"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Much of FL's Book Ban Bill

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by Supermancho on Thursday August 14, 2025 @12:04PM (#44902098)

> What a simplistic take on a much more nuanced set of issues and ideas than that from the Republicans and conservatives in general. "brown people"? What the hell does that generic, i'd say even coddlingly racist, label means specifically mean?

It's cut and dry. Plain racism, broadly and slowly applied. Don't try to notice, they hate that.

> All that said, this list of books proposed for bans is a laughable idiocy from people who really need to get their heads out of their asses.

Ah yes, the foolish "state policy don't matter because you can get it somewhere else". Treating the issue lightly, is part of the problem. Now there's 1 less source BY POLICY and the noose tightens. Weaponizing policy is something politicians are prone to do.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by morkalork on Thursday August 14, 2025 @12:10PM (#44902185)

I don't buy the whole "it's not illegal, just buy it from a bookstore yourself if it's banned from the library" argument after what happened with Steam and payment processors. What's next? "Just buy these books from a physical bookstore (not online) that is cash only because payment processors have booted the store off their platforms. Also, only old/used editions are available because publishers are afraid to print new runs. But it's not illegal so stop crying"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by zeroonetwothree on Thursday August 14, 2025 @12:17PM (#44902280)

I don’t think it’s fair to equate private action with state action. The latter is much more dangerous to freedom

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by AlexandrB on Thursday August 14, 2025 @12:38PM (#44902549)

The latter often leverages the former to work around having to legislate things that are unpopular or unconstitutional. A great example is government agencies buying data from data brokers or the Twitter files where the government leaned on Twitter to downrank "wrong" ideas. With the proliferation of powerful near-monopolies - especially in tech - "the market" has little way to work around these kinds of problems, especially in the short term.

I guess my point is that both are dangerous to freedom, and ideally the government would do something to curtail corporate censorship instead of encouraging it. That's the whole idea of a "common carrier"[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by morkalork on Thursday August 14, 2025 @12:31PM (#44902466)

I am not equating the two, I am pointing out the flaw in the logic of viewing each in isolation and rationalizing. Excusing state-level book bans in libraries with "you can just buy it yourself with your money instead" clearly ignores what has been happening in the private sector.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by TimorousBestie on Thursday August 14, 2025 @01:12PM (#44903009)

“X is worse than Y” is not on its own an argument against “not Y.”

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Muc... by Chris2048 on Friday August 15, 2025 @06:36AM (#44910679)

Gov inaction is just as important, especially when it comes to regulating monopolies. Net Neutrality is a similar issue.

[ Parent | on HN ]