Okay, this is twice now, and I’m over it.
Back when we were talking about Occupy Nashville, some fellow left a comment here about how it’s okay to use deadly force on protestors because sometimes you have to give antibiotics preventatively.
Then today I was over at Pith to read Aunt B. and I made the mistake of going into the comments. Those comments always make me stabby, and today is no exception. There it is again. Perennial favourite Donna Locke, addressing the use of SWAT teams and deadly force to take down non-violent criminals (like music pirates) said:
Antibiotics are sometimes administered pre-emptively, before infection develops. Happy Valentine’s Day to the the SWAT teams. Thank you for putting your lives on the line for all of us.
If many libertarians had their way, we’d be living in utter chaos.
Just, uh, be sure you have the right address. #Not my house. ##Try the all-night band across the road. ###Please.
This? This right here is why I’m a libertarian. Because the greatest part about championing individual liberty is the realisation that it takes all kinds to make a world. Even anti-immigrant neo-conservative hatemongers have a place here. They are free to be that and I am free to be this and as long as everyone’s noses are okay, we’re all good.
This idea that other people are some form of bacteria or infection or grossness–reducing them to that and stealing their personhood in the process–is partisan politics at its worst. Because, honestly, some guy who steals music is doing something bad. But he’s still a mother’s son, a person’s lover. Perhaps a father. Perhaps a dog owner. Maybe he does nothing else all day but steal music and throw darts at pictures of George Washington. I don’t know and I really don’t care. He’s a person who has rights and if I don’t respect those rights how can I expect others to respect my rights? “She’s just an arthritic woman who makes no contribution to society. She doesn’t work or pay taxes. Let’s break down her door and run through her house with semiautomatic weapons and arrest her.” It could happen. Has happened in the past in other places.
The minute we start using dehumanising opponents is when we start admitting that facism is an attractive position as long as we’re on the side doing the bullying.*
*for the record, this is also why I won’t say “Illegals”.
More concerning is the final line you quoted. She’s basically openly acknowledging the potential for abuse and hedging her bets that it won’t be her.
But her analogy is flawed (not even counting the “people are not bacteria” thing). Even when given as a preventative measure, antibiotics can only kill bacteria that infect the body. It’s not as if they form some magical bubble that wipes out any bacteria that comes close to and therefore might infect the body at some point.
Prophylactic antibiotics have a very limited use for the obvious problem of their overuse creating super bacteria. I hope the same is true for humans–that the overuse of SWAT teams will breed SWAT team resistant people.
The language of ethnic cleansing first seeks to destroy one’s ability to associate the target group as fellow humans by insisting on their lack of cleanliness, their lack of healthfulness, and their potential for social and cultural pollution. Then, the argument advances to the language of contagion and infection. After that, it’s a short step to appeals to self-preservation and the “cleaning” or “purifying” of society from the elements of disease, using the antiseptic language of medicine instead of murder.
Donna’s post is textbook disturbing.