More of a tactic than an argument, authentic frontier gibberish (AGB) is used by conspiracy theorists, tax protesters and true believers of all sizes and stripes.
AFG is based on the idea that if people don’t understand you they will assume you know more than they do.
And rather than do the hard work of researching the matter for themselves they are content to let the theory-promoter do their thinking for them.
In other words, they’ll drink the Kool Aid.
And the more obtuse, inane, and irrational the argument, the easier it is for the promoter to gain converts (nobody wants to appear stupid by questioning their leader.)
Quatloos, the Cyber Museum of Frauds and Scams, gives a good diagnosis of the psychological malady from which tax protestors seem to suffer:
While it is possible that some of the people who believe in conspiracy theories are actually paranoid (in the clinical sense), for most it fills some other psychological need — in particular, the need to explain away the inevitable failures and disappointments of life as a nefarious plot against them, and the need to feel important for being “in on the secret”.
Authentic Frontier Gibberish in Operation
Here are two of the more famous practitioners of the authentic frontier gibberish ploy.
Irwin Schiff
In a federal tax fraud case, Irwin Schiff, the author of many tax protestor books including, The Federal Mafia: How The Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes, his own attorneys filed an affidavit admitting to his use of circular reasoning (i.e authentic frontier gibberish):
When confronted with contradictions in his conclusions, Schiff either ignores the challenge or moves on to new exhortations of what the law is and his omniscient ‘expertise’ on the meaning of income, taxable income, the court’s applying the wrong standard, banking and/or money.
Schiff’s belief system appears to be completely circular: within that system Schiff is right, the government and the courts are wrong and he remains impervious to rational discussion.
My attempts at rational discussions with Mr. Schiff have been more difficult than any.
And the conclusion:
Schiff’s expectation seems to be that someday the federal courts will experience an epiphany and acknowlege that he has been right all along.”
Based on all the foregoing and Occam’s razor, I was forced to conclude that Mr. Schiff probably suffers from a severe delusional disorder or other mental disease or defect.
Schiffs lawyers were trying to support an insanity plea for their client, but even so the affidavits were signed under penalties of perjury.
We have no reason to suspect that Schiff’s lawyers did not believe every word they swore to in their affidavits.
Larken Rose
Here’s how Quatloos describes Mr. Rose:
Not being smart enough to come up with any unique theory of his own, Larken has simply latched on to the “861” or “Income Can’t Be Defined” arguments that end up with the conclusion that only foreigners are required to pay income tax. Larkin’s argument has been exploded more times than a pack of Blackcats at a 4th of July festival but this hasn’t stopped Larken from marketing his video for $20 on his website (since shutdown).
Larken Rose stopped filing federal income tax returns in 1998 and began publicly asking the government to prosecute him in 2001. Here’s an excerpt from his letter to the U.S. government:
I will not stand by and allow myself, my family and my neighbors to be extorted simply because some power-happy bureaucrats huff and puff about all the nasty things they will do to anyone who does not “comply” with the IRS’ misapplication of the law.
To the DOJ and the IRS I say this: You know I am among the most vocal about this issue. Stop terrorizing the American public, and come get me. Make an “example” of me.
Surely if my position is “frivolous” and completely devoid of merit, then the DOJ attorneys can easily refute my position in front of a jury, and have me convicted and imprisoned. (I’m not exactly hiding, am I?)
You already have what would be “Exhibit A” in my defense: my Theft By Deception video.
So take your best shot.
Turns out the government’s best shot was a pretty good one.
Rose was subsequently convicted on five counts of willfully failing to file tax returns, which earned him a sentence of 15 months in a federal prison.
He served 13 months and was released in December 2006.
Mr. Rose has since resumed his promotion of the absurd section 861 argument so he’s now an ex-con tax scam promoter.
I guess you can say a Rose by any other name sounds as harebrained.
The Brother of Authentic Frontier Gibberish: Keep Asking Questions
A close relative of the AFG tactic is the “Keep Asking Questions” or KAQ method of obfuscation.
The goal of KAQ is to make the opponent appear to be wrong by getting him to say he doesn’t know the answer to a particular question or he is unfamiliar with a particular court case or statute.
In the weird, wacky world of the tax protestor this is proof of the correctness of his arguments.
When the tax protestor manages to elicit the “I can’t answer that” or “I don’t know” response, it results in something akin to this gleeful exclamation:
Aha! See, I told you income taxes are illegal.
This little beauty of a tactic is based on the following absurd syllogism:
- Major Premise: In order to be right in an argument you must know all the facts.
- Minor Premise: Knowing all the facts requires you to be able to answer all of my questions regardless of how obtuse or irrelevant they may be.
- Conclusion: You do not know the answer to one of my questions, therefore I am wrong and you are right.
Clever, huh?
And if you do somehow manage to answer the tax protestor’s inane question, he just fires back with another one.
Most of the KAQ questions begin with the following words:
- “How come”
- “Why is it that”
- “Then how do you explain”
If I admired anything about these grifters, it would be their ability to engage in limitless double-speak to keep the embers of their wacky theories lit.
They never, ever concede even the slightest point.
And if you indulge them by trying to reason with them, before long you will find yourself dribbling your lips with your forefinger like some medeival village idiot.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Christ T. // May 5, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Of course these protesters are misguided, because they can never win within the system that is taxing them.
But that does NOT mean, that the income tax, (as is the Federal Reserve Act and Bank) is not unconstitutional. It is, EVEN if the Supreme Court were to find otherwise. After all, the Supreme Court is only an arm of that entity, that is unconstitutionally arrogating this power to itself.
But because this is not likely to change any time soon, the protesters are misguided for thinking they can find a way to argue within against this.
Because the government has the gun here, there is no way out.
You sir, however, mocking those that believe in the unconstitutionality itself, are just a shill for the system.
People need to pay not the government has a RIGHT to the money, it doesn’t, but because it has the MIGHT to take it.
About Irwin Schiff: His lawyers may be forgiven for pulling an insanity defense, but for you to go there is no different than what the Soviets did. You are justifying defining dissent as mental illness, just as left-wingers want to define racisms as that.
That is truly sick, not those differring in their beliefs from yours.
2 Peter // May 6, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Christ T,
Thanks for your comment.
I disagree.
If the Supreme Court says a law is constitutional, it is constitutional.
Period!
The Supreme Court is the last word on matters of law. And we have to have a last word otherwise issues of law can never be resolved.
You do an excellent job of illustrating the conspiratorialist tactic of accusing those with whom you disagree of being in on the scam.
First, you say that the Supreme Court is part of the conspiracy and then you say that I am a co-conspirator “shill for the system.”
This is typical of the conspiratorialist. When he can’t gain a particular convert (which is most of the time) he accuses him or her of being in on the scam.
Intelligent people see this for what it is: A cynical attempt to censor anyone who does not share your fringe view of the unconstitutionality of the federal income tax.
But it won’t work with me so save your breath.
I only say that Schiff is off his rocker because his lawyer, who has a duty of candor toward the tribunal, filed a sworn affidavit saying he is legally insane.
Finally, comparing me to the Soviets is just plain silly.
I don’t think people like you and Schiff and Larken Rose should be censored and put in a Gulag.
Quite the contrary, I think the more we let you spew the less likely it is you will gain converts.
Your “arguments” have been shot down more often than Charles Manson’s requests for parole.
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