547610831 t1_ja039uu wrote on February 25, 2023 at 9:00 PM

Reply to comment by CrucioIsMade4Muggles in The Supreme Court Actually Understands the Internet by rejs7

>You're arguing for the principle of freedom of speech, but the moment any principle causes more harm than good, that principle should be immediately abandoned.

If you abandon your principles as soon as its convenient then you don't actually have any principles. Besides, wearing a mask wasn't going to kill anyone to begin with so your hypothetical is kinda useless.

CrucioIsMade4Muggles t1_ja03ivh wrote on February 25, 2023 at 9:02 PM

>If you abandon your principles as soon as its convenient then you don't actually have any principles.

And if your principles get people killed, then having principles is demonstrably not virtuous.

>Besides, wearing a mask wasn't going to kill anyone to begin with so your hypothetical is kinda useless.

It was going to deprive medical professionals of masks, which would lead to them getting sick and causing a shortage of healthcare professionals in the face of an unknown and deadly pandemic threat. Yes--it was going to. My hypothetical wasn't a hypothetical--it was an objective description of what was going to happen and what they avoided.

Prophayne_ t1_ja06teg wrote on February 25, 2023 at 9:25 PM

I'm with group of assembled numbers. The good of everyone is a societal problem, what's good for myself is an individual one. If the government is telling me not to wear masks in a pandemic, they have failed their end of the bargain and have done society a disservice. It is now my problem. I'm gonna go buy some masks and flip the ole red white and blue the bird.

CrucioIsMade4Muggles t1_ja0flgs wrote on February 25, 2023 at 10:27 PM

Congratulations. You just failed the tragedy of the commons. This is why individuals shouldn't be allowed to make decisions that impact entire societies.

theannotator t1_ja1nllt wrote on February 26, 2023 at 4:14 AM

But in this specific case, if they knew masks would be in short supply they could have recommended cloth coverings as a placebo that wouldn’t actually be harmful. The government is demonstrably not infallible.

Prophayne_ t1_ja5zupg wrote on February 27, 2023 at 2:23 AM

But me going out to buy masks is a me problem, not a societal one. Society lied and said "Don't wear masks, they are useless!" and I said "I don't believe you" and wore masks.

Some people followed societies ill informed guidance, some people mocked it, some people just shrugged and did what worked for them because you can't trust a politicized agenda to actually know what's best for anyone but themselves. I'm in group c. The government was wrong, and I as a nurse could see it laughably so, and chose to take care of myself. Funnily enough, it worked.