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You may have read that Trans Fats have been banned in New York.
I've had at least one person tell me that trans fats were foisted upon an unsuspecting and uneducated public. This is, of course, true. You could have also said that cigarettes are given to an uneducated public, but by now everyone's been THOROUGHLY explained the dangers of smoking, and people still light up. Same goes with drinking - alcohol and drugs and whatnot are past times of pretty much every human culture. In many cases, especially recently, they know the problems involved, and they do it anyway. They also have unsafe sex and drink before driving and vote for George Bush and all sorts of crazy things.
The question, and I think it's an important one, is where you draw the line between "This is dangerous for you, but you know that now, so do it if you like. Your funeral" and "This is dangerous for you, and I don't trust you to make these decisions for yourself, so I'm going to ban the behavior/thing itself." In my opinion, as long as adults in stable mental condition are given the opportunity to understand the issues, they have the right to make pretty much all of those decisions. The dangers of trans fats, like the dangers of some drugs, are out there but not common enough, but they're still out there. That, to me, means that the money being used to enforce bans should instead go mostly to education about the topic. From there, you let the public do its thing.
People are stupid, just as a general rule, but the idea of banning something you consider unsafe for your citizens is a really slippery slope. It's less extreme to ban trans fats than it is to ban, say, drinking and eating red meat and sex, but the logic is exactly the same.
How's THAT for a rant, eh? Eh?
Ah, Saturdays are fun!
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