Comment by thr0wawayf00 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thr0wawayf00 | Hacker News Reader

Why is it that many of the same people complaining about having their speech suppressed online are also pushing to suppress speech in the library? If we must allow all views to be expressed online, regardless of how abhorrent they are, mustn't we also permit all views to be expressed at the library? Online content managers really have no control over how old the consumers of their content are, for all we know, it's kids consuming the racist content online.

At the end of the day, those who fight for "free speech" are really fighting to control which speech is free and which isn't.

Author John Green said it best in a reaction regarding his first novel, Looking for Alaska being targeted for a ban[0]:

> There's this surreality of the organization in question being called "Moms for Liberty" when what they're trying to do is restrict the liberty of other people's kids to read what librarians and teachers deem appropriate for those other people's kids to read

0: https://www.tiktok.com/@literallyjohngreen/video/71418040147...

Because it's for children. Surely you don't think anything goes in a children's library?

> Surely you don't think anything goes in a children's library?

Children's libraries are curated by librarians and teachers. There's never been a point in history where "anything goes" in a children's library.

And the internet is not for children? That's my point, social media is targeted at kids. Why is it that people scream "free speech" when hateful content is banned online while at the same calling for the banning of books? They're mad that they can't say whatever they want while simultaneously feeling that other people shouldn't.

[flagged]

Parents can opt their own children out of reading material that conflicts with their beliefs. The issue is that those same parents don't want ANY children reading those books.

> So what makes this different?

You're seriously comparing the banning of books from libraries to kidnapping and brainwashing kids? Nobody is trying to "genocide a culture" here, people just want to have their own views represented and are being denied. That is an absurd comparison to make.

>The nerve of those people, wanting a say in their children's education.

But they're making a say in my child's education also. Let parents opt their children out of checking books out. Don't ban my kid from reading them too.

Your kid is going to be influencing other, conservative kids.

I don't want my kids being influenced by hateful content that proliferates on social media. Why is my support for banning hate speech online wrong while banning books in libraries is OK? "Think of the children" only gets thrown around in a school context but kids are some of the biggest users of social media.

Go howl at the moon.

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