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Comment by greenhexagon | Hacker News Reader

Can you step outside of your own point of view to realize this is all kinda silly?

When you walk down the street, people might look at you and imagine you in ways you don't like. They might whisper about you to their friends. They might write a story where you're the villain or the fool. They might draw an unflattering picture of you. You might experience anxiety or fear or other "psychological harms" worrying about any of these things happening.

I have compassion and sympathy for the fears, anxieties and discomforts people might experience from worrying about how other people imagine them, or use their likeness in works of fiction. But that sympathy doesn't mean I want the government to police people's thoughts, stories or art.

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I did step outside of my own point of view to consider others' points of view, and post a reply to you highlighting those others' points of view. Like you, deepfake porn is not an issue that impacts me, therefore I'm privileging those it does impact when discussing whether or not it should be clamped down on.

Do you not realize that the actions in your second paragraph turn into already illegal harassment if done sufficiently?

Mass distributing, or targeted distribution, are their own things. It's not people's "thoughts", or even their stories or art when not involving others, or when kept sandboxxed in appropriate limited forums, or depending on the "speech" when properly labeled as fictitious (though some speech is wrong regardless of its labeling).

> or depending on the "speech" when properly labeled as fictitious (though some speech is wrong regardless of its labeling).

What's an example of this?

In general insulting or threatening statements that end with an "I'm just kidding".

"For legal purposes I have to state that everything I'm writing is fictitious. :wink:

Got that? Everything I'm telling you to do here I'm not actually saying you should do. You obviously shouldn't do it because it's illegal. :wink:

Here's how to get guns and other weapons.

Here's where we should gather and at what time.

Here's the rest of the plan for killing all of those X people and tearing down the government.

I'm definitely not saying to do this. :wink: This is just criticism and parody of what actual bad people would do."

That's a pretty extreme example.

Less extreme examples are "based on a true story" accounts that demonize some real people just to make a good villain.

Ah, alright. I suppose it comes down to the fact that even thought labeled as such, this speech isn't actually fictitious. I see your point here.

Are you opposed to libel laws?

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