Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Fuzz]

If you are not prepared for the "responsibilities" aspect of society, you do not get to claim the "rights" that go along with them. And that is what Smith and antivaxers are trying to get away with. For some reason they think they are special.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by Yoho

You may think that's what she's asking for, but you're likely thinking wrong.

Explain why you think the poster is wrong. Without memes.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by 14Roman14

How was someone who made a different medical decision who did not have COVID more risky to be beside in a restaurant or a hockey game than someone who may or may not have showed symptoms but had a card saying they were accepted in society? It was common knowledge to stay home when showing any symptoms regardless. However I didn’t once hear of anyone being kicked out of a restaurant or sporting event for sneezing, coughing, or blowing their nose inside. This may have made sense if that card proved that you couldn’t get, or pass the virus. Unfortunately that proved not to be true. I get that everyone feels they made the correct choice. I’m very glad that for the most part things are back to normal and most are accepting of everyone now that politicians and media aren’t telling you to be intolerant of others. So far I haven’t heard the premier say that she wants to take anybody’s rights, she wants to make sure everyone always has equal rights as they should. Agree or disagree, but people should not be discriminated against for any reason. As another poster said earlier, most are over it, and once this initial shock wears off, I hope it continues to just be normal, which it will if folks stop fighting for their “right” to discriminate. The vax didn’t stop COVID in its tracks, the non vax didn’t all drop dead or cause everyone around them to drop dead. Both sides are still in society and it would be great if there is never such a divide in our world again where some members of society were put on a pedestal and others were stomped on like sewer rats. I think if we can all be respectful and understanding of both sides it can go a long ways. I personally think that is what the premier is asking for, and if you are too intolerant to do that, then maybe it’s mirror time.

Being anti-vax is one thing, but being anti-paragraph is unpardonable.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If you are not prepared for the "responsibilities" aspect of society, you do not get to claim the "rights" that go along with them. And that is what Smith and antivaxers are trying to get away with. For some reason they think they are special.

Privileges come with responsibilities. Rights should not come with conditions.

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Privileges come with responsibilities. Rights should not come with conditions.

Sure they do. Laws are conditions on your Rights. Hell we even have a whole section that says we can pass laws notwithstanding your Rights.

[BlindMilwaukee]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Privileges come with responsibilities. Rights should not come with conditions.

What specific rights were taken away? I just would like to see a 3-4 examples.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Privileges come with responsibilities. Rights should not come with conditions.

The right to vote has a condition you must be over 18.

The rights and freedoms in the Charter are not absolute. They can be limited to protect other rights or important national values. For example, freedom of expression may be limited by laws against hate propaganda or child pornography.

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-he...-freedoms.html

To use the pandemic as an example, Canadians have a right to healthcare. Therefore, some rights of gatherings were restricted to maintain that right. These were reasonable restrictions that worked to save lives. You'd have to be perfectly OK with people dying, unable to access healthcare so you could go to church, or a hockey game, or whatever. I think we have a name for that condition...psychopath. Which is what Danielle advocated for during the pandemic and after. And some people want to vote for this person, which to me is utterly insane, and frankly, depressing as ####.

[RedHot25]

God help us.

And I'm not even religious.

[b1crunch]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Privileges come with responsibilities. Rights should not come with conditions.

As I said above, the pandemic has highlighted for me that some people have a grave misunderstanding of what rights they have and how our rights in this country work, as evidenced by this post. Of course rights have responsibilities/conditions. I literally teach junior high and high school in Alberta and the idea of rights and responsibilities is in the Grade 9 curriculum. This isn't some new concept. It's literally how a liberal democracy works and has always worked.

Regardless, the pandemic showed that many people do not know the difference between what is and is not a right. Almost everything I witnessed people complain about during Covid were not rights.

[timun]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Last year you said you were unvaccinated. Still the case?

I'd love to know the answer to this.

