Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

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> do businesses (NOT THE GOVERNMENT) have the right to choose what content and customers they serve?

Yes.

This is why VISA was instrumental in the 'war on porn' and why every service provider ever has a provision in their contracts stating they can terminate your online presence at their discretion.

That's a way for the industry to avoid becoming government regulated, as long as this self regulation takes care of the worst excesses companies will continue to be able to operate in relative freedom.

The few times that local national law (such as in France and Germany) has butted up against companies trying to re-write the law in a more lenient way this has - predictably - failed.

But as long as companies stay on the far side of that line they are free to draw more restrictive lines as they see fit with impunity so long as those lines do not affect the lives of so called 'protected classes' in a negative way and because of the item that triggers that class to be protected in the first place.

Others have touched on this: the concept of a protected class seems odd when faced with the idea that all people are to be afforded equal protection under the law (14th amendment)

No, it isn't odd at all: societies are made up of people and people in large numbers do not always act in a way that protects those that are weaker or in smaller numbers so to avoid the tyranny of the majority protected classes exist in order to make sure that it is spelled out under what circumstances you can and can not discriminate against others.

So yes, everybody is afforded equal protection under the law and protected classes exist to ensure that the majority can not hide behind their majority in order to legalize discriminatory practices.

You are suggesting that being a member of a (protected) class now equates to having an advantage but this is not the case, it is to make sure that being a member of a certain class does not become a disadvantage.

> So yes, everybody is afforded equal protection under the law

This is contradicted by 'protected classes'.

Well, that's your interpretation. Mine is that protected classes exist to make sure their rights are not eroded so that they can be afforded equal protection under the law.

Let me give you an example: In a country with 99% black people and 1% white people employers have a habit of selecting people 'just like themselves' which has resulted in the 1% being vastly over represented in the ranks of the un-employed. An enlightened segment of the legislative branch of government recognizes the unfairness of this and establishes a protection outlawing discrimination based on skin color and creates a protected class, the 'whites'. Of course some blacks will argue that this is in contradiction of everybody being equal before the law, however those people fail to appreciate that this is not an advantage being bestowed upon the whites, merely a lack of dis-advantage resulting in everybody now being equal before the law.

Feel free to replace black and white with whatever groups you care about.

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