No one has right to violate rights

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for December 7, 2022)

Governments don't respect rights.

Your rights don't change when you cross a line; not a state line or a national border. Rights are the same everywhere. Only the ways in which your rights are violated differ by location.

Rights don't change over time or due to majority opinion, either. If something is a violation of your rights today, it was a violation no matter how far back in history you go and it would remain a violation into the distant future. No matter what else changes.

Slavery always violated the rights of the slaves, even when it was enforced by law, and when most people thought it was the natural way to arrange society and get hard work done. No justification for slavery holds up-- it doesn't matter if you can't see any other way to harvest the cotton, if it's used as punishment for a crime or to fill military quotas through conscription.

People who want to convince you that "archaic" rights-- such as the basic human right to own and to carry weapons everywhere you go-- no longer apply are wanting to violate you. They don't want you able to effectively resist, so they'll try to convince you of how backward your values are.

I see them as trying to convince you how enlightened you would be if only you accepted slavery as natural again. It's a lie and I'll never accept their deception.

No one ever has a right to violate your rights-- the very idea is absurd if you think about it. Not based on who you are, where you are, or what year it is. I would also include not based on what you've done, since I don't see justice as violating anyone's rights, but most people prefer punishment over justice and don't like this idea. Restitution doesn't violate your rights since you created the debt by something you did, either through negligence or choice.

Rights can either be respected or violated; there is no middle ground. They can be violated more or they can be violated a little less, but violating rights is how you can identify evil. I don't accept any degree of evil. I've been told this makes me an extremist, as if being extreme about doing the right thing is bad.

If you don't believe in rights, or don't believe they should always be respected, imagine trying to have a functioning society without them and describe how that looks.

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