Every now and then I'm reminded of the insane American, Puritan desire to add moral weight to all sorts of things which are, by nature, absolutely unrelated to morals. Then politicians take advantage of those deep-seated prejudices to enact laws making it harder for innocent people to get aid or to punish innocent people, and supposedly "woke" people nod and go, "Well, I guess that makes sense."
Being overweight isn't evil or morally questionable. Being overweight shouldn't open someone to judgement or prevent them from good healthcare.
Someone falling sick just means they fell sick. That's it. Can we please get over the ancient perspective of illness (including covid!) being a sign of moral wrongdoing and people deserving their fate? "Well, this person got sick because they were stupid, and they deserve what they got." Everyone deserves good medical care. Once you start putting people in "deserving" and "undeserving" boxes, you're opening the door to you one day being shoved into the "undeserving" box.
Someone being homeless. Holy fuck. Most of the people in the United States are horrifyingly vulnerable to becoming homeless, but when it happens to someone? They deserved it. They did something wrong. Why should we help them? Homelessness isn't an individual, moral issue: it is a fucking systematic issue.
The list keeps going. This mentality just opens the door for people to merrily judge others while dismissing their own behaviors and actions, because the other person is morally impure and they are "Good people." That's not how it works. This stuff doesn't come with a moral weight. You're just being a self-righteous dick.
