Even the most simple, basic, negative right to not be killed flies out the window if you just kill somebody and then ask the question &quot;now what?&quot; Well, without positive rights, the answer is &quot;not much&quot;.<p>These terms have plenty of meaning in the abstract but no direct real world applicability. Their main use seems to be rhetorical: specifically by ideologues who support the status quo while denying a status quo bias.