[Slava]

I was already dreading this election because we’re in for months of pseudo campaigning before the actual campaign. If it turns in a vaccine/Covid discussion for months on end I might just vote for anyone refusing to talk about that.

[14Roman14]

Originally Posted by timun

I'd love to know the answer to this.

If I met you on the street, I would offer you kindness and respect. I would not ask your status before I decided to give it to you or not.

Many of you do not like the comment made that a certain group was the most discriminated against.

I’m curious which group you think is? Now put that group in a position where they were told they weren’t allowed on a plane, in a hockey arena, in a restaurant and looked down upon at every turn.

I would never ask someone for their age, sexual preference, race, gender, religion or any other divisive questions before offering respect, humility and kindness.

[PepsiFree]

So that’s a yes, then.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by 14Roman14

If I met you on the street, I would offer you kindness and respect. I would not ask your status before I decided to give it to you or not.

Many of you do not like the comment made that a certain group was the most discriminated against.

I’m curious which group you think is? Now put that group in a position where they were told they weren’t allowed on a plane, in a hockey arena, in a restaurant and looked down upon at every turn.

I would never ask someone for their age, sexual preference, race, gender, religion or any other divisive questions before offering respect, humility and kindness.

That's nice. Age, sexual preference, race, gender, religion are not contagious.

The is the dumbest crap I've heard. No one is asking you to whip out blood test results, weight, bmi index score just a simple yes or no if you have been vaccinated.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by 14Roman14

If I met you on the street, I would offer you kindness and respect. I would not ask your status before I decided to give it to you or not.

Many of you do not like the comment made that a certain group was the most discriminated against.

I’m curious which group you think is? Now put that group in a position where they were told they weren’t allowed on a plane, in a hockey arena, in a restaurant and looked down upon at every turn.

I would never ask someone for their age, sexual preference, race, gender, religion or any other divisive questions before offering respect, humility and kindness.

Sure, I'll play. The medically vulnerable. As a selfish soul who could not take the simple step of getting vaccinated to protect them, you have made their lot in life worse. They lived in fear through the pandemic of getting infected, and ending up in the ER, or worse. They were constantly told the government would re-open things, "while protecting the vulnerable" which never actually happened. To this day, they do not go to hockey games, or restaurants. They do not get to participate in a normal life, while people such as yourself and Smith do whatever you please, and kvetch about it constantly, all while screaming "I'm repressed!" While raising money to pay for lawyers to ensure that next time, the vulnerable really don't stand a chance. It's ####ing revolting.

Have you given a thought to those who still must take precautions? Who don a mask every time they leave the house, who don't sit around a table with friends enjoying their company without fear, you didn't care during the height of the pandemic, and you don't care now.

While you had a choice to get vaccinated so you could "not be discriminated against" you made your choice. You don't get to complain about that. You could have changed your choice at any time. The medically vulnerable do get to make a choice, they are stuck with the evil selfish decisions people such as yourself made, that created undue stress and harm for them. Some died because of it. Others are left with long term damage. Tell me, why should anyone treat you with respect when you care so little about others? You don't get the honour of respect, because you threw that away. I'll show you respect when you consider the plight of the vulnerable who have suffered far far more over the past 2 years than any "loss of freedoms" you think happened to you.

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by 14Roman14

If I met you on the street, I would offer you kindness and respect. I would not ask your status before I decided to give it to you or not. s.

I would also treat you with kindness and respect..

The thing is, I don't feel like I am being treated with respect. I also don't feel like the community is being treated with kindness and respect.

This will fall entirely on deaf ears, which exactly proves my point, all that was needed was to be vaccinated for kindness and respect to community members, seniors, those at risk with chronic conditions, etc.

Instead we got an occupation of our capital city. Wild claims about being the most discriminated against (you really are wanting a ranking of discrimination?!), weird protests about things already over, a wild Coutts blockade , etc.

Kindness and respect indeed.

[Wormius]

I knew we’d eventually get back to the point where the unvaxxed anti-masker crowd would be whining about everything.

