Highlighting an essential defining part of the term “harm reduction” so that no one misses this:
and yes, there is a part of harm reduction that is aimed at not moralizing about the behavior that you’re trying to reduce harm from. but if you’re a progressive - as most of the people lecturing us about “harm reduction” purport to be - you should already understand that these behaviors are not ethically bad in and of themselves. it is not inherently unethical to use drugs or be sexually active as a teen, so the fact that harm reduction efforts could “encourage” that behavior is also not unethical! if you think that it is, then you’re actually a conservative!
Obviously, this would not apply to, say, a fucking genocide
Very helpful examples for future conversations where this pops up. Thanks for sharing, OP.