Accelerated Arguments

Well I actually got a chapter finished last night. C'est super. If I can just keep this effort up for a few consecutive days I should be sailing.

As for today I've had another morning so far of mild arguments on Twitter over "lock down". Again, I don't really enjoy it. Plus it's annoying when you get another notification on your phone just as you think it's all over and you can get on to other things. However, I feel like I need to keep chipping away at the lock down mentality.

(A little image I shared on Twitter in the hope it

would reminds Scots of their ancient liberties)

It's actually slightly worrying how poor the pro-lock down proponents are at arguing their point. They seem to just shout out insults ("you want to end the lock down!! how selfish!! etc). Following which they then just tend to scurry off, unable to respond to any specific point. The issue of civil liberties in particular seems almost like a new concept to them. As if they'd never heard of the idea until you'd mentioned it. Which I guess shouldn't be surprising really given how little the media and politicians have discussed it.

"What? You want to leave the house and risk the lives of other people!! Just so you can go to the beach or see your friends!!"

When you then point out that you may choose to take even more precaution than the government recommends for all they know, and that the broader point is that it's the right of the individual to decide, not the right of the state, they seem thoroughly bamboozled.

I keep trying to make the comparison with sexual freedom;

"Just because I believe individuals should have the right to choose who they do or do not sleep with that doesn't mean I believe there's no risk to sex, or indeed that I think it's a good idea to risk your health by sleeping with lots of people. Still, in a free society it should be a personal choice, and people should be free to make their own decisions. Don't you agree?

...or do you want the state to govern this aspect of our lives too?"

By which point they usually slink off.

I keep hoping that I can get into a debate about why the Soviet Union failed and why the west succeeded, but it never even gets that far.

#FBPE

It reminds me quite a lot of the arguments I used to have with the #fbpe crowd. Though in a way it's much, much worse. At the start of that long battle it was actually quite difficult. After all there were good arguments on both sides, and intelligent people could make very good, intelligent arguments for remaining within the European Union. In fact, at the beginning it felt like something of a David and Goliath battle, with leavers in the role of David.

As the argument progressed though and the remain side began to lose. Predominantly because they lost the democratic battle, then proceeded to trash democracy and the population in general in frustration. That's when they started to get quite irrational and emotional; and the insults began flying. "Stupid; racist; gammon and so on."

By Christmas gone you may remember I was feeling guilty about even arguing with them. In a way their frustrations were only expected. It was a long, drawn out battle (still going on now it seems too) and when you invest so much time and emotion into something. Especially if you feel it's a just cause. Then it's highly unlikely you're simply going to let go and say "Oh, well". So I do have a lot of sympathy for people on the other side.

With the lock down debates though it feels like the pro-lock down side are already in the emotional final stages. It worries me a little as it can't be good for democracy. When you have governments wanting to lock down their populations, and a public emotional and frenzied then it's quite dangerous in my view. People demanding that their neighbours be arrested for visiting the beach or having a barbecue, with no logical underpinning or understanding of their now strongly held beliefs. Not even weighing things like civil liberty in the equation.

So I feel I have to at least try to keep popping these little bubbles of emotion. Though it may look something of a lost cause at the moment.