this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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I agree. It is VERY stupid to not wear one, but seatbelt laws in the US were a test of control, not safety.
Seatbelts are a constitutional violation on personal freedom. Argue all you want, but they are.
which part of the constitution was the seatbelt law supposed to be violating again?
See, this is what happens when they stop teaching civics in school. Article VIII § 2, "in the event that some means of transportation referred to as an automobile is invented, Congress shall enact no laws that infringe on the inalienable right of all men to launch themselves through the windshield of said automobiles."
At least read the constitution if you're gonna make claims like this
thats my bad. good catch.
I mean, then so is not allowing people to randomly test nukes on their own property.
As is every law against suicide or selling clearly harmful chemicals.
The penalty is a ticket, and rarely enforced, get over your shit.
You confused personal choice with putting others in danger.
I don't care if another adult is not wearing a seatbelt ... it's not my business. If someone is building a dangerous explosive weapon then it does concern me and that is where regulations kick in.
Personal Freedom. The key word is "personal". You may like having the government be your mother, but some of us don't fucking trust the government at this point.
I trusted the government far more than i trusted a lot of the inbred redneck neighbors I had.
When your neighbors have played Pokémon to collect all the recessive genes regarding cognition, it's good to have the government to protect you from their stupidity.
Dunno ... seems like you just won my argument against seatbelts being required right there. Thin the gene pool.
We have rat poison, cockroach traps, everything.
Vermin outbreed all attempts to stop them, that's their evolutionary strategy.
If you think about it, all regulations stemming from the DoT are.
They're infringing on my right to drive with no head or taillights.
They're infringing on my right to ignore traffic signs.
They're infringing on my right to drive on the left side of the road.
They're infringing on my right to drive a monster truck on the highway.
In a truly free country, I could drive my truck with 66" tires down the so-called "wrong" side of the road in the dead of night with no lights whatsoever. Sure, I might injure or kill someone, but I also might not, and stopping me from doing so is clearly stopping me from my pursuit of happiness.
I'm not the person you responded to here, but the difference is that all of those things are very likely to cause negative externalities to other people, while, as I've pretty definitively shown in this thread, that's not at all the case with the negative outcomes of not wearing seatbelts, which are almost entirely limited to the person making the decision.
The United States has some very rural areas where you can be the only vehicle on the road for miles. "Stupid" driving is safer for other people there than "smart" driving is in more populated areas.
But if you're not in favor of totally deregulating public roads in areas like that, then let's look at just the light situation.
Having a light out is much easier to notice than whether or not someone is wearing a seatbelt, and is also used by law enforcement to pull people over, meet quotas, etc.
If I don't have headlights, but your taillights work, I can still see your vehicle in front of me and avoid a collision. Likewise, if I don't have taillights, but your headlights work, either you should see my vehicle in front of you and avoid a collision, or you shouldn't be driving at all if you can't tell you're getting closer to my vehicle.
In both situations, the lights on your car are sufficient to keep you safe if I choose to be "stupid" and drive without lights.
Tail lights and the like are required for the safety of others. Seatbelts are basically the government being your mom and making you wear a winter coat because she worries.
The same goes for regulations requiring air bags, crumple zones, tempered glass windows, and other safety features designed to protect the occupants of a vehicle. If seatbelts are government overreach, then so are these. It's my God-given right to die as violently as possible in an easily-preventable accident.
Those are regulations upon the automobile industry.
They can make seatbelt installation mandatory, but forcing people to wear them is a violation of personal freedom.
It is what it is. Motorcycle helmets are exactly the same. Your state may require them, my state has declared helmet laws unconstitutional. This is from New Hampshire, the only state where seat belts are not required:
[New Hampshire has] "a strong emphasis on individual liberty and a reluctance to infringe on personal freedoms, rooted in their state motto, "Live Free or Die". Many residents and lawmakers believe the government should not dictate personal choices, such as whether or not to wear a seat belt. "
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