bitcherovas:

bakyura2:

when people try to act like puerto ricans have it ~so good~ b/c we dont have to pay taxes or need a passport to visit the usa they often fail to mention that puerto ricans:

• cant vote in presidential elections despite being us citizens
• had our indigenous population brutalized and mass murdered 
• are essentially property of the usa
• cant declare independence without the permission of the usa, and every time we have tried it has been met with overwhelming violence
• are hesitant to align themselves with the independence movement because the most vocal member of the nationalist party was captured by the usa and subject to illegal nuclear radiation experiments until his death in 1965
• will never be a state due to the politicized nature of statehood, so in all likelihood we will remain in this awkward in-between place of being simultaneously rejected by and a territory of the usa
• have taken a collective hit to our psyche, as most subjugated cultures have
• are told we would shouldnt want to be independent b/c we’d never be able to survive without the usa’s military power (because so many people are trying to invade puerto rico, right?)
• are literally second class citizens so stop fucking acting like we should be grateful that we’re victims of modern day imperial rule

Plus it’s untrue we don’t pay any taxes. We pay a ton of taxes and actually make the US millions in tax revenue. We don’t pay federal income taxes (unless you work for the federal government). But we pay pretty much every other tax Americans pay plus the outrageously high PR taxes (seriously look up how much we pay). The people who truly benefit from tax exemptions on the Island are rich Americans, and big businesses who avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes. Go to the Island and get out of the tourist areas to see how easy the average Puerto Rican has it or ask a working class person how much of their check is tax deductions. Go buy something and see how much you get charged in taxes.

Puerto Rico makes the US government much more money than what it gives to us and what we supposedly save. The idea that we have it easy is a colonial fallacy that has kept the masses docile thinking that the Island would collapse without US support but if we were really a strain to their economy they would have dropped us a long time ago.

There’s also a long history of abuses, murders, and cover ups against political activists.