Same way the government needs to read all your emails because some terrorist on the other side of the world may or may not be using email as well to communicate.

Whenever "think of the children" shows up as a pretend-genuine argument, you may bet on it being a scam/grift.

Read about the infamous EU's chat control and lobbying behind it: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/mullvad-vpn-present-and-then

pedo and terror the 2 excuses

It’s almost like they need these to exist.

Yep, "think of the children" has become the go-to excuse for all kinds of overreach

Ultimately information is power, especially now. Governments naturally gravitate to wanting more and more power. Authoritarian types are all around, and their power is growing in the current political climate of America as they see a method that works, turning Americans against each other and creating national scares which in turn can be used to gain more control over every aspect of our lives

I think Hanlon's razor probably applies here. There's no way the average Wisconsin legislator understands this bill.

No. Stop using Hanlon's razor as a magic word that lets those in power evade responsibility for turning tech against people. They already excel at dodging consequences without anyone resorting to lazy two word arguments in their defense.

It doesn't take a computer genius to understand the broader implications this has on civil society. If they genuinely lack the insight to comprehend this, then they certainly wouldn’t be using children as a shield.

I'm not saying they should get a pass for being incompetent. I'm just saying we shouldn't lose our heads theorizing malice.

It's not theoretical - governments all over the world have attempted censorship and surveillance for thousands of years. This isn't some new thing that we're all cooking up right now. We, and they, already know what this is for.

how about Asimov's 3rd Law of Stupid: sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice

Fair enough, but still worth being accurate.