By Stephen Fontenot | While social media algorithms have become excellent at matching a user’s viewing habits with targeted, personalized content, psychologists at The University of Texas at Dallas have determined that these algorithms may have a negative influence on a user’s mental health. Dr. Alva Tang, assistant professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral […]
It sounds like you’re both missing the core concept here: Freedom is responsibility. Responsibility for one’s self and actions. If someone is refusing to take responsibility for themselves, they are lacking self control and are not free in the first place. They are beholden to animal impulses. You get me? By not taking responsibility for their actions they are disqualifying themselves from freedom regardless of whether they’re physically arrested and incarcerated. We need to stop pretending that everyone just has freedom as an intrinsic quality instead of it being a right to which they are entitled.
Yes, it is. And responsibility is the opportunity to fail to live up to that responsibility, and then what?
I get you: tell yourself they’re “just animals” so you can cage them without a guilty conscious.
There are a lot of flaws in the U.S. foundational documents, but “Life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness for all” is a concept I think worth defending.
I get you: tell yourself they’re “just animals” so you can cage them without a guilty conscious.
Actually, no. Quite the opposite. Treat them like people who have chosen to abrogate their responsibility as humans in order to fulfill animal impulses. I’m definitely not okay with putting people in cages. Irresponsible or not, they’re still people.
Great, so these people who you’re not okay with putting in cages, the ones that go out and kill other people (for drama’s sake), or just really grief society with constant home burglaries, maybe some drug addictions driving that, maybe assaulting people to avoid arrest, maybe “accidentally” killing someone with that gun they use to threaten the cashiers - no cages for them, either? I 100% agree, they’re still people, they deserve the best possible shot at becoming better integrated members of society, rehab programs instead of incarceration when appropriate and all that, but even with the amazing money saving rehabilitation rate of psych counselling for drug convictions (which a friend of ours does for a living), they’re still far from 100%. Our courts throw too many under the jail for no good reason, wasting their lives and costing the community far more money than the shot at rehab they deserve, but at some point, rehab isn’t working for some of them - then what?
Of course there are literally thousands of other “common” anti-social behaviors that eventually rise to the level of incarceration as well…
It sounds like you’re both missing the core concept here: Freedom is responsibility. Responsibility for one’s self and actions. If someone is refusing to take responsibility for themselves, they are lacking self control and are not free in the first place. They are beholden to animal impulses. You get me? By not taking responsibility for their actions they are disqualifying themselves from freedom regardless of whether they’re physically arrested and incarcerated. We need to stop pretending that everyone just has freedom as an intrinsic quality instead of it being a right to which they are entitled.
Yes, it is. And responsibility is the opportunity to fail to live up to that responsibility, and then what?
I get you: tell yourself they’re “just animals” so you can cage them without a guilty conscious.
There are a lot of flaws in the U.S. foundational documents, but “Life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness for all” is a concept I think worth defending.
Actually, no. Quite the opposite. Treat them like people who have chosen to abrogate their responsibility as humans in order to fulfill animal impulses. I’m definitely not okay with putting people in cages. Irresponsible or not, they’re still people.
Great, so these people who you’re not okay with putting in cages, the ones that go out and kill other people (for drama’s sake), or just really grief society with constant home burglaries, maybe some drug addictions driving that, maybe assaulting people to avoid arrest, maybe “accidentally” killing someone with that gun they use to threaten the cashiers - no cages for them, either? I 100% agree, they’re still people, they deserve the best possible shot at becoming better integrated members of society, rehab programs instead of incarceration when appropriate and all that, but even with the amazing money saving rehabilitation rate of psych counselling for drug convictions (which a friend of ours does for a living), they’re still far from 100%. Our courts throw too many under the jail for no good reason, wasting their lives and costing the community far more money than the shot at rehab they deserve, but at some point, rehab isn’t working for some of them - then what?
Of course there are literally thousands of other “common” anti-social behaviors that eventually rise to the level of incarceration as well…