No sacred tablets here. A right is an ability or activity one is able to purse without the intervention or interference of others. There were rights before government and society existed and if government and society collapsed tomorrow, you wouldn't lose your rights. It's a contradiction to says that society and government decide rights.
A right to vote is predicated on freedom of association among a nation's individual citizens. A person determines for himself whether he will or will not vote. It's not for society's sake that a vote is cast.
This is getting to only be about semantics. That’s your definition of ‘rights’ based on your specific set of political beliefs, but it doesn’t reflect common usage or what people are referring to when they call housing or healthcare a right. They mean that society, via the state, should provide those things to everyone.
And you absolutely would lose your right to safety without police or some other form of protection. The ‘right’ might exist in your own mind, but it won’t do anything to prevent someone else who doesn’t share that belief from killing you and taking all your stuff. Rights are only meaningful with power behind then.
> This is getting to only be about semantics. That’s your definition of ‘rights’ based on your specific set of political beliefs, but it doesn’t reflect common usage or what people are referring to when they call housing or healthcare a right. They mean that society, via the state, should provide those things to everyone.
Semantics matter. If we can't even agree on the meaning of our terms, then we're talking past each other. Political beliefs aren't necessary to define rights.
And I'm well aware of claimed "meaning" of rights. However, as I stated earlier, such a meaning is contradictory. If a provision must be received from others, then it's not a right. It is a privilege. What the state gives, it is able to take away. Housing that is provided, subsidized, or constructed by the state isn't a right as at any point in time as the state can withhold payments to, modify, take, or demolish such housing.
> And you absolutely would lose your right to safety without police or some other form of protection.
People defended themselves long before there were professional policeman. Additionally, police officers can steal from, maim, and kill people just the same. The badge doesn't inhibit them from choosing to violate the rights of individuals. I don't see how that disproves my point. Safety is product of exercising the right to defend or remove oneself from a dangerous situation. I don't need to seek permission or pay someone protection money to secure my safety.
> The ‘right’ might exist in your own mind, but it won’t do anything to prevent someone else who doesn’t share that belief from killing you and taking all your stuff. Rights are only meaningful with power behind then.
Nothing prevents the state from killing people and stealing their stuff too. Governments have done that before, and many still do it today. Every government is composed of people who are little better in a moral sense than the average individual.
However, If you truly think that power is what makes rights meaningful, then you contradict your earlier statement about housing being a right, even in the popular sense of the term. If power makes right, then no rights exist, as people are no different from resources. Resources don't have rights and the state has no obligation to resources.
A right to vote is predicated on freedom of association among a nation's individual citizens. A person determines for himself whether he will or will not vote. It's not for society's sake that a vote is cast.