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A comment on I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age‑verification bills. Parent comment

Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by soulofmischief on Friday March 13, 2026 @09:56AM (#47364533)
I'll go further. As a human being, I am responsible for myself. I grew up in an extremely abusive, impoverished, cult-like religious home where anything not approved by White Jesus was disallowed.

I owe everything about who I am today to learning how to circumvent firewalls and other forms of restriction. I would almost certainly be dead if I hadn't learned to socialize and program on the web despite it being strictly forbidden at home. Most of my interests, politics and personality were forged at 2am, as quiet as possible, browsing the web on live discs. I now support myself through those interests.

We're so quick to forget that kids are people, too. And today, they often know how to safely navigate the internet better than their aging caretakers who have allowed editorial "news" and social media to warp their minds.

Even for people who think they're really doing a good thing by supporting these kinds of insane laws that are designed to restrict our 1A rights: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by duskdozer on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:11AM (#47364733)
This is obviously where it's going to go, at least in the US. Things that are non-religious, non-Christian especially, pro-LGBT, and similar will be disproportionately pulled under "adult content" to ensure that children are not able to be exposed to unapproved ideas during formative years.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by tokai on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:14AM (#47365586)
That has already been going on for decades, with satanic panic and banning of library books.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by soulofmischief on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:50AM (#47366096)
The scary thing about legislation and software is that they can negatively reinforce each other if not properly designed and implemented. We run the risk of codification of morality-of-the-week becoming embedded deeply embedded into the compute stack, which will not self-correct until there is a great political movement for liberation of compute.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by soulofmischief on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:23AM (#47364888)
Exactly. Having lived through it already, I know what it did to me and I would never wish that upon another child. The internet saved me from being a religious, colonial, racist piece of shit like the rest of my family.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by rustystump on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:37AM (#47365891)
Colonial? Religious? Idk your family but maybe the internet did more harm to your brain than you think.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age... by soulofmischief on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:48AM (#47366053)
Did you have an actual point to make or did you just choose two random words and hurl an insult with zero context? Were you looking for an actual discussion or is this all you had to offer?
[ Parent | on HN ]