> The other problem is resorting to force. If you mandate something to a Texan, you better believe they're resist the hell out of it, even if they know it's in their best interest otherwise. I have several friends that knew it was in their best interest to get the vaccine, but their libertarian values/morals drove them to take a stand against their companies who tried to compel them to take it.
It is immensely satisfying to see people finally, finally saying this on here.
Somewhere around a year ago in one of the covid vaccine posts, the top post was something along the lines of "Fine, I don't care anymore, I'm done trying to help these people" in reference to mandating/coercing people to take the shots. I responded with "And their response will be 'Finally! That's all we've wanted this entire time!'. People on here [HN] don't seem to realize just how much 'these people' value freedom over safety."
My comment did get a lot of upvotes, but the large thread that generated had so many people who just didn't understand the sentiment at all, it was an amazing demonstration of the bubble HN exists in.
That's the primary reason I did not get the shots. After so long of the government exerting force they had no right to use, I was not going to give into something they said doesn't take away that force, and would lead to a vaccine passport "show me your papers" society.
In Arabic we have the saying "just to spite you, toilet, I decided to shit in my pants". Your comment reminded me a lot of it. My grandma use to use it a lot on me when I was a teen because I had a contrarian phase.
I made the right choice. That's a terrible analogy to use in regards to standing up for freedom. Especially when the shots actually did turn out to be less than worthless
If you are young and healthy and not in contact with elderly or severly sick, there was never any point to take a government mandated vaccine with dubious upbacking, surrounded by lying, and the contents of which have been deemed a military secret.
It was not good for me though. The shots were harmful and the risk was not worth it. I'm also more than willing to take a bigger risk even if there was one to stand up for freedom, which is important
My relative is super anti-vaccine but she still got vaccinated because she would have lost her job otherwise. She's already low income, so that was never an option.
That's a poor stat for measuring ideological adherence when anyone who travelled over 1.5yrs+, worked a job with people, worked in gov, etc or lived in a place with mandates and wanted to go to retail stores or any public event was forced to take it.
We aren't debating their reasoning to get the vaccine? Or whether forcing people to get the vaccine works or not? Of course threatening people's jobs works.
If the overreaction to dissent ultimately played a bigger role in fueling - rather than preventing it - then it's not a worthy 'greater good' (Streisand effect en masse). Playing a central part in turning millions of people from harmless 'alternative health' skeptics to hardcore anti-gov is something that will have long term consequences.
If we're gonna assume vaccinated/not vaccinated defines their viewpoint, then around 1 in 3 people is a pretty massive group to flippantly dismiss like that.
Around 80% have received one dose at least, that leaves 20% who at this point seem to be making an ideological stand. 20% of the any population can have absolutely fringe views that shouldn't be given ideological affirmative action for their views.
It is immensely satisfying to see people finally, finally saying this on here.
Somewhere around a year ago in one of the covid vaccine posts, the top post was something along the lines of "Fine, I don't care anymore, I'm done trying to help these people" in reference to mandating/coercing people to take the shots. I responded with "And their response will be 'Finally! That's all we've wanted this entire time!'. People on here [HN] don't seem to realize just how much 'these people' value freedom over safety."
My comment did get a lot of upvotes, but the large thread that generated had so many people who just didn't understand the sentiment at all, it was an amazing demonstration of the bubble HN exists in.