And why do I have to put on my seat belt?

Isabel Díaz Ayuso was very much against the anti-tobacco law in 2011: "You won't put up with my smoke, but I don't have to put up with your children, for something paid."

Mónica García, spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Assembly, has commented on some tweets by the president of the Community about a law that threatened to cause the apocalypse in the hotel industry because smokers were going to stay at home instead of lighting up a cigarette in the street .

According to García, "Ayuso's negationism comes from afar."

Against the tobacco law.

Against energy saving.

Against scientific evidence.

Against the people.

Ayuso's denialism comes from afar and always puts us at risk.

pic.twitter.com/4IfuSkXaDd

– Monica Garcia (@Monica_Garcia_G) August 12, 2022

Now, more than 11 years after the publication of these messages recovered by the tweeter @remerikos, Díaz Ayuso is against the energy saving plan announced by the Government of Pedro Sánchez.

In his opinion, it will cause “darkness, poverty, sadness”.

And the two issues are not so far apart: the director of an association of hoteliers in Madrid assured that the sector will lose 520 million euros until November 2023 due to the regulations that require the air to be raised and the heating to be lowered.

Many tweeters view the figure with skepticism: where does that number come from?

How have they calculated it?

Have we stopped going to bars because the air is a couple of degrees higher than it was a few days ago?

Some recalled similar fears caused by the aforementioned anti-smoking law (and by the rise in the minimum wage and by Labor inspections,

He has said 520 million euros as he could have said twelve cows and a porcupine.

https://t.co/PGflKglPYH

— Otis B. Driftwood (@obdriftwood) August 10, 2022

For 25 cents, things that are going to sink the hotel industry, such as...

The price of electricity

Air conditioning at 25 degrees

The rise in the SMI

The anti-smoking law

Children

Labor inspections

Reds

Let it be sunny

Let it not be Sun

Any more ideas?

– The Malafolla (@ElMalafolla3) August 12, 2022

In any case, and with all my respect for hoteliers, it almost seems that in Spain the only businesses are bars and restaurants, for better or for worse.

It seems that we live in that meme in which a dinosaur sees that a meteorite is falling to Earth and the first thing that comes to mind is the hotel industry, either to try to save it or, on the contrary, to close the local.

WE HAVE TO SAVE THE HOSPITALITY pic.twitter.com/4xTDpocigJ

– Pasanospoco (@pasanospoco) March 12, 2022

pic.twitter.com/mhuf0N2yRN

– I am a waiter (@I am a waiter) January 19, 2021

That old tweet from Ayuso has reminded me of another classic comparison: what if the law that requires wearing a seat belt had been approved in the days of Twitter?

Probably, we would have read hundreds of messages that described the measure as an attack on the freedom of drivers, others that assured that in reality seat belts cause more deaths than they save and, without a doubt, a few pointing out that many people die with seat belts put on, so you tell me what's the use of putting it on.

And that was already said then, of course, but at least we didn't have a cell phone and we didn't read it all the time.

If the seat belt law had been passed this year, would Twitter be like this?

👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/W99iRxLccC

– Felipe GómezMartínez (@felipegomez1960) September 11, 2021

This clip from the Daily Show of people fighting against seat belt mandates in the 80s is absolutely surreal from start to finish given today's climate on both masks and COVID vaccines.

pic.twitter.com/IiR8iavlyN

— The Wokest Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) September 16, 2021

In the end, all these debates are very similar, with or without networks, and we end up thinking about, often a bit funny, the limits of individual freedom and when our rights collide with those of others.

Sometimes to end up reaching obvious conclusions, like of course we can take the car, but not drive at 200 kilometers per hour and drunk.

Even so, it must be recognized that what García has done is a bit tricky.

That tweet is from 2011. And since then, Ayuso has also changed his mind, as have many smokers, who recognize that they are more comfortable without smoke in bars and offices.

Some even claim to have been in favor of the rule from the beginning, as if we do not remember the conversations (and discussions) about it.

In addition, Garcia's tweet is also dangerous.

As GK Chesterton ironized in 1924, “the job of progressives is to make mistakes.

The job of conservators is to prevent these errors from being corrected."

In time we will see if Chesterton was right or if this exercise in Twitter archeology has given Ayuso new ideas.

For now, and returning to air conditioning and shop windows, Feijóo has already said that "the PP is going to comply."