(September 16, 2025 at 10:23 pm)Ivan Denisovich Wrote: It would mean that every right is a privilege as any right can be taken away if gov is tyrannical enough.
Mao was right.
(September 16, 2025 at 10:43 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: More as violating your rights. Not taking them away. OFC tyrannical governments violate rights. It's pretty much baked into the adjective.
So, for example. Our government intends to violate our civil rights. It routinely tells us as much. I believe them.
Implicit in your reply here is that rights exist as objective things. I'd argue instead that 1) "rights" are based upon shared cultural values, instead, and that 2) the equivocation of "violation" with taken away is a distinction without a difference, because if you can't exercise your rights, you don't have them.
