On abortion, vaccination, drugs, and hypocrisy

The political philosophy of Team Reality, and the eighth deadly sin

As many of you have pointed out, the same liberals who wanted Covid vaccine mandates are screaming the loudest about the end of Roe v. Wade.

The hypocrisy is obvious. As one reader commented:

The wailing and gnashing of teeth over this by the people with no qualms pushing vaccines on everyone with a job (and more if they could get away with it) -it just blows my mind…

True. All true.

Except for one inconvenient fact: the hypocrisy runs both ways.

Conservatives who hated mRNA jab mandates have no problem with the idea that the state should control whether a woman must carry a baby to term.

Your body, your choice.

Except when your choice offends me.

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The violation of physical autonomy is the state’s greatest power. No one should propose it lightly. At least two conditions must be met.

First, the restriction must have an overwhelming theoretical justification. Not merely strong. Overwhelming.

But a mere statement of principles is not enough. The rule must have some practical hope of success.

Mandatory mRNA vaccinations for adults fail on both grounds. We have always understood that population-wide immunity is a secondary consideration for vaccination. The primary benefit of any vaccine goes to the person who receives it.

Coercing people to be injected with a powerful biotechnology for their own protection would be immoral even if the vaccines worked as promised. We don’t force adults - except for a tiny number who are judged incompetent or mentally ill - to take medicines against their will.

The fact that the shots do not work means they fail the second condition too, making mandates not merely a moral failure but repugnant. The same applies to masks and lockdowns, the other great fripperies of Covid.

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Abortion restrictions satisfy the first condition. They’re morally justifiable. No one is more innocent than a fetus.

But they fail the second. They cannot survive in the real world, not without a level of police power incompatible with a democratic state.

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Some of you have asked me about drugs, and specifically where my views on cannabis fit into this paradigm. Why should drugs be illegal?

Fair question.

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