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It's sad that the UK, which invented liberal philosophy, is increasingly accepting of paternalism. It's important that people have an inviolable personal sphere
by slibhb 6mo ago
It's sad that the UK, which invented liberal philosophy, is increasingly accepting of paternalism. It's important that people have an inviolable personal sphere inside which they can live their lives as they see fit. That includes making decisions of which society disaproves.
Moreover, essentially all behavior plausibly has "diffuse negative externalities". We should be very careful about adopting that ("harms others in diffuse ways") as a reasonable standard for banning some behavior.
- ramesh31 6mo agoThe real answer would be to ban all commercial cultivation and sales, but keep personal consumption legal. It's the multi-billion dollar tobacco industry that systematically hooks people through advertising, not the plant. Something tells me not many folks will be growing tobacco plants in their basement to get a fix.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- burnt-resistor 6mo agoIt's been this way for over 60 years. Big Mommy tells you how to live.
- negura 6mo agowe now have empirical evidence of where liberalism leads us: to an amoral, predatory marketplace. which profits from exploiting people who are helplessly addicted to poisons like nicotine, processed foods and alcohol. how much worse does it need to get before we go back to the drawing board?
- slibhb 6mo agoLiberalism has led us to almost unbelievable prosperity. The fact that it has some downsides does not suggest that we have to "go back to the drawing board"
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- negura 6mo agois this your argument? "the fact that they're dying as a direct result of us becoming unbelievably prosperous does not suggest anything needs to change"