Actually, it wasn't Samson after all

The stupidest person who ever lived, that is. Hunter has a thorough discussion of the efforts of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to kill as many of his voters as possible. I would like to focus on the fundamental illogic of this conceptualization of "freedom." 

I have often said that libertarianism, like the concept of God, is both internally inconsistent and inconsistent with observable reality. The absurd conservative response to Covid-19 illustrates this perfectly. In the name of Freedom™, DeSantis:

• Forbids businesses -- from small family owned enterprises to giant publicly traded corporations -- from making policies of their own choice for the protection of their customers and employees. Note that he is perfectly happy to let them make all sorts of rules, for workplace safety, dress codes, customer comportment, you name it. They just can't require masks or vaccinations. 
• Prevents all citizens from safely shopping, going to work, going to entertainment venues, or any other public activity. 
  
• Makes it impossible for children to safely attend school, regardless of the wishes of parents, school boards, or principals.
  
• Fills up hospitals and makes it impossible for people to get elective procedures or even urgent treatment.

It is always the case that liberty is a trade off, a balancing problem. You are not at liberty to exceed the speed limit because if you do so, it impinges on my liberty to safely use the public roads. You are not at liberty to send your child to school without required vaccinations because it impinges on the liberty of other children to attend school safely, not to mention the liberty of your own children not to get measles or mumps. You are not at liberty to dump your toxic waste into the river because it impinges on other people's liberty to use the river for all sorts of other purposes. And so on. 

 

This is obvious. Conservative=Idiot.