The problem I have with thee sorts of debates is that fundamentals are very hard to argue against in principle. But in effect, practical "compromises" can often serve both goals better than a single purists solution.
I happen to believe in both liberty and public health.
In practice, vaccinations against infectious diseases need to hit certain percentages, not 100% of the population. With free vaccination, post natal health care, school programs and public education campaigns we can hit those numbers, and we do so regularly.
There's no need for the gross violation of freedom some people fear, locking up parents or declaring them unfit, tying people to a chair and needling them. Doing this voluntarily puts more onus on the system to be smart and high functioning, invest in education and making people comfortable with the whole thing. It increases the pressure to reduce side effects, inconvenience, cost, fear and any other barrier to getting kids vaccinated. Generally, the whole thing works better.
The fundamentalist is not serving principles more faithfully than the centrist or pragmatist. She's often just being argumentative and trying to be right to the detriment of her principles.
Declaring all state involvement or authority to be (equally?) coercive and violent is silly, thinking in discreet categories when the world of human beings is fuzzy. Ignoring people's agency in the decision to vaccinate them or their children is an obvious violation is a basic morally deafness.
I see comments like these from smart people who think more deeply about such things than the average person. It's baffling. Almost makes me think that the whole enterprise of moral philosophy and political philosophy is counter-productive. People fall into traps of vainly searching for consistency and leave their moral sense behind, with common sense far behind.
TLDR: There is no reason to forgo obesity for vaccination or vaccination for freedom. People are motivated into these arguments by a desire to be right, not to help people be free or healthy.
As you suggest, one can be strongly pro-vaccination and just as strongly against the ability of the government to send a SWAT team to the door to vaccinate you forcibly.
Personally, the law California passed seems a reasonable compromise to me. Once it's phased in, it makes it possible for parents to still opt-out their children but it 1.) makes it very much a non-casual decision, given that they'll probably have to home-school as a result, and 2.) keeps the children away from at least one of the locations (school) where they would interact with the largest population of other children.
> As you suggest, one can be strongly pro-vaccination and just as strongly against the ability of the government to send a SWAT team to the door to vaccinate you forcibly.
Yeah, but no significant group is arguing for that; its a strawman.
> Personally, the law California passed seems a reasonable compromise to me.
Its not really much of a compromise -- its pretty much the far extreme of what mandatory vaccination proponents actually seek.
> the far extreme of what mandatory vaccination proponents actually seek
Vaccination proponents seek vaccine-preventable diseases to be largely prevented.
What do you mean by "mandatory vaccination proponents" if not the previous sentence you just dismissed as a straw man. Why are you trying so hard to be combative?
> What do you mean by "mandatory vaccination proponents"
People actually supporting the idea that government should mandate vaccination of children in some circumstances; the real people on the other side of the actual government policy debate from anti-vaxxers.
>People actually supporting the idea that government should mandate vaccination of children in some circumstances
Which, in fact, proposed laws--including the one passed in California--do not do. Yes. There are significant consequences to not vaccinating children (where there is no medical necessity) but it's not mandatory under any circumstances.
By and large, vaccination proponents recognize that the key is to hit certain vaccination percentages for herd immunity reasons. At least in some areas of the country (e.g. Marin County), allowing personal belief opt-outs without consequence do not achieve those percentages. The assumption is that requiring vaccination to attend public schools (absent medical reasons to opt-out) will reduce the number of children who do not get vaccinated.
> There's no need for the gross violation of freedom some people fear, locking up parents or declaring them unfit, tying people to a chair and needling them.
Not yet. If you don't think propaganda will align "drug-de-jour" with vaccination, you can go back half a century in the history books and find some surprising artwork. The point is that it's a bad precedent to coerce. The whole idea of the federal hammer (all-or-nothing) has betrayed the notions of community and local governance. I see the discussions on Nextdoor.com for my neighborhood, but it's ultimately left up to the Feds to mandate. Why aren't the states doing this? Because they are too afraid of the backlash, while the aloof congresspeople are obviously detached.
I happen to believe in both liberty and public health.
In practice, vaccinations against infectious diseases need to hit certain percentages, not 100% of the population. With free vaccination, post natal health care, school programs and public education campaigns we can hit those numbers, and we do so regularly.
There's no need for the gross violation of freedom some people fear, locking up parents or declaring them unfit, tying people to a chair and needling them. Doing this voluntarily puts more onus on the system to be smart and high functioning, invest in education and making people comfortable with the whole thing. It increases the pressure to reduce side effects, inconvenience, cost, fear and any other barrier to getting kids vaccinated. Generally, the whole thing works better.
The fundamentalist is not serving principles more faithfully than the centrist or pragmatist. She's often just being argumentative and trying to be right to the detriment of her principles.
Declaring all state involvement or authority to be (equally?) coercive and violent is silly, thinking in discreet categories when the world of human beings is fuzzy. Ignoring people's agency in the decision to vaccinate them or their children is an obvious violation is a basic morally deafness.
I see comments like these from smart people who think more deeply about such things than the average person. It's baffling. Almost makes me think that the whole enterprise of moral philosophy and political philosophy is counter-productive. People fall into traps of vainly searching for consistency and leave their moral sense behind, with common sense far behind.
TLDR: There is no reason to forgo obesity for vaccination or vaccination for freedom. People are motivated into these arguments by a desire to be right, not to help people be free or healthy.