Reply #132: Your (or my) 'understanding' is not a prerequisite to another's exercise [View All]

[TahitiNut]

... of their civil liberties. You see, they're not being tried and I'm NOT a prosecutor of those who exercise their liberties. I think it's insanely presumptuous to contend that someone else must seek my agreement and understanding to be free to engage in activities that might harm them. Maybe that's because I've not been habituated in that kind of thinking by being a parent. I notice that people who've been parents are far more inclined to assume that their approval must be sought before another person can do things they don't. Strange.

If I hated it enough, I'd wear a breathing filter before I tried to impose my 'vote' on the civil liberties of another. But that's because I'm a liberal and I live it instead of merely talk it. I find it truly surrealistic that people think it somehow unthinkable that another might opt to wear a $20 filter mask rather than engage in a jihad against smokers - a jihad that, under the 'best' of condition will surely continue to expose them FOR YEARS to a threat that's so large - and yet it's not apparently large enough for them to actually protect themselves. Imagine that. How can it possibly be large enough of a threat to engage in a jihad but not large enough to take a $20 precaution? That just makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.