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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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People should be allowed to make their own decisions with what to do with their body. When we stop sending men into the bowels of the earth to break their backs and risk collapse in order to supply our society with necessary materials I'll take the idea that people shouldn't be able to trade use of their bodies for money more seriously. If people are being coerced, as always, that is different.

People should be allowed to make their own decisions with what to do with their body.

No. It's not how society currently operates, and not how it should operate.

And even if I agreed to it as a principle, there are many more restrictions that should be removed first, before we allow surrogacy.

I'm not seeing much of an argument here. My take is grounded in the value of liberty, I can see some valid arguments for your position but I'm not going to put words in your mouth.

The problem with the "I'm not seeing an argument here" is that it's a fully general argument. For example, why should anyone value liberty?

I can give you a few that fit into your liberty framework, if sheer cosmic horror doesn't do it for you. For example, given the evolution of the internet, what makes you think we'll get Transhumanist Lalaland, where you get to do whatever you want, instead of one where you're bread, or modified on-the-fly to fit the fever dreams of some demented Gardener like Scott Alexander? Just because you can imagine a future where it doesn't happen, doesn't mean it's the most likely outcomes of that technology existing.

The problem with the "I'm not seeing an argument here" is that it's a fully general argument. For example, why should anyone value liberty?

You could at least start by getting down to the values you think are being violated. It's unnatural and disgusting to you, ok that's not nothing. I won't pretend to be all that convinced on what your disgust should override liberty but at least I can understand your position and agree to disagree. Your previous response was not this, it was just pure opposition and a strange kind of opposition that doesn't seem to really reflect reality as the right to engage in surrogacy is actually how society does operate and, besides the new fangled version with all the fancy tubes and needles there were other forms of surrogacy like harams.

I can give you a few that fit into your liberty framework, if sheer cosmic horror doesn't do it for you. For example, given the evolution of the internet, what makes you think we'll get Transhumanist Lalaland, where you get to do whatever you want, instead of one where you're bread, or modified on-the-fly to fit the fever dreams of some demented Gardener like Scott Alexander? Just because you can imagine a future where it doesn't happen, doesn't mean it's the most likely outcomes of that technology existing.

Short of a Butlerian jihad I've made my peace with what will be, technology is coming whether I want it to or not. I may as well attempt to adopt it into the values framework I have to work with.

No. It's not how society currently operates, and not how it should operate.

It most certainly is how society should operate. You have a natural right to do as you wish with your own body, to the extent that it doesn't harm others. To get involved in restricting that is tyrannical.