You are spot on. I wrote a similar post a couple of months ago. You either own your body or you don't. So even if the vaccines were 100% safe and effective, it would still be unethical to mandate them.
Doc, as usual, you are swinging for the fence and getting "good wood," if you will excuse a baseball metaphor. Early on, despite my staunchly libertarian ethic, I too got caught-up in using the "argument from effect" and relying upon data. This was always about ethics! I do not give a rat's ass about the efficacy of the vaccine. Hell, whether lock-downs work is irrelevant. Deciding for someone else in a case like this is *always* outside the parameters of your rights as a human being, just like mine. Period.
For me it has always been a "common sense" stance based on Enlightenment values. Wear a mask if you want - wear a hat or a false moustache - I don't care. Don't try insisting I do the same. Put what you want into your body - safe or dangerous, so long as you know the risks it's your choice. Don't try imposing it on others. I am a free person. Born free into a free world. My life, my choices. I refuse to acknowledge any "authority" which tries to tell me who I can see, when I can go out, what I can do & when, what medical treatments I must have, whether I can work or not. Nobody gave me my freedom. Nobody can take it away. Amazed that so many people don't know that.
Am re-reading this about a week later. Mark, this is even more brilliant than I grasped at first, and I did think it was brilliant then. Keeping. Thank you for writing this, thank you for fighting this, and thank you for grasping this from the first, and walking the walk.
You are spot on. I wrote a similar post a couple of months ago. You either own your body or you don't. So even if the vaccines were 100% safe and effective, it would still be unethical to mandate them.
https://livebetternow.substack.com/p/lbn-position-vaccine-mandates?r=kg9gc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=direct
Doc, as usual, you are swinging for the fence and getting "good wood," if you will excuse a baseball metaphor. Early on, despite my staunchly libertarian ethic, I too got caught-up in using the "argument from effect" and relying upon data. This was always about ethics! I do not give a rat's ass about the efficacy of the vaccine. Hell, whether lock-downs work is irrelevant. Deciding for someone else in a case like this is *always* outside the parameters of your rights as a human being, just like mine. Period.
For me it has always been a "common sense" stance based on Enlightenment values. Wear a mask if you want - wear a hat or a false moustache - I don't care. Don't try insisting I do the same. Put what you want into your body - safe or dangerous, so long as you know the risks it's your choice. Don't try imposing it on others. I am a free person. Born free into a free world. My life, my choices. I refuse to acknowledge any "authority" which tries to tell me who I can see, when I can go out, what I can do & when, what medical treatments I must have, whether I can work or not. Nobody gave me my freedom. Nobody can take it away. Amazed that so many people don't know that.
Am re-reading this about a week later. Mark, this is even more brilliant than I grasped at first, and I did think it was brilliant then. Keeping. Thank you for writing this, thank you for fighting this, and thank you for grasping this from the first, and walking the walk.
Every.Word.You.Said.