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Comment by thelastgallon | Hacker News Reader

The simplest explanation is Anthropic hasn't paid the necessary ‘taxes’ to get the required blessings. SpaceX did the right thing: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-03/spacex-ip...

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Please don't refer to bribes as taxes. Extremely, extremely counterproductive.

they used quotes. Is nuance dead?

Honestly, I completely missed the quotes on the first read. I agree with the sentiment that crimes should be called out as crimes and not, e.g., ‘oopsies’.

If you see fraud and don't say fraud you're the fraud.

I mean, there is no nuance to be found here. Let's call a spade a spade.

jeez, y'all no fun. When bad shit is going down humour is _as_ an appropriate tool as being incredibly obvious. Lingering in a mixed area between the two also makes it considerably harder for censors and the subject to punish the disobedience. Innit?

Nuance died with the attention economy

I assume the HN community is smart enough to pick up on “taxes” as meaning bribery, especially when they link an article explaining how SpaceX did that through an IPO mechanism that rewarded the current administration.

This forum is full of libertarians that might view bribes and taxes as synonyms.

As a libertarian, they are not even close to being the same. A bribe is generally optional where you can opt out of the transaction. Taxes are a racket.

So if you get stopped by the police in a bribe-affine country and they make clear you can either pay some money or they will take you to jail even though you did nothing wrong, is that a tax or a bribe?

It's blackmail/extortion. The act of paying the money is the bribe. Here is the Wikipedia definition.

> Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action.[1][2] The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrary to their duty and the known rules of honesty and integrity.

Bribes are optional in countries with taxes. In countries without taxes, they are mandatory.

You’re splitting hairs and fail to see the bigger picture.

It's not taxes, it's "taxes" or "settlement".

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