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Knives help you cook delicious food, knives can also help you stab your partner to death. This doesn't mean knives should be banned (though, ironically enough,
by miki123211 1y ago
Knives help you cook delicious food, knives can also help you stab your partner to death. This doesn't mean knives should be banned (though, ironically enough, the UK believes otherwise).
Different technologies are in different places on the "societal usefullness versus danger" spectrum. Nuclear weapons are obviously on the "really fricking dangerous" side, no country lets a civilian own them. Forks are obviously on the "useful" side, even though you can technically use one to gouge somebody's eye out.
What's the right tradeoff for guns, printing presses, typewriters and social media companies is a matter of some debate.
- hdgvhicv 1y agoThe U.K. doesn’t ban knives. It has an age limit to buy them, and bans carrying them in public without a lawful excuse.
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago[flagged]
- monkey_monkey 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- FirmwareBurner 1y agoAnd I bet you felt really accomplished and proud about yourself with that insult to a random person on the internet. The peak of your intellectual capabilities. You know what they say, people who have no value to add in a conversation, can only attack other people.
- monkey_monkey 1y agoWhat insult? I quoted your hilarious profile bio, and then said you're parroting brainwashed tropes. I haven't insulted you...but you clearly feel offended, but as people like you tend to say "your feelings aren't my problem"
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- throw10920 1y ago> I haven't insulted you > The irony as you parrot brainwashed tropes. You clearly insulted them, and now you're lying by claiming that you didn't. Nobody is falling for it, as evidenced by the fact that your comment was killed by flags. > as people like you tend to say "your feelings aren't my problem" ...and now you're being bigoted and clearly breaking the HN guidelines. You should stop now.
- iamacyborg 1y agoThere's no evidence that we're moving that way other than fear-mongering from the US right.
- FirmwareBurner 1y agoThat's what people in the UK said 10 years ago about the state of today. Caption this comment and let's check back in 10 years.
- iamacyborg 1y agoCitation needed
- account42 1y agoOk so they only "ban" them not ban ban them. Nothing to see here, move along.
- norome 1y agoI now believe that guiding technology use comes down to leadership. "with the exact same technological advances, on one side of the world we created modern america, while on the other side we created the soviet union"
- marliechiller 1y agoI cant help but feel this analogy misses the mark. With the information people are consuming being guided by algorithms, its extremely hard for people to realise theyre being herded towards a specific viewpoint these days. It kind of reminds me of one of those mirror houses at the fairground - its extremely hard to get the correct signal in all the noise. You are what you consume and if everything you consume is of a misguided point of view, very quickly you're sliding towards being assimilated into that point of view.
- iamacyborg 1y ago> This doesn't mean knives should be banned (though, ironically enough, the UK believes otherwise). No it doesn’t. I can easily go to any number of local shops and buy a knife without any hassle.
- hdgvhicv 1y agoA large number of Americans believe all sorts of nonsense about the UK
- matwood 1y agoThe US is a big place and many Americans never travel anywhere else. Heck, a large number of Americans believe criminals are burning down LA.
- pjc50 1y agoYou do however have to undergo age verification, but under a much less intrusive process than online (a shop assistant looks at you and guesses, or looks at your ID and does not retain a copy).
- hdgvhicv 1y agoSame as buying alcohol or a child ticket on the bus or an old age discount The Us has even higher limits - many things are banned to many adults. Alcohol, lottery tickets etc.
- filoleg 1y ago> The Us has even higher limits - many things are banned to many adults. Alcohol, lottery tickets etc. Not trying to start an argument, because I could indeed be missing some crucial info here, but what kind of adults aren't allowed to purchase alcohol or lottery tickets in the US? The most scrutiny I ever got while attempting to purchase either alcohol or lottery tickets in the US was the establishment's employee glancing at my ID (and even that happens less than 1/5 of the time for me).
- Normal_gaussian 1y agoKnives in the UK are age restricted for purchase. Anyone can carry a folding pocket knife with a blade less than 3" without needing a reason. Any other mechanism, fixed blade, or longer blade require a lawful reason to carry. This includes recreation (e.g. fishing, camping) work (e.g. joinery, cooking). There are a handful examples of overzealous officers misunderstanding and detaining for the wrong reasons, and plenty of examples of people who pretended to the media it was for innocent reasons until the court case showed otherwise. For your point about forks, I'll note that they are actually covered by the same law; as are all pointed objects.
- nathan_compton 1y ago> Knives help you cook delicious food, knives can also help you stab your partner to death. This doesn't mean knives should be banned (though, ironically enough, the UK believes otherwise). This is a reasonable enough metaphor but we don't have to pretend to be idiots either and act like every single technology is totally neutral in its design. Knives are a good example, actually. Kitchen knives are totally adequate for killing people (I assume, I'm no expert) but they clearly have a design meant for something else. A nuclear weapon, to choose a stupidly obvious example, has no capability other than mass death. It seems reasonable to ask ourselves whether we want these two objects to be under the same regulatory regime.
- homebrewer 1y ago> has no capability other than mass death A 30-kiloton nuclear explosion was used by the USSR to extinguish a large natural gas fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtabulak_gas_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtabulak_gas_field They would be used for constructive purposes far more if not for mutual distrust between nuclear powers, and the public hysteria around anything associated with the word "nuclear": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_nuclear_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_nuclear_explosion