I don’t have a written record of every interaction I’ve ever had regarding this topic, unfortunately.
However, I’ve had a number of conversations or debates that have gone something like:
I will say that rights are essentially meaningless without a sufficiently strong state to enforce said rights, and they’ll reply that the state doesn’t grant rights, they can only take them away, and that the rights are theirs even if the state doesn’t recognize or enforce them. These conversations are usually with people who are very suspicious of state authority, even going so far as wanting to see the state abolished completely.
It’s kind of understandable, they’re usually American and one of the foundational documents of the US famously states that “…all men are…endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” Every child in the US is taught this, more or less from birth.
Give an example. That’d help
I don’t have a written record of every interaction I’ve ever had regarding this topic, unfortunately.
However, I’ve had a number of conversations or debates that have gone something like:
I will say that rights are essentially meaningless without a sufficiently strong state to enforce said rights, and they’ll reply that the state doesn’t grant rights, they can only take them away, and that the rights are theirs even if the state doesn’t recognize or enforce them. These conversations are usually with people who are very suspicious of state authority, even going so far as wanting to see the state abolished completely.
It’s kind of understandable, they’re usually American and one of the foundational documents of the US famously states that “…all men are…endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” Every child in the US is taught this, more or less from birth.