I think the past 4-5 years have seen self-professed conservatives promoting freedom minus individual responsibility. And the pandemic culture wars centered around masks and vaccines is evidence of it. I think most of us know that you cannot sustain freedom in a society not premised on personal responsibility. I remember as a kid getting several vaccines in order to meet the requirements to attend public school. Later when I attended university for undergrad and grad studies, we had to show proof of vaccination or get vaccinated for a list of things. I don't ever remember hearing people comparing this to the reincarnation of Nazi Germany.
It is interesting that some on the right are essentially considering vaccination status to be an immutable characteristic like race and sex. As if there was no such thing as agency to choose. Anti-discrimination laws protect people from being discriminated on the basis of their immutable characteristics and fundamental rights like religious beliefs, not based on elective choices such as vaccination. These anti-vaxxers are expecting us to respect their choice not to get vaxxed(which we do), but also be forced to shield them from and/or pay for the consequences of their choice(which we aren't willing to do. It's just not fair that we have to pay the price for someone else's bad choices).
These folks on the right are also conflating the actions of the private sector to those of the government. That is something the left has done for decades, but has recently gained a lot of traction on the right. Businesses do not have the power to deprive anyone of their constitutional rights. There is also no such thing as a constitutional right to a job or to patronize a business. If people don't like the fact that their company requires vaccination as a condition of being employed, then they can go find another job. The same applies to those who don't like a business's policies for customers on masking and vaccination. These customers are free to shop elsewhere. To sum it up, businesses have as much right to their set their own policies just as consumers and employees have to choose where to shop and work. These companies are enacting vaccine and mask requirements because there is a lot of demand from employees and customers for a safe working and shopping environment. It is simply the laws of supply and demand at work.
The private sector mandating vaccinations and masking, is every bit consistent with the principles of free market capitalism and limited government conservatism. That the purposefully unvaccinated are having to pay the consequences of their choices, is about as pro-freedom and pro-liberty as it gets.
I think the past 4-5 years have seen self-professed conservatives promoting freedom minus individual responsibility. And the pandemic culture wars centered around masks and vaccines is evidence of it. I think most of us know that you cannot sustain freedom in a society not premised on personal responsibility. I remember as a kid getting several vaccines in order to meet the requirements to attend public school. Later when I attended university for undergrad and grad studies, we had to show proof of vaccination or get vaccinated for a list of things. I don't ever remember hearing people comparing this to the reincarnation of Nazi Germany.
It is interesting that some on the right are essentially considering vaccination status to be an immutable characteristic like race and sex. As if there was no such thing as agency to choose. Anti-discrimination laws protect people from being discriminated on the basis of their immutable characteristics and fundamental rights like religious beliefs, not based on elective choices such as vaccination. These anti-vaxxers are expecting us to respect their choice not to get vaxxed(which we do), but also be forced to shield them from and/or pay for the consequences of their choice(which we aren't willing to do. It's just not fair that we have to pay the price for someone else's bad choices).
These folks on the right are also conflating the actions of the private sector to those of the government. That is something the left has done for decades, but has recently gained a lot of traction on the right. Businesses do not have the power to deprive anyone of their constitutional rights. There is also no such thing as a constitutional right to a job or to patronize a business. If people don't like the fact that their company requires vaccination as a condition of being employed, then they can go find another job. The same applies to those who don't like a business's policies for customers on masking and vaccination. These customers are free to shop elsewhere. To sum it up, businesses have as much right to their set their own policies just as consumers and employees have to choose where to shop and work. These companies are enacting vaccine and mask requirements because there is a lot of demand from employees and customers for a safe working and shopping environment. It is simply the laws of supply and demand at work.
The private sector mandating vaccinations and masking, is every bit consistent with the principles of free market capitalism and limited government conservatism. That the purposefully unvaccinated are having to pay the consequences of their choices, is about as pro-freedom and pro-liberty as it gets.