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I feel like it's worth noting that the title was, "countries get the HIV epidemics they deserve," not "people get the HIV infections they deserve." I think the author's point was that the country's culture results in HIV problems, not that any individual person has done something that means they "had it coming."

Though I agree that using the word "deserve" makes the argument very emotionally, politically and morally loaded, and not necessarily for the better.

Good thing that premise wasn't in the article.

Nobody deserves to die from having sex.

The way the world works rarely follows our notions of what's fair or unfair. The laws of nature do as they will, and they are capricious.

Statements like yours really don't make any sense at all.

From the point of view of nature, nobody deserves anything. Shit just happens. It doesn't make sense to layer morality on top it, which is what the title of the article can be read as doing.

There are lots of ways to be stupid an irresponsible, but there is a very human tendency to treat ways of being stupid and irresponsible that involve sex as wicked rather than foolish.

It's a blind spot in our rationality that we have to compensate for, and the tone -- if not the substance -- of the article seems to fail to do that.