Articulating My Apostasy

Elevated from a comment elsewhere, and something I've probably said before, but:

As a recovering Libertarian, I have noticed that the "at gunpoint" language that Libertarians so often use whenever describing government action is remarkably silly and overblown rhetoric in practice. Compliance with, for instance, traffic regulations and tax law has essentially nothing to do with fear of violent reprisal from government. Most people's relationship with their employers -- a supposedly freely entered contract -- is more effectively coercive than the government's nominal monopoly on legal force. Employers wield the specter of unemployment, penury, homelessness, and starvation, which are threats that are much more immediate and realistic than a government agent coming to your house and shooting you for failing to pay your taxes.