Hacker News Reader

> is there anybody on earth that endorses coercive structures?

Yes? Prisons are openly coercive, as are taxes, not to mention the use of military force to enforce economic benefit. Lots of people openly back these concepts and institutions (including the qualities that make them coercive) with justifications like, "if we didn't coerce some people, our society wouldn't be able to function".

View on HN

Which just furthers my point, that "coercive" is in the eye of the beholder, making your statement tautological: "we only oppose structures that we oppose". No, fyi, most people would not consider prisons, taxes or the military to be "coercive", and neither would I.

I'm curious what you would consider coersive if prison doesn't fit your definition.

If your definition of coercive is anything that doesn't entirely align with anybody's utility function, I'm curious as to what you wouldn't consider coercive.

Mutual aid.

Consensus decision making.

Love.

Hacky sack

Music.

Good sex.

Really?

Yes, excellent. Anything that scales?

Prisons are coercive in the same sense health and safety regulations are coercive.

GPL'ed software.

Requires coercion to enforce, like all contracts.

Coercion to enforce, but no coercion required to succeed!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com