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Comment by cmurf | Hacker News Reader

I'd seriously be fine with hosts having a "I'm an anti-gay bigot, don't stay here" indicator prominently displayed. It's like that fine American tradition, "Irish need not apply". And I'm a Murphy. It's gross behavior but I think racists, bigots, etc. need public exposure for the full consequences of their beliefs to be realized.

I really do not want to do business with someone who's a racist even though I'm white. I don't want to do business with misgynists even though I'm not a woman. So give these hosts a permanent badge of honor for all guests to see, rather than sweeping the problem under the carpet in a way that effectively allows these cranky hosts to discriminate almost anonymously and only incidently once an implicit agreement to rent has been made (even if it's just an inquiry).

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> So give these hosts a permanent badge of honor for all guests to see

Why not just kick them off the platform? If they don't approve of a behavior, and want it to stop, why should they continue working with people who they know for a fact are engaging in that behavior?

No particularly good reason, except a bit of schadenfreude perhaps. I guess if I were balancing the pleasure of a scarlet letter stitched into the public profile of racists and bigots, vs that of just kicking them off the platform? Hmm. Tough call for me personally. But it's not up to me, so I can't really say I have a good reason for NOT kicking them off the platform, except maybe a family member or friend finds out about their twisted badge of (dis)honor.

Maybe it's a bad idea and it just encourages a sort of tribalism where the bigots do business with each other and as a social we really should say, no you can't use public goods like AirBnB. Yes it's a private company, however it is also acting like a bridge to what has historically been a place of public accommodation: hotels.

Some people are saying "but I should get to decide who stays in my house" or "but I want to see their picture first so I can evaluate him." Ok, I'm fine with that. A house is not a public accommodation like a hotel. So label the host as a racist.

> Some people are saying "but I should get to decide who stays in my house"

And AirBnB can decide who gets to use their service.

>need public exposure for the full consequences of their beliefs to be realized

Yeah, Trump is certainly realizing the full consequence of his beliefs.

I'm not proposing the only form of consequences is monetary.

Trump is overwhelmingly perceived as a con artist who cons only the most magnificently bored and/or stupid people of the earth. And not always a successful one either or he wouldn't have had to declare bankruptcy, he could have just conned another handful of investors. Clearly some of his messes were too obvious for even the dumbest rich people of the earth to fall for.

And note that this thing hasn't really played itself out fully yet, so we'll just have to see. For all we know, he may be declaring bankruptcy again to get out of candidacy debt.

My point is just that there are a lot of people who reward known racists - so putting a label such as "I'm an anti-gay bigot" would reinforce people who think this is appropriate, which can result in even scarier things - things like having a person who is "overwhelmingly perceived as a con artist" being nominated as the Republican party's presidential nominee.

Or maybe you just don't understand what he believes.

What would be the goal of this public exposure exactly? How would it help?

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