Statist Claim:
Voting is Consent

Fallacy:

If you vote, you consent to everything the state does. If you don't, you can't complain!

Response:

Since outright slavery has been discredited, "democracy" is the only remaining rationale for state compulsion that most people will accept. Democracy has proved only that the best way to gain power over people is to assure the people that they are ruling themselves. Once they believe that, they make wonderfully submissive slaves. - Joseph Sobran

Herbert Spencer destroys these fallacies: see http://praxeology.net/Spencer-on-voting.htm. (DR)

The statists have it backwards. If you voluntarily go into a casino and lose your money, then you have no complaint, but if you did not go to the casino and someone comes out of the casino and robs you, then you can complain. It is the non-voters who have the most standing to complain. They did not endorse the game, they did not play the game, and yet it is imposed upon them anyway! The voters played the game, so if they complain it is just sour grapes - their side didn't win. [HB]

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Also see:

Herbert Spencer’s Reply to the Argument “If You Don’t Vote, You Can’t Complain.
George Carlin, standup philosopher, tells why Voting is meaningless.
Magic Contracts