Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm stunned when people can't reason about a tradeoff between two principles because they assigned infinite weight to one of them. Police state=bad. Industrial scale drug addiction in kids=also bad. Some compromise must be made. The slippery slope arguments do nothing. People are trying to solve this problem; trying to scare them with other problems they may have later--which they can solve separately!--is just irrel…
We're bringing it up because it's not being mentioned and we think it's important. I that once freedom of speech and freedom to communicate and freedom to decent are gone they are gone for good. I dislike very much that politicians like Peter Kyle and Jess Philips have tried to shut down dissenting voices by comparing them to paedophiles or saying this is just about access to porn. I'm really angry about this. I don'…
What I'm frustrated about is people's inability to have an actual discussion it because they're so affected by emotion (like I said: "people can't reason about a tradeoff between two principles"). One can reason about the tradeoffs rationally, instead of by intentionally misunderstanding anyone who disagrees with you and casting them in the most negative possible light, accusing them of wanting police states etc --- and then come to the same conclusions! nothing about using reasoning prohibits the same conclusions --- but because you now engage justly with other people, there's a chance of actually changing their minds.
I am very disappointed in the caliber of replies in this thread. This kind of thing: "Is anyone else as stunned as I am by how many posters on tech websites have suddenly gone full anti-free-internet and embracing the police state?" is idiotic. The people they're replying to aren't pro-police state, they're anti-'social media for kids'. They would welcome better solutions to the same issue. but as soon as an angry person misattributes the other sides' opinions to philosophies they didn't espouse and would actively disagree with, all attempt at dialogue---even the kind where you chance someone's mind to agree with you---is fucked.