Government Shouldn't Stop People From Doing Self-Destructive Things
We all do them!
The Reason Roundtable kicks this Monday off with a COVID-19 check-in: Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie cover everything from White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci's latest statement, bribing people to get the vaccine, and re-upping mask mandates.
Discussed in the show:
1:11: Fauci is warning that the U.S. is going in the wrong direction, and President Joe Biden has recommended masks for children under 12 years old. Where do we draw the line on government intervention for the sake of our health?
31:24: Weekly Listener Question: It's slowly eroding, but it's still common to refer to left progressives in America as "liberals." In the last podcast, for example, Suderman referred to the Democrat legislative agenda as comprising a "liberal" wish list. Given the accelerated retreat from the principles of liberalism on the left, even to the point of disdaining the word itself sometimes, isn't it time for classical liberals and libertarians to take the title, and certainly never grant the honorific to either extreme on the right or left. I know the pedantic idealism here is in tension with using pragmatic descriptions that most people will understand, but at some point the balance tips over.
45:06: Weekly media recommendations
This week's links:
- "Breakthrough Covid, in Perspective," by David Leonhardt
- "New York will require city workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly by mid-September," by Emma Fitzsimmons and Sharon Otterman
- "Language: Liberating Liberal," by Nick Gillespie
- "America Is Getting Unvaccinated People All Wrong," by Ed Yong
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
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Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Regan Taylor
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve