"some of you may have to die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"

You can still take vaccines, wear masks, and practice distancing. At some point your well-being becomes solely your responsbility, not everyone else's. We can debate on where that point lies. Just because your fear of COVID is the trendiest political cause doesn't necessarily mean other people's quality of lives don't matter. Life is about trade-off, not about virtue-signalling.

It’s perfectly reasonable to think X people dying is worth it to avoid Y people’s quality of life being reduced by Z, depending on the values of X, Y, and Z.

Everyone behaves as if this is true every single day, regardless of how mad they get when it’s stated explicitly.

> It’s perfectly reasonable to think X people dying is worth it to avoid Y people’s quality of life being reduced by Z, depending on the values of X, Y, and Z.

not if I'm part of the X group, for purely selfish reasons, and it's perfectly rational for anyone to not want to be in the X group, no matter what values assigned to Y and Z are.

So the crux of the problem isn't what you stated - it's that these decisions are made, and some people disagree, because either they are in the X group, or not. This is why conscription is required in a war, and this is why lockdowns are needed in a pandemic, etc.

We choose to die for/in defense of a lifestyle all the time. We call it war.

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”

literally yes. in the words of my corrupt and buffoonish prime minister: let the bodies pile high. the wisest thing he ever said, even though he won't admit to it.

(and really the piles won't be that high. they'll be of low-to-medium height, consisting mostly of the old and fat.)

Ah mostly the old and fat! That's ok then.

People dying is all fine and good until it happens to you or someone you care about.

yes