Dictator governments like China and Iran clamp down on people by restricting their use of communication technologies.Well, most governments, even those that are nominally democratic, like to restrict the use of communication technology, at least somewhat. China and Iran are certainly worse than many other nations in this, but it is a matter of magnitude, not of direction. That aside, this point is essentially true. (Also, Iran's not a dictatorship--it's an oligarchy.)
If Ohio bans text messaging while driving, it’s the same thing.No. The bans on communication nations like China put up are fundamentally different than a ban on text messaging while driving. The Great Firewall of China affects (or, rather is supposed to affect, but often fails) all people there, all the time. A ban on sending SMSes while driving a car does nothing of the sort. It's only targeted towards people in one very specific situation, where it has been shown to negatively affect safety. People can still text message as much as they want, saying whatever they want, they just can't do it in one circumstance, and the time cost of being able to legally text message again would be the time it takes to pull over to the side of the road. No harm is being done to anyone's right to speech or information.
China's and Iran's censorship uses technology to back up the law (i.e. they try to prevent people from accessing certain information by using more than just legal threats/punishments). However, the proposed Ohio ban would only use the force of law. They aren't going to modify the cell phone infrastructure to not allow one to send text messages while driving a car (if such a thing is even remotely feasible, which I doubt).
Are we headed to all-out socialism?This is just ridiculous. Socialism is primarily an economic movement/ideology. It doesn't have anything to do traffic laws. Contrary to what many in modern America would have us think, socialism is not equivalent to government doing something--anything, for some people.
There are some legitimate arguments against this proposed ban, but none of them are based on comparing it to authoritarian censorship policies a la China or calling it socialism. However, doing so does lead to some amusing idiocy.
I'm guessing this person also argued that universal healthcare=socialism, but medicare=/=socialism.
ReplyDelete