Really they coasted through the pandemic, bitching and moaning about every minor inconvenience that came up, then of course they just assume that because they didn’t get sick that the mandates were unnecessary, while in reality they just rode the coattails of everybody else who did their part.

I don’t even care that they didn’t get vaxxed or wear a mask, but they should stop acting like they got through this unscathed because this was no big deal.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I knew we’d eventually get back to the point where the unvaxxed anti-masker crowd would be whining about everything.

Really they coasted through the pandemic, bitching and moaning about every minor inconvenience that came up, then of course they just assume that because they didn’t get sick that the mandates were unnecessary, while in reality they just rode the coattails of everybody else who did their part.

I don’t even care that they didn’t get vaxxed or wear a mask, but they should stop acting like they got through this unscathed because this was no big deal.

And then add heaps of victim mentality on top of it to boot.

Considering they were the ones most likely to ignore covid during the height of the pandemic, I find it weird that they're also the people that are having the most trouble just moving with their lives

[b1crunch]

Originally Posted by 14Roman14

If I met you on the street, I would offer you kindness and respect. I would not ask your status before I decided to give it to you or not.

Many of you do not like the comment made that a certain group was the most discriminated against.

I’m curious which group you think is? Now put that group in a position where they were told they weren’t allowed on a plane, in a hockey arena, in a restaurant and looked down upon at every turn.

I would never ask someone for their age, sexual preference, race, gender, religion or any other divisive questions before offering respect, humility and kindness.

Just to be clear, everything bolded above is NOT a right, while everything underlined is a right. That's my issue with Danielle Smith and how you expressed her views in this thread. You argued she's looking out for people's rights, but nothing you listed is a right. Then you go on to say you wouldn't question people on a set list of things that are all related to actual rights. So, just to be clear, she's not actually doing anything related to rights. Rather she's arguing for people to have privileges. Those are two different things.

Smith is trying to question the actions of governments during the pandemic, which is a ridiculous and pointless activity. In fact, she used her first chance as Premier to create anger and division among Albertans. Absolutely ridiculous from a leadership perspective.

The pandemic was wild (especially the early months/year). I'm hard pressed to place blame on any government (provincial/federal or conservative/liberal/ndp) for their actions in those early periods when so much was uncertain. Covid was (hopefully) a once in a lifetime pandemic, and no government was well equipped to handle it. Smith has the benefit of hindsight, but that doesn't mean much for all of us here now.

I see no benefit for Alberta in her bringing up this past Covid stuff, especially as her first official comment as Premier. It sets a terrible precedent. In fact, here we all are arguing about it. She's literally divided Albertans against one another and brought up an old wound for people on both sides. The vast majority of people have moved on from Covid and the restrictions, etc. I'd rather have a leader that was forward thinking and positive. I want to hear what she'll do to bring us together, not divide us. She hasn't started well, to say the least.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by btimbit

And then add heaps of victim mentality on top of it to boot.

Considering they were the ones most likely to ignore covid during the height of the pandemic, I find it weird that they're also the people that are having the most trouble just moving with their lives

It’s super weird. But then again it’s kind of the pandemic today in a nutshell. Most of us got vaccinated so we could get back to “normal” and get on with our lives, and the only two groups that really can’t (for totally separate reasons) are the medically vulnerable (who I have tons of sympathy for) and the unvaccinated on political/pseudo-science grounds.

It’s like the latter baked it into their identity and there’s just nothing left for them. For once they “took a stand” or whatever and felt empowered in their otherwise meaningless lives and once restrictions ended they just couldn’t go back to the empty feeling. Now they come here saying “I would NEVER ask someone their age/sex/religion/vaccination status etc” while moments earlier honestly asking if people would refuse a blood transfusion based on whether the donator was vaccinated lol.

Just super dense and zero self-awareness. It’s weird, yes, but it’s also incredibly sad how far gone they are.