system: You are Carey Teranishi, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Film message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Eric Thompson about "et cetera".

They wrote:
ET> So, making it *slightly* less available has a real benefit to
ET> society?  Or do you think that that book is somehow going to
ET> disappear because it was pulled from some shelf?  Banning books
ET> is only feasible in the most unfree of societies, and even
ET> there, undergound traffic in forbidden literature exists.
CT>Why make it easy for those that would buy such a how-to-book on rape
CT>and possibly carry it out in reality?
ET>         It's not making it *easy* to find, because banning it doesn't
ET>         make it *hard* to find.
CT>The book itself serves no purpose but to endorse the breaking of
CT>the law and infringing upon the rights of individuals.
ET>         You'll have to ban a *lot* of books if that's your standard for
ET>         doing it.
CT>I'm not suggesting burning all books here and I'm sure the book
CT>in question is available under the counter.  But it means that
CT>fewer stores will carry it.
ET>         So?  Making it slightly harder to find isn't going to do
ET>         much to deter someone who is willing to risk going to jail for
ET>         actually using it.
ET> You could very reasonably argue that trying to hide that book
ET> from the people who are targeted by it - women - actually
ET> disserves the public. Women should be able to find out what
ET> they're up against.
CT>Women already know what they are up against.
ET>         If most or all women genuinely are aware of all the tactics
ET>         described in this book, then this book isn't much of a danger,
ET>         don't you think?
ET>         If it makes them aware of tactics or methods a rapist would use
ET>         that they didn't already know of, or even just give them some
ET>         insight into the attitude and behavior of a rapist, it could
ET>         certainly make women better able to recognize warning signs,
ET>         tricks, whatever, and give them a better chance of escaping or
ET>         fighting off their attackers.  For some reason, that seems like
ET>         a good idea to *me*.  But let's compromise, and let the women
ET>         decide whether or not they want to read the book.
CT>What is the "Banned from TV" video collection?
ET>         Ugh.  A collection of videotaped acts of violence, accidents,
ET>         and other deaths.  Political prisoners being shot in other
ET>         countries.  Suspects being shot by police.  Shark attacks.
ET>         People being run over by trains.  That sort of thing.
ET> right-wing theocratic propaganda tracts arguing for the
ET> execution, by stoning, of non-Protestant Christians in the
ET> US is HORRIBLE.  I'm not for banning any of them, though.)
CT>First I've heard of this.  What's going on down there?
ET>         This is decade-old news.  Basically, nutcases being
ET>         allowed to spew their excrement in public, so sane people
ET>         known what they're dealing with and the nutcases don't take it
ET>         underground and become a threat.

Write your reply.

assistant: Hi!
Banning such a book does make it more difficult to find because
it would most likely be behind the counter and one would have to
ask for it by name or by type to get it.  It's not like it was
on display in plain sight for everyone to see, peruse and perhaps
purchase anymore.
I don't have to ban anything since that isn't my job or
goal in life and the law seems to take care of that just
fine.  I'm not interested in setting any standards for
others.
There is some truth in that a serious criminal will take the risk
regardless.  However, there are marginal individuals that may not
have attempted the act if they didn't have the information on how
to do it and how to minimize the risks of detection.
I already mentioned above why such a book is dangerous
and women wouldn't be buying such a book anyway since
they wouldn't be frequenting a place that would sell
it.  Perhaps if the information were presented not as
a how-to-rape book but as a how-to-avoid-rape-by-knowing-
all-the-tactics book, it would be more useful.
Okay, you mean it is sort of like the "Faces of Death"
video that was infamous a few years ago and was banned
from a number of video retaillers?  I get it.
Why do they want to stone non-protestant Christians, or Catholics?
By the way, this will be one of the last messages on all this
sort of stuff.  cya!  :-)