Re:Texas Could Push Tech Platforms to Censor Posts About Abo...
by tptacek on Sunday April 16, 2023 @04:52PM
(#35594167)
Reductive. Notably, at the beginning of the pandemic, the motivation for "dropping everything and hiding" was to avoid overwhelming hospitals in the early phases of the pandemic --- which is something that did in fact happen, and impacted care (and cost lives) of people who weren't especially susceptible to COVID. Certain conservatives may have had the better argument later in the pandemic, but it's fallacious to retcon that all the way back into spring 2020.
Re:Texas Could Push Tech Platforms to Censor Posts About Abo...
by JamesBarney on Sunday April 16, 2023 @05:02PM
(#35594243)
This was part of it. Another part of it was they literally did not believe it was dangerous as it was. And that vaccines were government conspiracy.
It wasn't just values it was inaccurate beliefs about the world.
And "autonomy" and "self determination" have never been important conservative principles. Conservatives generally believe in social roles and carrying them out, which includes the moral obligation to have and raise children as an essential part of the functioning of society. Opposition to abortion isn't some newfangled thing in conservative circles!
The anti-vax stuff invoked some of the libertarian sentiment that's in the water in America, but is best seen as an expression of conservative realism. Disease is a natural part of life; we can't drop everything and hide just because of a disease that's fairly low risk to most people.