Quote: (06-13-2013 12:48 PM)MikeCF Wrote:
We don't worry about car accidents every time we get into our cars and we shouldn't worry about HIV every time we have sex.
We don't worry about car accidents every time we get into our cars because we have developed a culture of rules (in many cases rules cases enforced by law) and technology that greatly reduce the risks associated with driving cars. We trust our ability to follow those rules and trust that others will follow them in turn. In many cases, risk of injury or death greatly increases because someone was
not worried* about injury or death. Probably the broadest category of behavior that increases risk of accident is distracted driving (not just texting-- distracted driving was causing accidents long before cell phones were invented).
I don't worry about HIV every time I have sex primarily because I choose low-risk partners. It's not the first or even second reason for selecting a partner but it tends to correlate nicely with a host of other convenient traits, like propensity to use birth control and make enough money to support herself.
The question you aren't asking is to what degree your relatively low risk of contracting HIV is specifically
because of the attitudes toward sex and drug use in your population. This includes attitudes like maybe try avoiding rawdog sex with Thai hookers and steer clear of drug users in general. Was the HIV and AIDS propaganda in the 80s and 90s overblown? Yeah, probably. Lacking in perspective? Almost certainly. But just because some of the rhetoric may have been excessive doesn't mean you should swing the other direction completely and just ignore the risk.
* It's probably important to note that I'm using an inclusive definition of the term "worried" here. In truth, safe drivers aren't necessarily
worried drivers. A common rhetorical trick is to accuse someone engaging in responsible or cautious behavior as being
worried, which implies a slew of emotional baggage that need not be present. This happens nearly every time the CDC issues influenza warnings. They spread the word via every source possible to deliver message to people who really need to know, like old people, parents of young children, people with AIDS, and anyone else who wants to spend 20 minutes getting a vaccine reduce the risk they'll have to spend 2 weeks fighting a fucking nasty respiratory infection. Not to mention that healthy people getting vaccines reduces transmission vectors in general and reduces the likelihood that other people who
can't get a vaccine will catch the virus. The media does this simply because why not. But then internet douchebags accuse the media of hysteria and blowing the matter out of proportion when matters don't turn out like
The Stand.
