Inalienable Rights vs. Conditional Privileges

kottke.org February 24, 2025 By Jason Kottke

From @existennialmemes on Tumblr:

Listen, if a Bad President can come in and take away our rights and we’re dependent on a Good President replacing them in four years to give us back our rights, then we do not have any rights.

If politicians can take or distribute them, then they’re not “inalienable” and they’re not “rights.”

We don’t have inalienable rights we have conditional privileges, divvied out according to the whims of whoever currently holds the reins.

And if we want to have actual rights, then we must build a system in which no one has the power to take them away to begin with.

I am wondering what a system like that would actually look like… (via @halaylah.bsky.social)

Tags: politics · USA

From @existennialmemes on Tumblr:

Listen, if a Bad President can come in and take away our rights and we’re dependent on a Good President replacing them in four years to give us back our rights, then we do not have any rights.

If politicians can take or distribute them, then they’re not “inalienable” and they’re not “rights.”

We don’t have inalienable rights we have conditional privileges, divvied out according to the whims of whoever currently holds the reins.

And if we want to have actual rights, then we must build a system in which no one has the power to take them away to begin with.

I am wondering what a system like that would actually look like… (via @halaylah.bsky.social)

Tags: politics · USA

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