I have often wondered why AIDS NGOs constantly harp on the need to treat HIV positive people with respect and love, and make a big deal about them being ostracised and pushed to the margins of society.
Because to my mind, if you’re so stupid that you have unprotected sex with multiple partners, or share IV needles, or don’t bother to ensure clean blood for yourself, you damn well deserve to be ostracised. It’s hardly surprising that people don’t want to deal with someone who behaves irresponsibly.
I now realise, though, that this approach is not feasible for society at large for one simple reason: stupid people.
You see, I have enough basic intelligence and discriminative power to distinguish between a truck driver who contracted HIV through sleeping with every prostitute between Phagwara and Agra, and his wife who got it because she wasn’t exactly in a position to refuse sex. The truck driver should be ostracised and the wife should be accepted.
I can draw that distinction. But people by and large cannot. Seriously, they can’t. I mean, they’re so bloody stupid that they make a diplomatic incident out of Big Brother, for Eris’ sake. Rather than go through the frustrating effort of getting them to think for a change, it’s simpler to just indoctrinate them with the idea that it’s wrong to discriminate against HIV positive people.