FW: [lpsf-activists] Re: VM & LPSF Membership Project

I'm not really concerned about inadvertently appealing to KKK

members in

San Francisco...somehow I doubt that constituency is particularly large.

Jeremy

Jeremy, I would have agreed with you on this point a week ago, but
after hearing a Paul supporter at Saturday's LPSF meeting actually
defend the idea of quarantining AIDS patients (something from Ron
Paul's 1990 fundraising letter), I'm now far less optimistic about
Paul supporters in SF. I think there are far more intolerant people
in this town than I ever believed, and they were just closeting
themselves for the sake of political correctness -- and have only
recently "come out" as intolerant because their favorite candidate for
President agrees with them.

Rob

Rob,

  I did not hear that conversation at the LPSF meeting. But having observed the dynamics of various arguments, I think it is relevant to ask -- did the person defending Ron Paul cite the quarantining of AIDS patients as a good thing on his/her own initiative? Or did the conversation perhaps go something like this:

Ron Paul opponent -- (after some back-and-forth on whether Ron Paul deserves libertarian support): "Come on! One of his 1990 fundraising letters even suggested that AIDS patients should be quarantined! How can you defend something like that?"

Ron Paul supporter -- (who, if asked in a survey whether this were a good idea, might well have said 'no', but perhaps feeling angry, frustrated, and/or unwilling to concede the upper hand in the midst of an argument over a larger issue): "Hey, what's to stop an AIDS-infected person from having sex with people without disclosing his/her status if there's not some kind of restriction on who they interact with?"

  Presto -- now you have "a Paul supporter at Saturday's LPSF meeting actually defend(ing) the idea of quarantining AIDS patients." And if that person sees the issue being raised here, especially if it's perceived as an attempt to "score a point" against Ron Paul, he/she may feel the need to further justify and argue for what he/she said.

  Sometimes arguing with someone can lead them to take a position they would not have taken otherwise, and then if you keep pressing, they may feel obliged to defend it and actually come to believe in and identify with views they did not previously hold. The more one becomes emotionally invested in an argument, and the more it starts to feel like some kind of contest with the other person, the more danger there is of this occurring. I think this is something all of us could do well to keep in mind, especially when conversing with those who have particularly dogged styles of arguing, such as Brian Miller and Brian Holtz.

Love & Liberty,
        ((( starchild )))

I have heard the ideas of quarantine from many right wing folks.

There certainly is historical precedence's. One need only look across the bay to Angel Island.

Those of us of a libertarian mind and those of us informed about transmission understand the tremendous unintended consequences of quarantine. It leads to denial, hiding, non disclosure, and worst of all , fear of medical care.

However there is a vast reservoir of uninformed people whose juices can be stirred by exploitive politicians, or in this case perhaps poorly informed publisher.

There are situations where quarantine may be morally seen as necessary for the protection of life. One would want to quarantine carriers of Ebola virus that got airborne as a matter of protecting life In this case there is no hiding it. Multiple drug resister tuberculosis is a tough matter.You have all the problems of avoidance and yet a high-risk to the public, especially if the victim flies in a commercial aircraft. The issues are very difficult, and do not neatly fit into any particular ideology.

Rather than getting angry, or chastising the person for a poorly informed opinion, wouldn't it be useful to talk about the unintended and counter productive aspects of quarantining with a long term chronic disease that is not readily visible.,

Not only that, transmission risk is greatly reduced by effective treatment, something not likely to happen if folks are afraid to present for care.

Ignorance should be accepted as opportunity for education, not scorn. There is more than enough scorn and ignorance to go around already.

Phil