4 ms·

where do we draw the line? I think people should be able to choose any license plate they want, just like they can choose any name they wish. in general, I'm a

where do we draw the line? I think people should be able to choose any license plate they want, just like they can choose any name they wish. in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity.

theoreticalmal 1y ago
I also don’t know exactly where to draw the line, but I can think of dozens of plates I wouldn’t want my kids reading out in the world
Barbing 1y ago
Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning. Driving’s a privilege they tell us, makes sense they’d restrict plates based on sensibilities of the average taxpayer. Meanwhile offensive, say, t-shirts might be seen on the sidewalk but perhaps not in around your usual hangouts as a boring, easily offended person (I kid!) (Not married to these opinions, LMK of any obvious misses here)
- twodave 1y ago
  I feel like if you try and file a police report because your car with one of those plates got vandalized, they'd take their sweet time trying to follow up on it... just saying :)
- greenavocado 1y ago
  The reasons given for other rejections are so stupid and far-fetched. Fourteen and eighty eight are Hitler related? Even if true, less than 0.1% of all Americans would recognize such a reference. Others are rejected for AREA CODE reason? WTF? This is extreme government overreach.
  - margalabargala 1y ago
    14 and 88 are widely used as neonazi dog whistles.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning Counterpoint: I’d give zero shits about their noise complaints or parking preferences going forward, and I suspect my town’s police would be fine with that.
  - dymk 1y ago
    Your Jewish neighbors might not feel quite as nonchalant
threeseed 1y ago
You can't choose any name you wish in any country. For example in US, Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ are banned names.
- Amezarak 1y ago
  No, they aren't.
dymk 1y ago
if you're for removing subjectivity, then you should be calling for them to remove the option for a vanity plate entirely
- hollerith 1y ago
  I prefer taxes on purchases whose main use is status competition (e.g., a yacht, a dress or a pair of shoes that costs more than $1000) over other kinds of taxes, and I suspect that vanity license plates are mainly purchased for their effects on status (and a full 100% of the purchase price goes to the taxing authority, which is nice).
  - NewJazz 1y ago
    Yeah but you have to have someone review them which costs some money.
userbinator 1y ago
I see far more obscene bumper stickers, which AFAIK are protected by 1A, so you can exercise your right there. Then again, this is California...
danpalmer 1y ago
> in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity I usually appreciate objectivity, but in human processes it rarely works. There are always edge cases. Write down all the rules for number plates and someone will find a way to write an offensive one, or language will change and the policy won't have caught up. You need human subjectivity in the loop as a check. This is where "smart" contracts fell down, the pitch was having truly objective and automated contracts, which were supposed to be better than legal contracts because of those properties. But what we actually got was contracts where finding a loophole meant you could screw over the other party and be contractually guaranteed to get away with it. The real benefit of a legal contract is being able to go to court and litigate it and theoretically come out with a fair result. That's not always possible, but it is much more likely than with "smart" contracts.
- behnamoh 1y ago
  > Write down all the rules for number plates and someone will find a way to write an offensive one, or language will change and the policy won't have caught up. You need human subjectivity in the loop as a check. That's not what I meant with subjectivity. I want objective rules, like "license place should be 6 alphanumeric letters". as soon as you say "it shouldn't be offensive to the average citizen", you're in the subjectivity realm.
  - danpalmer 1y ago
    Ok, but you'd agree that we shouldn't allow, say, an offensive word for a specific race to be used right? Because that would be actively harmful to many people. So we make a rule saying "you can't use word X". So someone submits a plate that is X but... with a number replacing a letter. It's not against the rules, but it's still actively harmful because a human subjectively reads it as the banned word. So you expand the rule, but then language changes, etc etc. Surely you need to have a subjective judgement process because the interpretation/harm is subjective? I'll grant you that finding the right balance here, or where the line is, is a hard problem. This list to me however shows that it can be achieved in a reasonable way. Alternatively if you think that people should be allowed to use widely recognised, highly derogatory words for other people as number plates, that rules like being 6 characters is strictly sufficient, then I think we disagree too much to resolve.
InitialLastName 1y ago
You can write anything you like on your car. You can't force the state to endorse any identification you'd like for it. Seems like a pretty clear line.

