Ahh, a centrist. You can listen to reason, and weight it yourself.
The first amendment wasn’t written with global pandemics in mind.
Correct. in fact, none of the bill of rights were put in place with anything except common sense (read: self-evident) in play. Although I would note that denying a standing army, making sure the State could never promote or deny a religion, and arming the citizenry were probably based on recent experiences and success.
>> I don’t wear a mask because I’m concerned about dying, I’m 22. It’s so that MY actions don’t harm my family, or the family of others. So what if i’m being careful? Am I a sheep because I don’t want others’ blood on my own hands?
No, you are a sheep for standing in the rain instead of under a balcony when it's raining, because the Xs on the sidewalk are in the rain. You are a sheep if you separate your vehicles by 6 feet at a public dump while waiting in line, because that is what the rules say. We have a country full of fucking idiots. Let us not forget why we are, in fact, NOT a democracy.
If you make a decision to protect yourself or others, cool. What you cannot do, is decide what protects other people and then FORCE them to do it by removing their rights. Govt's that support that have a built in constitutional provision made just for them. We kill them.
>> But don’t you think the ramifications of being too loose are greater than the ramifications of being too careful?
No, not at all. It kills at about the same rate as the flu, at this point. We were lied to, repeatedly, about the impact and its spread-ability. It is not Ebola. Fucking communist Chinese gov't trying to hide their own shortcomings, and then fearmongers in the US raining non-stop propaganda on us about how deadly it is. We have an entire political party here overjoyed that our economy is going to shit. We do not need a shutdown any longer. Operating with precautions in place is effective. Unless we overwhelm the medical system, it is not actually that fatal. It is contagious like a MoFo, but not overly deadly. This actually seems to be more relevant to population density (with some outliers), offset by public/gov't response, and medical system maturity, rather than any precipitous drop in cases even weeks after we collectively closed up shop.
>> Your opinion of older folks is pretty alarming by the way.
He is on his own on that one. I am making deliveries to my elderly pals and business associates. I am not going to do nothing, if I can help in a meaningful way. What is appropriate is, I am not forcing anyone else to do the same, good idea or not.