Subject:
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Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 12 May 2000 13:06:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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803 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Peter Callaway writes:
> > Hence I believe those who have contracted it through sexual contact before
> > the accepted social awareness date (if that can in fact be nailed down) are
> > still responsible for their actions, as it has been known for ages that you
> > can contract seriously debilitating diseases through unprotected sex.
>
> While I sort of agree with the general thrust here, there are two problems I
> can see
>
> - Most other STD have short incubation periods and obvious symptoms. SO one
> could have, in 1984, beleived oneself to be completely disease free and thus
> told one's parter the absolute truth, and yet been a vector for HIV.
True, but there are still inherent risks with unprotected sex (including a
dishonest partner "sure, honey, I'm clean"), and unless you're prepared to
accept the responsibilities, wrap it up or put it away.
> - nailing down the accepted social awareness date is hard. Who's going to look
> someone in the eye and say, sorry pal, you got it in march of 1987 and we all
> decided the date was feb 87 so you're out of luck.
My point exactly, it's just that people are trying to quantify a date some
time in the eighties when responsibility for actions doesn't count because we
all "didn't know".
> > The voluntary thing I agree on, but governments are elected by the majority,
> > and if the majority voted for a government who's policy is to allocate
> > funding to these sorts of things, then by and large you have to go along
> > with it. Don't like it? Vote them out. This may not be in accord with
> > Libertarian views on governments and such, but it's current reality.
>
> Warning, plowed ground alert:
<snip>
>
> The majority cannot legislate morality, it is what it is, and the government
> is operating without the sanction of this particular victim.
We all feel this way from time to time (try living in Australia and see some
of the utter crap the government throws money at here!), but believing it is
morally wrong won't make it go away. Time to do something about it (like the
Libertarian website).
<moving slightly off-topic>
The problem as I see it is that, as a general rule, we're all too easily
distracted by the sheer volume of information that is thrust at us today.
Something gets our goat, we get all firey, send off letters to the editors of
newspapers, ring up radio talk-back programs, jump on our soapboxes until they
break, but tomorrow there is something new to get rialled about, and today's
issue gets forgotten.
We had a recent spark about monetary and military aid we were giving to
Indonesia during the East Timor crisis. People were horrified that we were
still shelling out millions to the Indonesian government in money and military
hardware when it looked like we may have a bit of a tiff with them (I was in
Darwin at the time, and believe me we were gearing up for war!). Everyone
wanted it to stop, wrote letters to the government to that effect. Nothing
happened, and a couple of weeks later it was all forgotten about as another
SOCOG Olympic debarcle took front page. The issue has never resurfaced.
If we're unhappy with the status-quo then we have only ourselves to blame,
since we're so intent on what's happening tomorrow, we forget what happened
yesterday.
</moral soapbox>
Pete Callaway
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) While I sort of agree with the general thrust here, there are two problems I can see - Most other STD have short incubation periods and obvious symptoms. SO one could have, in 1984, beleived oneself to be completely disease free and thus told (...) (24 years ago, 12-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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