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Right, but the law doesn’t prohibit me from farming turnips*. It prohibits me from running a website without doing certain things. That’s what will be enforced,
by mwint 5y ago
Right, but the law doesn’t prohibit me from farming turnips*. It prohibits me from running a website without doing certain things. That’s what will be enforced, in escalating fashion up to and including violence.
If someone “asks” me to do something, they usually don’t mean “otherwise I will take your money and/or jail you”. But all laws have that threat, otherwise they wouldn’t mean anything. Hence why I take issue with saying the govt is “asking” us to do something - even though that thing is good and honorable, it’s still not an “ask”.
*well, I mean, there’s probably mountain turnip preservation zones or something, where it would prohibit me from farming mountain turnips.
- chociej 5y agoWhat do you propose instead? All governance has force at its roots.
- mwint 5y agoCertainly, no disagreement there. What I propose is that we avoid being cavalier about the implications of creating law. Using the force of government is, or should be, a serious affair, and I think we water it down by using language like “they’re just asking”, etc. The force of government never “just asks” - when Trump was deporting people, no one (reputable) said they were “asked to leave”. That sense of seriousness about government force would help us see clearly what is, and is not, worth bringing government into.