3 ms·

For the civil libertarians, is it absolute? What if it was ebola? What if the mortality rate was 5 or 10%? If not, where, exactly, is the line?

mc32 5y ago
Do you recall no-fly lists when Ebola broke out, because I don't. Flying in a plane at all adds risk. Radiation, personal injury, death, etc. Should we ban everyone with any sort of transmissible disease from flights? Do we ban people with Influenza from flying, if there are elderly on a flight?
- hindsightbias 5y ago
  Uhm, Fox News was filled with talking heads ranting about Obama’s ebola pandemic and calling to ban flights from Africa. I’m sure if there had been and actual ebola pandemic, real Americans would have chosen freedom. https://www.foxnews.com/health/how-to-stop-ebola-in-america-ban-air-travel-from-west-africa https://www.foxnews.com/health/how-to-stop-ebola-in-america-...
  - mc32 5y ago
    Flight bans are different from putting people on no-fly lists. Were people asking to put what everyone who was possibly within coughing distance of someone with Ebola put on a no-fly list? Flight bans are a blunt weapon. It may be necessary to use if there is a good reason. No-fly lists affect due process and freedoms of Americans (I am not concerned with what Canada does or Guinea does, they can manage their own countries). It's fundamentally different.
    - hindsightbias 5y ago
      I’ll just have to take your responses to my what if question as freedom being absolute. Ebola pandemic, 10’s of thousands testing postive every day, Ebola vaccine widely available and anti-vaxxers should have un-restricted travel rights.
      - AndrewBissell 5y ago
        Why on earth would anyone want to fly in the scenario you describe? It's only because Covid isn't that lethal that all these mandates and coercion are needed to get people to avoid or be immunized against it.
        hindsightbias 5y ago
        I'm simply interested in where civil libertarian absolutists draw the line. Absolutes are absolutes. Or are they fuzzy?
ttyprintk 5y ago
Maybe the line is the number of deaths prevented by a terrorism no-fly list.

mc32 5y ago

Do you recall no-fly lists when Ebola broke out, because I don't. Flying in a plane at all adds risk. Radiation, personal injury, death, etc. Should we ban everyone with any sort of transmissible disease from flights? Do we ban people with Influenza from flying, if there are elderly on a flight?

hindsightbias 5y ago
Uhm, Fox News was filled with talking heads ranting about Obama’s ebola pandemic and calling to ban flights from Africa. I’m sure if there had been and actual ebola pandemic, real Americans would have chosen freedom. https://www.foxnews.com/health/how-to-stop-ebola-in-america-ban-air-travel-from-west-africa https://www.foxnews.com/health/how-to-stop-ebola-in-america-...
- mc32 5y ago
  Flight bans are different from putting people on no-fly lists. Were people asking to put what everyone who was possibly within coughing distance of someone with Ebola put on a no-fly list? Flight bans are a blunt weapon. It may be necessary to use if there is a good reason. No-fly lists affect due process and freedoms of Americans (I am not concerned with what Canada does or Guinea does, they can manage their own countries). It's fundamentally different.
  - hindsightbias 5y ago
    I’ll just have to take your responses to my what if question as freedom being absolute. Ebola pandemic, 10’s of thousands testing postive every day, Ebola vaccine widely available and anti-vaxxers should have un-restricted travel rights.
    - AndrewBissell 5y ago
      Why on earth would anyone want to fly in the scenario you describe? It's only because Covid isn't that lethal that all these mandates and coercion are needed to get people to avoid or be immunized against it.
      - hindsightbias 5y ago
        I'm simply interested in where civil libertarian absolutists draw the line. Absolutes are absolutes. Or are they fuzzy?

ttyprintk 5y ago

Maybe the line is the number of deaths prevented by a terrorism no-fly list.