this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Justification is easy. Damn near no one does anything they don't feel is justified. You may not agree with it, but that doesn't really matter, because the right people will.

A lot of the most evil shit in history was done by people who felt completely justified in doing it.

Justification is a stupidly low bar.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You're missing the point. We don't need to justify to the government why we need to do anything. The government needs to justify to us why it should be prohibited. Feeling justified in your own actions doesn't come into it.

As for "the most evil shit in history", it should be extremely easy for the government to justify prohibiting it.

[–] Touching_Grass@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I say go the other way. Fucking people are trash and need to be babysat like fucking toddlers. Government is the only sensible people trying to keep it all together

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Government is the only sensible people trying to keep it all together.

That's pretty funny, does that include your political enemies?

From my pov government is "just people" like the rest of us, they just happened to be elected by a bunch of trash toddlers to be "head trash toddler #24."

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[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That's called authoritarianism and it's really unpopular for a reason.

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[–] rainynight65@feddit.de 2 points 9 months ago

To any reasonable person it is extremely easy to justify prohibiting easy access to firearms. And yet here we are, with mass shootings happening every other day in the US.

[–] Seaguy05@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago

US Govt: Y'all shoot a lot of people. Let's slow this down a bit. Some people: how about I shoot you!?

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 29 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Normal people have their behavior regulated by family, partners, and work. It's only the ownership class and psychopaths who worry about being reined in by the government. Libertarians have spiders in their brains.

[–] Bgugi@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Miscegny, abortion, sodomy, war on drugs...

There's plenty of things the government has (and it's trying to have) blocked that "normal" people should worry about

[–] zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Have you ever noticed the people who don't want lead in the gasoline are not the same people who are trying to ban abortion?

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 months ago

Regulations on business and production of resources don't infringe on my personal liberties.

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[–] Chriswild@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Some states making it illegal to be homeless. I'm sure the 14th amendment won't be used for nefarious purposes... /s

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hey this is the "I have nothing to hide" argument for privacy. I think wanting people to have freedom from suspicion by the government is based. You're not gonna find me agreeing with any right wing "libertarian" positions like low taxes. My libertarianism is more about... Policing.

[–] scoobford@lemmy.one 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I agree. I've been listening to behind the bastards a lot, and the host is basically a pretty radical dude in favor of maximizing personal and civic freedoms and social safety nets.

At this point I feel like we should be called the neo-libroanarchists or something. It seems like every political faction in the US is trying to restrict something just because.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 months ago

The right wing think tanks have a deliberate strategy of stealing leftist words.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Social libertarians is what you're looking for.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It’s only the ownership class and psychopaths who worry about being reined in by the government.

I guess you forgot the badge-wearing fascists with itchy trigger fingers stalking your neck of the woods with the express purpose of visiting violence upon you if you step out of line.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Who uses the badge wearing fascists to control you? The ownership class. Guess who is the ownership class? Not you and I.

[–] TheCrawlingKingSnake@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Username applies.

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[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

The government does justify its prohibitions.

They're just sometimes good justifications (like protecting drinking water supplies) or shitty justifications (like staying in power with Gerrymandering).

Sometimes it's even as weak as "putting forward laws Senator John looks like he's doing something (so he can stay visible and get reelected. Not about power, but just keeping a cushy job)"

But there's always a justification.

This is stupid.

[–] Kalkaline@leminal.space 23 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You can't go running around with feces all over your body and hug strangers, OP, it's not hygienic.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Boom. Justification. OP's request is satisfied.

[–] Kalkaline@leminal.space 2 points 9 months ago

You fool, I'm not a representative of the government. Ha, request not satisfied.

[–] merci3@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago
[–] profoundninja@sh.itjust.works 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is deep. I'm 14 though fyi.

[–] Cannacheques@slrpnk.net 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] DragonTypeWyvern 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's quite literally a founding principle of most modern legal systems but okay.

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[–] bigFab@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)
[–] Happybara@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Tolerance is just an extension of the social contract. Intolerant people are actively violating the social contract and, as such, are not eligible for the benefits such a contract provides. This has been settled law for millennia. Live and let live... or else.

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[–] Cannacheques@slrpnk.net 7 points 9 months ago

Meh, I'm not a Nazi so no offense taken.

[–] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's kind of like pest control. I don't hate termites. I just can't have them tearing up my home, so they have to be exterminated.

[–] voidMainVoid@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

How is this relevant to the post

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[–] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I will do all that I can to crumple a world where "if it is not required it is forbidden" exists; this I swear to you all.

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

But black and white thinking is the only way my brain can work because

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[–] PatFussy@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Uhhhh... isnt this how it already works?

[–] EmoBean@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not with drugs. Does the drug look similar enough to something illegal? Well then it's also illegal. Are there new, positive, revolutionary uses for those drugs? Who fucking knows, they're illegal before they're even made.

[–] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago

Yeah, there's some truth in that. But there is also a justification (predicated on prior justification for existing hard drugs being made illegal). The justification is that it is not difficult to synthesize similar drugs that have similar effects. And very often, the differences in the effects are such that the new drug is more harmful than the drug it is copying. So rather than just automatically allowing every new drug and then playing an never-ending game of wack-a-mole with new and dangerous addictive drugs, they are just automatically banned.

There are a lot of arguments for why it might have been a mistake to make certain drugs illegal in the first place; but that's a different issue. If certain drugs are harmful enough to be illegal, then it is definitely justifiable to make similar new drugs illegal by default.

A similar thing can apply to weapons. We don't usually have laws against specific make and model of weapons. The laws are usually for entire categories, which include new versions are not yet created or tested.

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[–] uid0gid0@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

See also: the ninth amendment.

[–] cameron_vale@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

Unless it's on social media (like Lemmy). Then it's the reverse. Because (despite the fact that it's composed entirely of public conversations) it's private property.

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Ehh that is how it is right now though? Anything that's not illegal is allowed.

[–] KombatWombat@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Maybe this is just bait, but this is already how it works. I'll go over US law, but other countries likely have similar processes.

Legislation needs to have justification for restricting people, or it gets overturned when challenged. This is because it would fail the strict scrutiny test, making it unconstitutional. It needs to be "narrowly tailored" to a "legitimate government interest" to pass. In other words, it needs to be focussed on addressing a problem the government acknowledges some responsibility to solve, and do so in a way that doesn't cause undue restrictions beyond that goal.

Creating a law isn't an easy process, so they are made with purpose. That doesn't mean every law is a good law, but that's why we have these processes for reform after all. Sometimes you have old nonesense laws remain, but that is typically because they are unenforced or too detached from modern life for anyone to care to remove them.

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