For our safety. . . Again

The agitprop arm of the insurance mafia – the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety – “shared” (in the cloying left-wing language that has replaced proper English) a video that “clarifies” the “importance of a properly adjusted headrest of a car seat.” You know, those things that obscure the rear view and now sit on top of every car seat in the interest of “safety.”

That’s interesting in that sense hypothetical an advantage is imposed (these headrests are required, that is, we are actually forced to buy them) at the expense of an objective disadvantage. That’s what you can no longer see as clearly behind and even to the side of you, which almost certainly increases the chance that you won’t see it – and thus walk into it or back into it.

The idea, of course, is that if someone else bumps into you from behind, you’re less likely to sustain a whiplash injury. And that may be so.

But what is interesting from a moral philosophical perspective is that it is not up to us to weigh and decide the costs and benefits. If we lived in a free country – note that you almost never hear that anymore – emancipated adult people would have the freedom to decide for themselves whether it is “safer” to be able to see what is behind them – and on either side of them them – or “safer” to limit that view so that their heads are held in case they are hit from behind.

Of course, we do not live in a free country – a fact borne out by the fact that adults are not emancipated. They are regarded as the idiotic children – forever – of their ‘parents’ in government, who know best and decide best. These decision makers have decided it’s better to have super high, whiplash-reducing headrests just in case (never mind what it costs and never mind what You want) than to be able to see what is behind and on either side of you.

But the real motive here is not so much to educate us as to infantilize us. It’s an important distinction. Children eventually grow up and become emancipated adults. American adults are never allowed to grow up, let alone emancipated.

Americans—many of whom no longer have any concept of what a “free country” is because they were born too late to experience what it was like when America was at least plausibly somewhat free—have grown up accepting and even want to be treated like they are were idiotic children. They have absorbed the ridiculous idea that the government knows best, which is ridiculous because it is based on a false premise.

If people are too stupid to know what is best, what about the people who make up the government? They are rarely the best and brightest. But they are insufferably ‘worried’ – and have acquired the power to express their ‘concern’.

That’s why you had to pay for seat belts in a new car if you wanted to buy a new car. Within just a few years of that happening, you had to wear them – and if you didn’t you could be punished – just like a little child at school who gets a spanking for disobedience. It is interesting to note that real children are no longer spanked That is seen as abuse. But emancipated adults take a beating – and worse – if they refuse to respond when told to “resist” for “safety.”

All buckled up for saaaaaaafety!

Now we not only have to buy – and accept – wearing seat belts, but also face explosives built into the steering wheel and dashboard.

Once again, the decision makers have decided that the hypothetical benefit of an airbag protecting you in a crash outweighs the literal cost of the airbags, which you pay regardless of any actual benefit – and also the small but very real chance that the airbag will actually harm you can inflict or even kill. It does not matter that this risk is small. The relevant thing is that you are not free to decide whether that small risk is too big your taste.

Not to mention the actual cost of the airbags themselves, which has added thousands to the total cost of ownership of cars. Again, whether airbags are a benefit overall is not the issue. The problem is that we are not free to decide whether they are for us.

Ironically – and also interestingly – the agitprop arm of the insurance mafia sings the praises of all this ‘safety stuff’, which then uses it as one of many excuses to charge you more for the ‘coverage’ forced on you by the strong arm of the mafia. – the government – ​​to buy.

“Safety equipment” isn’t free, you see.

Things like airbags – most cars this year now have at least six – costs moneynot only to buy, but also to ‘cover’. You are forced to pay more for “coverage” because it is more expensive to repair or replace a car that requires two (or more) airbags to be replaced after an accident. And you also get to pay for the now mandatory reversing cameras that must be installed in all new vehicles, so you can see from a distance what you can no longer see clearly because the view is obscured by anti-lock braking systems. -whiplash headrests and ass-in-the-air rear ends designed not to make visibility easy, but to better absorb impact forces when someone who couldn’t see backs into you.

Makes you feel “safe”, doesn’t it?

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The message For our safety. . . Again first appeared on EPautos – Libertarian Car Talk.