I had no idea that my supporting individual liberty, gender and race equality, equal opportunity for all, and greater voice of the people in government will all lead to authoritarianism!
Well, so says the Heritage Foundation. Hey, it's a foundation, they must be speaking the truth.
“Give up your economic freedom, give up your political freedom, and you will be rewarded with license,” said Heritage’s David Azerrad, describing the reigning philosophy of the left. “It’s all sex all the time. It’s not just the sex itself—it’s the permission to indulge.”
So we are going to fuck ourselves into a dictatorship? Awesome! These folks really have us pegged.
What’s more, they [liberals] think that those who disagree with them ought “to [be] imprisoned—not to be debated, to be locked up on criminal charges and imprisoned,” said the National Review’s Kevin Williamson, citing stray calls from the left to “arrest climate change deniers.”
So because one website makes an argument, and not a bad one, that those who are negligent to the point of harm to others should be held responsible means that we will bring authoritarianism upon ourselves? Man, to me it seems just the opposite. It seems to me that letting people get away with murder is what will lead to authoritarianism. That said, Gawker is correct that there is legal precedent for negligent acts that bring harm to humans. It's called, oddly enough,
criminal negligence.
According to the source above:
To show criminal negligence, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the mental state involved in criminal negligence. Proof of that mental state requires that the failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur must be a gross deviation from the standard of a reasonable person. Criminal negligence is conduct which is such a departure from what would be that of an ordinary prudent or careful person in the same circumstance as to be incompatible with a proper regard for human life or an indifference to consequences. Criminal negligence is negligence that is aggravated, culpable or gross.
To me, that sounds pretty much like what climate change deniers are doing.
This kos diary from Walter Einenkel shows videos from a meeting of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, which is a republican brain trust (Oxy-moron?), with White House Science Advisor John Holdren. Displayed in the video is the very definition of willful ignorance. Here's basically what happens in the videos:
1. Republican makes stupid point.
2. Science advisor eloquently refutes the point with facts and evidence, and points out the problems with the republican's thinking.
3. Republican ignores response entirely and repeats stupid point.
4. Science advisor once again tries to correct Republican.
5. Repeat 1-4 ad nauseum.
So these republicans are presented with the facts, evidence, and consequences of climate change, yet they willfully refuse to entertain any of it. So if, as a result of their willful ignorance, humans are harmed, then those who had the power to mitigate those consequences, but did not, should be held to be criminally negligent. According to Lawrence Torcello, a philosophy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology cited in the Gawker post, humans have already been harmed by climate change.
More deaths can already be attributed to climate change than the L'Aquila earthquake and we can be certain that deaths from climate change will continue to rise with global warming. Nonetheless, climate denial remains a serious deterrent against meaningful political action in the very countries most responsible for the crisis.
(links from source)
If you didn't read the Gawker post, the reference to the L'Aquila earthquake is because six seismologists were held to be criminally negligent for brushing off the danger of some recent tremors before the "big one" in which 309 people died.
Honestly I did not fact check the gawker post, but that humans will be harmed at some point by climate change is pretty much undeniable, and when that harm occurs, the only thing to say about all those in power that had the ability to do something about it but did not, due to their willful ignorance, should be held to be criminally negligent by the definition above.
But I digress...
Back to the sex. Which will only get hotter by the way.