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from the going-to-need-lots-of-volunteers-to-build-the-block-list dept.
Rhode Island is the latest US state to discuss mandatory censorship of web content, at first targeting pornography:
Rhode Island Democratic state Senators Frank Ciccone (@senatorciccone) and Hanna Gallo (@hannagallo27) have proposed grandstanding, unworkable legislation, "Relating to Public Utilities and Carriers—Internet Digital Blocking" which would mandate the state's ISPs to identify all the pornography on the [I]nternet, and then block it for all Rhode Islanders, unless those Rhode Islanders specifically requested their porn to be unblocked and paid $20 for the privilege.
These proposals fly in the face of the observation that automated pornography filters don't work and that even the manual ones are neither practical, reliable, nor scalable.
Source : Rhode Island proposes blocking all online porn and charging $20 to unblock it. Boing Boing.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @04:52PM (6 children)
Grishna,
If you maintain an absolutist standard, then there has never been nor will there EVER be a free country in the entire world.
This doesn't seem to a useful standard. Better is one that recognizes that freedom is an ideal that we strive towards so that we can make progress towards attaining that ideal. If judged by that standard, the U.S. has done quite well. Notice all those negatives things that you listed, the U.S. NO LONGER DOES. Think about it from that point of view: we are getting better over time.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @04:57PM (2 children)
I will also add that you can't apply TODAY'S moral standards to centuries past and expect everyone to have held them. That's asking too much. If you go by that standard, then people who were held as moral EVEN 10 YEARS AGO would now be considered oppressive ogres because, as one example, they didn't recognize gay marriage as a universal human right. Standards change and you have to judge people somewhat by the standards of the time. We live IN history, not OUTSIDE it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @05:04PM (1 child)
So, your premise is wrong.
This is usually the problem with arguments about things like "rights". The premises are wrong.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday March 09 2018, @10:34PM
Contracts are very underrated. Folks can have beautiful lives without ever looking at porn -- look at @VP [twitter.com] Pence, he doesn't even know what porn is. But life is a series of contracts. Without contracts, you can't be much. Maybe a homeless bum. If you don't have contracts, you don't have a SOCIETY. If our government ever says consenting adults or corporations can't make a contract, very sad day!
I'm a very traditional guy. But if two people dig each other, they dig each other.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @05:33PM
Expecting that the government respect basic liberties is not an "absolutist standard"; it's the desire of any non-authoritarian. You must have very low standards indeed.
Correct.
Those specific ones, anyway. Now, the US government engages in unconstitutional (not declared by Congress) and unjust (not in self-defense or even sensible defense of allies) wars overseas, conducts unconstitutional democracy-crippling mass surveillance on the populace in several different ways, ruthlessly attacks whistleblowers and journalists who challenge it, violates the first amendment in various ways, unconstitutionally steals people's money on a routine basis and calls it "asset forfeiture", creates draconian copyright laws, hires thugs to violate the rights of anyone who tries to get on a plane, imprisons people who put certain substances into their bodies, etc. Many of those were also problems in the past, and they're not any better now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @01:01PM (1 child)
Of course not. Country implies government, government implies unfree. Dissolve the borders and the system of rule by authority, and what's left is free. Sadly, domination is instinct, and domination is oppression.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @04:44PM
Wrong. What immediately happens without fail is that the thugs see your lack of government and steal your stuff, beat, or kill you.
To fight this, you are forced to organize and form paid defense forces. How to pay for this? Local taxes. Look at Colombia, Mexico, Afghanistan or any of a number of places for what happens when there is no government control. Government of some sort must arise in the vacuum.