you just drew a line... its an absolute individualist line. government being a convenient, and i'd add necessary, evil is a good way to put it but that doesn't excuse undermining it. opposing it is one thing but undermining it for the sake of undermining it is not ok.
We all undermine that which we find unjustified. That is how progress happens, as demonstrated most recently with marijuana fans. Legalization would never have started happening if people didn't undermine it first.
You and I switch sides of this argument on the subject of the Chauvin trial, I think.
i'd add necessary
Inevitable, at any rate. Police are a lesser evil than murderers and thieves.
im not sure i agree that marijuana is a good comparison. people don't smoke weed because they want to stick it to the man. at least most who aren't angsty teens don't. its not a conscious effort to undermine the government unlike this post and it (at least debatably) doesn't negatively impact society at large like undermining public health directives during a continuing pandemic.
i'm not sure i follow how this applies to the chauvin trial. i'm not one who thinks that police should have unlimited qualified immunity nor that they should have none. i am of the belief that any accidental or incidental death that happens while in government custody is unacceptable and deserves an adequate response and i'll post badcopnodonut posts but i'm not trying to say that police don't have authority or should be ignored.
I don't draw a line. Maximize ethical treatment of the individual and you maximize ethical treatment of the populace.
And government is inherently about collectivizing and categorizing people. It doesn't handle individuals as such.
Hence my assertion that best a government can aspire to is that of a convenient sort of evil.
But they weren't. The best of their ability would have been to say 'Wear a mask, social distance, don't gather in groups'. Instead we were told 'Wear a mask, social distance, don't gather in groups... or else'. That isn't well-intentioned advice. That is malice.
I don't see a doctor giving advice. I see a German doctor giving 'advice' while an SS officer stands behind him threatening me with a billy club.