Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@Mattstamatic @futurebird "Increasing the cost of *anything* should be a last resort" – I agree! But I also think that the state artificially *decreasing* the cost of pretty much anything is also usually a really bad idea.

@blitzen @futurebird we libertarians disapprove of building codes that require parking to be available before new business construction is permitted.

@Mattstamatic @futurebird if people had to pay more it would encourage them to use other options. At least I think that's the point.

Like, suppose you're going out to dinner, relatively nearby: if you knew you'd have to pay $10 for parking, would that encourage you to take public transit or uber, or maybe even walk? (It sure would for me!)

If you find you're doing that every time you go anywhere, hmm – maybe you don't even need a car?

And for OP I think that is a win.

@futurebird libertarian here: my head didn't explode, but I'm not happy about those laws you mentioned.

@SkatyG Well there's https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

@dannotdaniel @freemo @luckytran yes, you are.

@jeffcliff @barney@mas.to @freemo Your ableist privilege is showing...

@freemo @jeffcliff @barney@mas.to yeah I guess I see your point, especially for that particular job.

@jeffcliff @barney@mas.to @freemo they're kind of a problem; these are obviously facts about masks that make them somewhat if a problem. I'm not sure I approve of banning them anywhere, though.

For kind of the reasons outlined here I've sort of avoided wearing them as much as possible, But I'm happy to wear them in your store if you ask or whatever makes you comfortable.

@freemo @barney@mas.to you suggest masks make things harder for deaf people therefore you are a fascist. 😂

@freemo @john I have this vague sense of discomfort about Mastodon because of the extensive culture of defederating/blocking/banning on some major instances. It will be interesting to see how/if it plays out. e.g. think how impoverished we'd be here on qoto without any sauropod updates. #patchyverse

@iDoobyLeaves@noagendasocial.com @freemo @mzan Yeah but like does that even happen at drag queen story hours or whatever? (I've never been to one.)

@olives @freemo when you're admonishing someone be careful not to do the exact thing the you're admonishing them not to do.

@olives @freemo indeed we do see that kind of thing a lot; it's good to be careful about that. I'm not sure why you are admonishing me here though? That book does actually have that kind of material in it.

@olives @freemo Was something I said misleading? What is "it" in your sentence "...it was someone's...." – are you talking about "The Bluest Eye"?

If so, please pardon me I did not mean to imply anything specific about that book, I can see how my post implies that.

I only mentioned it because it seems to be *the* canonical example of a book "banned" for mature content, so I thought it was interesting that the public library in ConservativeUtoptia-area Texas still carried it despite all the noise about alleged book bannings. I've never read it.

@freemo @olives yeah, you're going to have some wacko parents objecting to every book: and I think there are some real questions here about processes that need to be in place so that fringy objections don't carry the day.

@freemo @PBruce @olives in my defense I did say I'm not buying the struggle session story. As we discussed a while back also I'm not buying the rumors about male strippers for children either.

@freemo @olives Well I'll be the first to admit the right wing can go too far at times. Which is why I'm wondering if DeSantis has going too far in this respect.

Book bans, for example, is an adjacent issue. On one hand, for all I know pearl-clutching conservatives are in fact banning all books that give any kind of insight into what life is like as a person of color in America today. But moving a book that depicts child rape from the children's section to the adult section isn't a "ban", and it seems like every time I look into a specific ban, it's more like the latter, not the former.

For what it's worth, I checked my local library in conservative suburban Texas and it still carries Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

@freemo @PBruce @olives this is a Shiri's Scissor kind of a thing? I have no idea what in that post triggered that. Interesting🤔