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Comment by dbsmith83 | Hacker News Reader

@jjgreen (can't reply another layer of nesting)

> that principle is a hostility to ID cards and demands from the state to provide them in various circumstances

Can't a bartender legally obligate you to show your id to prove you are old enough to drink? Your argument makes no sense.

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They may refuse to serve me if I appear to be under 18 and refuse to show proof of age. I do not appear to be under 18 and have only once or twice in my life been asked for proof of age, in each case I declined, chuckled, and moved on the next pub.

Hahaha. What do you do when you’re travelling past international borders and they ask you for a passport? Do you chuckle them too?

Or let me guess, you don’t travel out of England at all so you can avoid the tyranny of passport checkers?

Or do you do the sane thing and show your passport? So then you concede that in certain cases at least the State has a compelling interest in verifying a person’s papers.

I was responding to a question about bars, not about international travel. I have no objection to showing a passport at a national boundary, I do object to doing so to buy some eggs or a glass of wine; don't you see those things as being different?

I don't see them as being different. I'll show ID when I'm asked in both places. You seem to think they're different somehow. In both cases the State is enforcing a rule for the good of society (keeping out Undesirables(TM), restricting access to alcohol from children). I think both of these are reasonable, and I'm happy to comply. You will only comply with one of these seemingly, and I can't see why.

Btw, it's beneath you to try an innocent "some eggs". We know exactly what Tesco is going to card someone for, and it's not eggs.

Then we understand each other completely.

Sure, but you can't see a reason why they should be able to check? For someone you know, besides yourself?

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