3 ms·

Some knowledge is dangerous. Bomb making isn't very difficult. Any chemistry grad can manufacture explosives from commonplace chemicals. But we don't put the

Some knowledge is dangerous. Bomb making isn't very difficult. Any chemistry grad can manufacture explosives from commonplace chemicals. But we don't put the how-to guidebook in highschool libraries. We actively put hurdles in front of such knowledge to regulate its use.

trasz 5y ago
Who is “we”, though? This information used to be available in school libraries in Poland, and didn’t result in anything dangerous. If “we” is US, then it’s obviously not working.
btilly 5y ago
Let me give a more dramatic example. Using figures from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide. In 2019, 1.4 million US adults tried to kill themselves. 47,511 died. Why do so many survive? It is because information about effective ways to commit suicide exist but is not well disseminated. Men have a fraction of the suicide attempts of women, and yet commit suicide at several times the rate. Suicide rates are also unevenly distributed across races. By my understanding, the primary reason for these differences is that men and specific races are more likely to pick an effective suicide method. Teenagers are particularly likely to be suicidal and grow out of it. As the parent of such a teenager, I'm perfectly OK with not disseminating knowledge about the most effective ways that she could try to kill herself with common household items. (I'm also happy to disseminate the knowledge that the method you should never use is drinking anti-freeze. You will not kill yourself. You will destroy your liver and kidneys, and will make your life suck a whole lot more than it does already.)