You control you; I control me.

in #covid4 years ago

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It makes no sense to put the primary onus of responsibility for accommodating an individual's personal risk tolerance on everyone else instead of on the individual themselves.

Everywhere I go, people say that they're doing things "for my safety" that I've never asked for, nor wanted them to do.

There are all sorts of risks we all endure when we leave the house -- one of which has always been the possibility of contracting an infectious disease.

As long as someone is not knowingly and intentionally/maliciously trying to spread a disease, there's no argument for moral culpability when a respiratory virus passes from one person to the next. If there was, then we'd all be suing each other every year for loss of income from here until eternity anytime we got a cold.

But of course, that won't happen because we all actually understand this on some level. If we take the kind of vague moral claims that have led people to justify all manner of private harassment and bad public policy and try to turn them into legitimate legal rules, they fall apart in seconds.

When my wife and father in law first got covid (which subsequently spread to my mother in law, but possibly not me), our best guess was that they caught it at a doctor's office.

Ironic, sure.

But now imagine a world where we sued that doctor for taking insufficient precautions or sued another patient for transmitting the disease.

What would happen?

The doctor would instantly point to masks, distancing rules, cleaning procedures, etc. and note that they did everything reasonably possible to make the place safe. And they'd be right. They did all they could do short of shuttering their doors to all patients, which we would all (hopefully) recognize as being a much worse outcome for everyone.

Meanwhile, the legal defense of the other patient would be very simple: Prove that you got it from me.

We can't.

We can't even be absolutely sure that it was picked up at the doctor's office and not somewhere else.
Legally, this is obviously a disaster.

And unless we throw out everything we know about moral agency / responsibility and due process, then we have to accept that this is an entirely stupid line of reasoning.

For libertarians of all people to not get this is criminal.

If we can demand by force that other people cater to our most Howard Hughesian fears, then there's literally no limit to power the collective/state has over the individual.

If you're afraid, then you should have stayed home. I'd respect your choice (and have done for people throughout the last year).

That doesn't mean you get to demand that everyone else do the same.

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Peace & Love!

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