioned, maybe at some point they’ll start charging for an oxygen line to your house. That’s certainly a trope for moon colonies in science fiction.
While the notion that “taxes are theft” is just silly, the notion that “America, love it or leave it; you are free to go away and don’t let the door hit you in the ass” is just as silly. You can say the same thing in North Korea or China. Hey, your parents had you here and that obligates you with our rules. And if you don’t like it then go elsewhere. Or at least don’t have children unless you know they will like it here.
Not everybody has the option of pulling up stakes and moving.
Even if they did have the option it may be that the issue is not worth it. Just because you live somewhere does not mean you have to agree or like everything.
The USA will haunt you for taxes even if you leave, pretty much the only country to do so. So even leaving might not work.
But yeah, the notion that taxes are theft is kind of silly.