Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Gnob 1265 days ago
Yes, it's cringe because it's said as a laughing matter and can have no consequences nowadays or it mostly doesn't. I used to think this way too before and I am still not liberal but the thing with racism is, the start might be jokes but once it's systematic because "nobody cares it's just jokes" those same words might start to hit differently.

The liberals can be overreaching about such matters, but I personally think racial slurs shouldn't be tolerated a lot.

This is just my 2 cents on the subject.

1 comments

The point is, banning things does not solve problems. It just complicates things, force people to act in certain ways to make sure they aren't racist, instead of being genuine. When I'm accepted into interviews for jobs that aren't going to hire me anyway... it just wastes my time and their time.

The problem isn't much about racism, it is about some people act like jerks. And people can be jerks with or without racism.

The point of banning racism is so people don't feel comfortable doing it in public Because once that's there, systematic racism is going to be back, things won't stop at the random jerk level. Being a jerk might be because someone had a bad day etc, it's not loaded, you can counter it and it's not organized hate. But racism is different, racism targets anyone who looks like you, and it's usually organized efforts and loaded with ideas about dehumanizing people.

sometimes things escalate and this same random jerk might murder you if they think there is a high chance they will escape the justice system because you're basically a subhuman under the new laws that these lighthearted racists passed.

You can't make everyone good and decent, but you can for sure punish the racists and limit their access to power and that's what banning does in this case.

What would be illegal under this law? If a couple guys are sitting having a beer at home discussing their opinion on the difference in races and how some are better than others would that be illegal? If the neighbor overhead and turned them in, how long would they go to jail for over this private conversation that had previously been protected by the 1st? Would you advocate taking their children away from them? Does this law extend to people saying bad things about whites? What other speech would be outlawed as dangerous? What political ideas are banned? The 1st amendment exists for a very important reason. Restricting speech is a slippery slope that can rapidly lead to the party in power staying in power by banning opposing ideas.