One aspect of the police state that is particularly bothersome is forced drugging. We see this manifest in a variety of situations, usually involving children whose parents question their doctors or want to pursue alternative health care solutions. Being a complicated and emotional issue, many people end up siding with the courts in pursuit of mandatory medication. While this position is to be expected from the average statist, it is somewhat alarming when a well-known and respected publication like Reason Magazine comes out in favor of forced mass-drugging of the population, or as it was gently termed, “coercive vaccination.” These ideas, promoted under pseudo-libertarian shroud, cannot go unrebuked.
Reason is a 45-year old magazine, traditionally promoting the libertarian cause, and has published a lot of thoughtful and compelling work over the years. Yet, it seems that there is a faction of the staff that is promoting a contentious view of “liberty” when it comes to certain topics regarding science. One blogger, with the consent of a sympathetic editing staff, is so adamant about promoting the consensus of mainstream scientists that he believe that it should be mandatory for all. He argues in no uncertain terms that he not only believes that coerced medicine is libertarian, but that there is no libertarian argument for declining a vaccine.
Coercion doesn’t line up with any Libertarian Party plank that I’m aware of, nor does it stand up to actual libertarian logic. The fact is that coercion is what happens when statists can’t win in a battle of ideas. I hope that Reason will reevaluate whether its current strategy of militant vaccine promotion is in line with its mission statement. Until then, we will be calling out advocates of compulsory medicine as the police state pushers that they are.
