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> Note that "mutually voluntary" means no other party having their rights violated by that interaction, which would preclude actions like polluting

I don't think this is a rights issue, because it's too difficult to understand. Even simple transactions require contracts, and imagine all the (changing) regulations on what is or isn't deemed acceptable, and how that could be misused. Does noise pollution count? How much CO2 can I breath out before I'm violating your rights? Rights have to be simple; the stuff that will change needs to be laws.



In principle, noise and CO2 emission could be restricted, but of course the justifiability of the specific noise/CO2 emission restriction depends on the details.

In principle, interactions that any reasonable person agrees are mutually voluntary, should absolutely not be restricted. This is a human rights issue.

The devastating COVID lockdowns show what happens when we accept the notion that human rights can be infringed for the "greater good". That justification is what the PRC in China uses for all of its heavy handed intrusions in personal liberties, from limits on free speech to religious and ideological control.

The only morally consistent argument against the authoritarianism, that is more substantive than "what that state does is wrong, because we don't do it", is one based on the principle that mutually voluntary interactions shouldn't be restricted.




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