logoalt Hacker News

john_strinlaitoday at 1:56 PM2 repliesview on HN

if i said "hustler is banned from my school", and someone came along and said "it's not banned, it's just not allowed", i would laugh.

the word "banned", specifically and only in the context of books, is one of the fucking strangest quirks of HN.


Replies

topgrain2today at 2:34 PM

Pretend confusion, especially over the very terms of the discussion, is a really common shitposting tactic all over the Internet. Though yeah it’s maybe more common here. Possibly because it falls under the category of trolling that doesn’t draw moderator ire (here, I mean, not in general)

wonderwondertoday at 2:23 PM

its not strange. Books represent knowledge and ideas. Ways of thinking. An attempt to ban a book is an attempt to restrict freedom of thought and the exchange of ideas. It has a historical context and a ban is generally considered on a societal level, not building specific. Some books are not allowed in school buildings, they are not banned.

Banning books for example has a very different context than banning cocaine. Cocaine use in the United States is banned, Hustler magazine is not. I can swing by the store tomorrow and pick one up legally, I can't get cocaine legally.

Restricting Hustler from a school full of kids is not banning it. Thus the quirk.

If I don't allow Green Eggs and Ham in my house does it belong in a museam of banned books?

show 1 reply