this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
2042 points (96.7% liked)
Political Memes
5419 readers
3531 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The same logic in both cases, the books aren't making people gay, they're providing people with knowledge that might make them realize they're gay. Guns don't kill people, they provide people a tool for people who want to kill people to kill people.
I was of the opinion that less guns resulted in less murders, based on data from Australia. Before I read this I thought banning books didn't affect quantity of gay people, now I'm doubtful...🤔
Less gun ownership is correlated with fewer murders, but it's a complicated equation.
Part of it is what gun control measures are in place. Having 100 guns in safe hands may not be safer than 10 guns in random hands, but it is safer than 75 guns in random hands.
Part of it is the ownership culture. Some parts of the US may have the laxest gun laws in the world, but not enough to account for the sheer quantity of guns available. Most people can get guns in most European countries. They just choose not to, or choose to get fewer.
So do less guns result in less murders? Or do we get less murders by not having a toxic relationship with firearms and not letting dangerous people buy a gun at the liquor store along with a handle of vodka?
It's as "complicated" with gay people and books. But the "toxic relationship" in that case are people who are closeted gay because they think it's horribly unacceptable and nobody will tell them better.
Banning books affects the quantity of happy, self-assured gay people. By how much? Fuck if I know, the general culture is probably way more important. But, books affect culture and culture affects books and their availability.
The difference between being a murderer and being gay is that, generally speaking, murderers are made and gay people are born.