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Do you consider the right to be forgotten a human right? Why or why not? (lemmy.wtf)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was watching a Joe Scott video about the Somerton Man, and at one point he mentions it's believed he just wanted to be forgotten.

I've met a lot of people who are like this. They feel too dysphoric about their life and are eager to see the day when their families all pass away or have memory loss so that the worst parts of their life aren't in other peoples' heads anymore. It's sad.

There are a lot of things we consider rights by default. There's a right to a burial. There's a right to a last meal. There's a right to a will. Some of these have people who philosophize about them but most are taken for granted.

Do you think there's a right to be forgotten? How much do you validate it? What's your reasoning?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean, doesn't that imply the existence of natural rights outside of our social agreement they exist? I think there's lots in history that runs counter to that assumption.

So, reinterpreting a bit, should we have a right to be forgotten? On the one hand, that sounds nice. I've fucked up a lot in my life, and as long as someone remembers it feels like it's permanent. On the other, there's all kinds of academic arguments to preserve everything. Who knows what brilliant anthropological research you could do in 3000AD with the time someone overheard teenage me smack-talking their baby? (Only semi-/s)

I guess my main instinct is that once a right is established, it should be hard to get rid of. For that reason, I'm going to say no, not without an overwhelming argument for it. I still like legislation that allows you to withdraw your information from services, but that's more because I don't trust the services (practically and in abstract) than for a deep philosophical reason.