2 ms·

That’s what happens in pandemics: everyone’s freedom is restricted because everyone’s choices impact everyone else in serious, often fatal, ways.

pdonis 7y ago
> everyone’s choices impact everyone else in serious, often fatal, ways No, some people's choices impact some other people in serious, often fatal ways. My wife and I started taking precautions more than two months ago. We have drastically cut down the number of shopping trips we make--one of us used to go to the grocery store, drugstore, or whatever every other day or so, now it's about once every 10 days, and we make sure to stock up so we don't have to go more often. We wear mask and gloves whenever we do go to the store or any other public place where we can't reliably social distance. When we walk our dogs, we stay well away from anyone else. How have our choices impacted anyone else negatively?
- macintux 7y ago
  You have voluntarily restricted your own freedoms, so I’m not sure what we’re arguing about.
  - pdonis 7y ago
    > You have voluntarily restricted your own freedoms No, I've exercised my own freedom to choose what's best for me. > I’m not sure what we’re arguing about. First, you made an obviously wrong factual claim, so I called you on it. It is not true that "everyone’s choices impact everyone else in serious, often fatal, ways". Second, this wrong factual claim is not harmless, because, as you yourself note, it is being used as justification for the government to exercise draconian powers to restrict everyone's freedom. The government cannot be trusted to exercise such powers responsibly. No government can, because governments are run by humans, and no humans can be trusted with that much power over other humans. That was supposed to be the key lesson that got the United States of America started as an independent country, but we seem to have forgotten it.

pdonis 7y ago

> everyone’s choices impact everyone else in serious, often fatal, ways No, some people's choices impact some other people in serious, often fatal ways. My wife and I started taking precautions more than two months ago. We have drastically cut down the number of shopping trips we make--one of us used to go to the grocery store, drugstore, or whatever every other day or so, now it's about once every 10 days, and we make sure to stock up so we don't have to go more often. We wear mask and gloves whenever we do go to the store or any other public place where we can't reliably social distance. When we walk our dogs, we stay well away from anyone else. How have our choices impacted anyone else negatively?

macintux 7y ago
You have voluntarily restricted your own freedoms, so I’m not sure what we’re arguing about.
- pdonis 7y ago
  > You have voluntarily restricted your own freedoms No, I've exercised my own freedom to choose what's best for me. > I’m not sure what we’re arguing about. First, you made an obviously wrong factual claim, so I called you on it. It is not true that "everyone’s choices impact everyone else in serious, often fatal, ways". Second, this wrong factual claim is not harmless, because, as you yourself note, it is being used as justification for the government to exercise draconian powers to restrict everyone's freedom. The government cannot be trusted to exercise such powers responsibly. No government can, because governments are run by humans, and no humans can be trusted with that much power over other humans. That was supposed to be the key lesson that got the United States of America started as an independent country, but we seem to have forgotten it.