Denmark's Burqa Ban Has Gone Into Effect

[jberryhill]

100. Support for Jill Stein does not equal support for Trump either

But wrapping one agenda in an appealing package is always a good strategy.

People have been wearing face coverings for religious/cultural reasons throughout history, and not limited to Islam either. It has also been common among Christian religious orders over the ages, etc..

Suddenly, with the development of automated facial recognition technology, it has become an imperative to do something about "oppressive face coverings".

My shoes are wet, so it must be raining.

You can say all day, "I support the eradication of mosquitos, but not the extinction of organisms which depend on mosquito larvae", but that is simply wanting to have your cake and eat it too. You can have one or the other, but you can't have both.

If someone covers their face in public, it does no harm to me. It does no harm to you. It does no harm to anyone else generally. Ergo, why it becomes an issue of the state is beyond me.

Furthermore, hypotheticals about "what if that person then mugs you" are not relevant to face covering per se. Likewise arguments about "but they are being forced to do so by someone else" are also not relevant since (a) that is a separate issue for which there are resources for victims of spousal abuse, and (b) in a free society such a person has the choice to remove themselves from such relationships. That they choose not to do so for their own reasons (peer pressure, social isolation, etc.), are their reasons. Again, there are resources to help them if they avail themselves of them. In a free society, we operate from the assumption that people's religious and social choices are theirs to make, and we do not generally make those choices on their behalf.

But what such laws do is to remove MY ability to opt-out of public automated facial recognition systems which are more common than people realize. So we've gone from a situation in which my liberty is not compromised by someone else's garments, to a situation where my liberty not to be subject to automated recognition IS compromised.

And yet, it gets overwhelming support, such as the "face covering is a public safety issue" point raised elsewhere in this thread.