where do we draw the line? I think people should be able to choose any license plate they want, just like they can choose any name they wish. in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity.

theoreticalmal 1y ago

I also don’t know exactly where to draw the line, but I can think of dozens of plates I wouldn’t want my kids reading out in the world

Barbing 1y ago

Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning. Driving’s a privilege they tell us, makes sense they’d restrict plates based on sensibilities of the average taxpayer. Meanwhile offensive, say, t-shirts might be seen on the sidewalk but perhaps not in around your usual hangouts as a boring, easily offended person (I kid!) (Not married to these opinions, LMK of any obvious misses here)

twodave 1y ago
I feel like if you try and file a police report because your car with one of those plates got vandalized, they'd take their sweet time trying to follow up on it... just saying :)
greenavocado 1y ago
The reasons given for other rejections are so stupid and far-fetched. Fourteen and eighty eight are Hitler related? Even if true, less than 0.1% of all Americans would recognize such a reference. Others are rejected for AREA CODE reason? WTF? This is extreme government overreach.
- margalabargala 1y ago
  14 and 88 are widely used as neonazi dog whistles.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning Counterpoint: I’d give zero shits about their noise complaints or parking preferences going forward, and I suspect my town’s police would be fine with that.
- dymk 1y ago
  Your Jewish neighbors might not feel quite as nonchalant

threeseed 1y ago

You can't choose any name you wish in any country. For example in US, Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ are banned names.

Amezarak 1y ago
No, they aren't.

dymk 1y ago

if you're for removing subjectivity, then you should be calling for them to remove the option for a vanity plate entirely

hollerith 1y ago
I prefer taxes on purchases whose main use is status competition (e.g., a yacht, a dress or a pair of shoes that costs more than $1000) over other kinds of taxes, and I suspect that vanity license plates are mainly purchased for their effects on status (and a full 100% of the purchase price goes to the taxing authority, which is nice).
- NewJazz 1y ago
  Yeah but you have to have someone review them which costs some money.

userbinator 1y ago

I see far more obscene bumper stickers, which AFAIK are protected by 1A, so you can exercise your right there. Then again, this is California...

danpalmer 1y ago

> in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity I usually appreciate objectivity, but in human processes it rarely works. There are always edge cases. Write down all the rules for number plates and someone will find a way to write an offensive one, or language will change and the policy won't have caught up. You need human subjectivity in the loop as a check. This is where "smart" contracts fell down, the pitch was having truly objective and automated contracts, which were supposed to be better than legal contracts because of those properties. But what we actually got was contracts where finding a loophole meant you could screw over the other party and be contractually guaranteed to get away with it. The real benefit of a legal contract is being able to go to court and litigate it and theoretically come out with a fair result. That's not always possible, but it is much more likely than with "smart" contracts.

behnamoh 1y ago
> Write down all the rules for number plates and someone will find a way to write an offensive one, or language will change and the policy won't have caught up. You need human subjectivity in the loop as a check. That's not what I meant with subjectivity. I want objective rules, like "license place should be 6 alphanumeric letters". as soon as you say "it shouldn't be offensive to the average citizen", you're in the subjectivity realm.
- danpalmer 1y ago
  Ok, but you'd agree that we shouldn't allow, say, an offensive word for a specific race to be used right? Because that would be actively harmful to many people. So we make a rule saying "you can't use word X". So someone submits a plate that is X but... with a number replacing a letter. It's not against the rules, but it's still actively harmful because a human subjectively reads it as the banned word. So you expand the rule, but then language changes, etc etc. Surely you need to have a subjective judgement process because the interpretation/harm is subjective? I'll grant you that finding the right balance here, or where the line is, is a hard problem. This list to me however shows that it can be achieved in a reasonable way. Alternatively if you think that people should be allowed to use widely recognised, highly derogatory words for other people as number plates, that rules like being 6 characters is strictly sufficient, then I think we disagree too much to resolve.

InitialLastName 1y ago

You can write anything you like on your car. You can't force the state to endorse any identification you'd like for it. Seems like a pretty clear line.