If you want your money used to pay for reparations you can donate to a charity with aims aligned with that desire. No one is arguing about what you do with your money.

> If you, a taxpayer, disagree with the notion of restorative justice, I posit that your overall happiness would be helped more by empathy and less by "lower taxes".

A functioning society requires accepting other people have different priorities and values from yours.

I can also advocate for the state to do it on my behalf. I prefer that solution, because a larger amount of resources can be allocated.

> A functioning society requires accepting other people have different priorities and values from yours.

I accept this, but the values expressed disturb me.

The only reason a larger amount of resources can be allocated is because you are advocating for using state violence to force people who don’t agree with you to also pay for your ideas. That’s what taxes are, fundamentally.

a functioning democracy requires accepting that, in the event that your values conflict with those of the majority, your values lose and theirs win

we saw on January 6th in the US what happens when a loud minority can't accept that

unfortunately, some are under the misunderstanding that democracy means all ideas are equal and have equal value, or indeed universally have positive value

it does not, and they do not

If the majority says, for example, some race is inferior, that's not sufficient to anchor the law and we have a 14th Amendment to protect against such abuse.

if the minority says, for example, some race is inferior, that's even less sufficient to anchor the law, and insufficient to overrule the majority saying it isn't

Dissent from your politics does not require a lack of empathy, and having your politics doesn't automatically mean having it.