• @cucumber_sandwich
          link
          -211 months ago

          the state maintains that this is a moral and legitimate use of force: that it has the authority to do this.

          I don’t necessarily agree with “moral”. In western democracies laws and use of force doesn’t legitimize itself by a call to morality usually. Just using some kind of authority, doesn’t make a government authoritarian by any common definition of the word.

            • @cucumber_sandwich
              link
              -411 months ago

              It absolutely does imo, it legitimises itself through an appeal to an underlying moral framework.

              Yes, but very indirectly. We don’t have a “moral police”, but one that enforces laws which are, as you say, legitimized by the people as a sovereign.

              So you don’t see police stopping people on “moral grounds” in some vague interpretation.

              • FeminalPanda
                link
                fedilink
                411 months ago

                What about abortion? Tracking if women are pregnant and hunting them down if then stop being pregnant.

                • @cucumber_sandwich
                  link
                  -211 months ago

                  Usually codified by lawy not prosecuted as “immoral behaviour” as such. Although if you look at recent anti-abortion legislation in the US it is intentionally vague. That shifts some burden of interpretation to the executive branch and is a sign of authoritarianism I’d say.