An Australian museum excluded men from an exhibit to highlight misogyny. A man sued for access and won.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/mkwF8

  • bluGill
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    -323 months ago

    I (a white person) wouldn’t knowingly going into such a Cafe, but I still allow them to exist. It is a matter of defending - as much as possible - the right of others to do things I find stupid. There are lines, but I try to use them to cover as little as possible: all lines can be used against me.

    • @Aurenkin
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      3 months ago

      I don’t mind other people doing things that are stupid. I do mind other people doing things that are harmful. The difficult part is finding where that line is, if and how to legislate it and what the implications are on other important societal values.

      In this example of a cafe refusing to serve people based on race, I’m personally totally fine with that being illegal.

      • @[email protected]
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        -183 months ago

        How do you ban such a cafe while also banning slavery? How do you draw a line between permissible and impermissible compulsory labor when you’re drafting your Constitution to reign in future politicians?

        • @Aurenkin
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          263 months ago
          1. It is not permitted to own another human being.

          2. It is not permitted to discriminate against a human being based on a protected class such as race.

          Is there some contradiction there that I’m not seeing?

          • @ArbitraryValue
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            3 months ago

            I think the reasoning is that since having a job is essential for almost everyone, by making it illegal to have a job in which one may refuse to deal with members of a protected class, the government is effectively compelling everyone who needs a job to deal with them, which might be seen as a form of forced labor.

            • @zaph
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              93 months ago

              That’d be a massive stretch. Getting paid to do a job you don’t like isn’t slavery.

              • @ArbitraryValue
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                3 months ago

                From the libertarian point of view, being compelled to do something is bad even if that thing itself isn’t all that difficult or unpleasant. I’m a pretty stubborn, libertarian-leaning person myself and I would resent doing even all my favorite things in the world if the government were making me do them.

                I still wouldn’t make the comparison to slavery myself, but I think that most people are missing how much anti-discrimination laws actually do restrict freedom of speech and of association because most people weren’t going to engage in that sort of speech/association anyway. I would compare them to laws against boycotting Israel.

                • @zaph
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                  23 months ago

                  I still wouldn’t make the comparison to slavery myself

                  You’re the one who made the comparison to it being slavery? There are plenty of things you’re not allowed to say, why are you fighting against this instead of the right to make bomb threats?

                  • @ArbitraryValue
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                    3 months ago

                    No I’m not, @[email protected] is. As for bomb threats, the violate the non-aggression principle in a way that simply choosing to peacefully opt out of interacting with a person or group of people does not.

                    (And, for the record, I think that the Civil Rights Act in the USA is, on the whole, a good thing. I just don’t think it’s costless.)

                • @[email protected]
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                  13 months ago

                  how about having to wear out body and mind to earn money to not be excluded from the wealth society has produced? Or is that the part you gladly submit to?

                  • @ArbitraryValue
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                    -13 months ago

                    Libertarians don’t see it in those terms. Wealth doesn’t belong to society, and therefore there’s no implication that all members of society are entitled to it. Not having any wealth sucks and so does having to do onerous work in order to survive, but it’s easy to imagine how if you were rich, you wouldn’t want your money taken away and given to the poor, and so it’s hard to fault the rich for feeling that way too.

            • @[email protected]
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              43 months ago

              I’m not seeing a problem with ‘treat people as people regardless of their skin colour’.

            • @Aurenkin
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              13 months ago

              Jobs having responsibilities is nothing new. If you don’t like the responsibilities of a particular job, get a different one.

    • @[email protected]
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      93 months ago

      To deny access to any one group on the basis of an immutable characteristic of their physical being is a dangerous precedent to set for a government. It just gives a license to discriminate against any out group. I believe you have a right to do whatever you want, so long as doing so does not violate the rights of others.

      To take it to a logical extreme, would you defend the right to drink and drive, given that stupid people should be allowed to do stupid things, even if it is incredibly dangerous to the drinking party and everyone else around them? No? Then don’t tolerate the intolerance of others. That’s how the social contract frays.

    • @zaph
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      33 months ago

      So you’d be fine with a towns only hospital receiving a patient in the ER while the only doctor on the clock refuses to treat the patient based on them being part of a protected class? Or do we need to create a law that says doctors can’t discriminate but everyone else can?

      • bluGill
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        -33 months ago

        There are lines. Make them as narrow as possible but no more.

        that covers your situation and many others.

        • @zaph
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          33 months ago

          I’d rather we just don’t encourage people to be horrible.

          • bluGill
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            3 months ago

            Be careful lest oppression of ideas spread them. Also be cafeful lest something unpopular you do is banned too.

            I try to support free expression even if it means defending tyrants doing what I hate.

            • @zaph
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              23 months ago

              I’ll be sure to. And you be careful not to tolerate intolerance. I try to support people not being murdered because you tolerate tyrants.