When I say “War on Porn”, I am not merely talking about some criminal statues that almost never get enforced and are borderline dead letters on a piece of document. I’m talking about widespread criminalization AND strict aggressive enforcement on par with that of the War on Drugs. It appears to me that punitive feminists and puritanical conservatives would love for something like this to happen. And actively seek for this nightmare to become reality. And I will explain why this is a terrible idea and a waste of time for them.
The war on porn is completely unwinnable. Even more so than the war on drugs. Supreme court through numerous rulings have determined this to be fact. Many courts around the world have made similar rulings. The authoritarian feminists and the puritanical right will never win. 18+ consensual sexual images are here to stay. Obscenity law which criminalizes viewing (over the net), distribution and creation of “obscene” pornography is almost never prosecuted. There are a few isolated incidents in which a criminal gets charged with obscenity in addition to their real criminal offenses. For example someone convicted of mutilating/torturing another person was also charged with some obscenity related law. But that is about it. The rulings to legalize pornography has already made our culture changed so much that the general view is this: If you are 18 or older, can consent to porn, even if it’s really weird!
The anti porn fanatics are trying to fight a conflict in which they will never win. The harm they do is likely to be minimal to the United States thanks to the Supreme Court ruling Pornography CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED SPEECH. Unlike the War on Drugs which did actually do uncalculatable amounts of harm to communities of black and Hispanic people. Which (ironically enough) gave torturous raping gangs such as the drug cartels unmatched power that they otherwise would have never had if drugs like marijuana and cocaine were legal and regulated for 18+.
Had the supreme court ruled the war on drugs as unconstitutional, drug warriors pushing carceral politics would had never been able to do the untold damage they did, both directly and indirectly. The United States would have NEVER exported it’s heinous war on drugs policies to the rest of the world. The predatory cartels that dominate Mexico would never have been born. Such a different world would exist, if only the Supreme Court had ruled prohibition of most drugs as unconstitutional.
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A Globalized War on Porn similar to the modern War on Drugs would be utterly disasterous and cause incalculatable levels of harms. Why the US Supreme Court and various courts around the world made the RIGHT CHOICE. Why Anti Porn Fanatics seeking a global ban on pornography will do harm on epic proportions! Just as the War on Drugs, and the War on Alchohol of the 1930s did.
The supreme court correctly ruled that pornography is protected speech. And that under 18s CANNOT consent to pornography. This is the proper ruling. And I cannot stress just how important this ruling is. Judging by the heavily carceral and punitive attitudes this country displays towards law breakers by the legislative branch, and the willingness to export cultural norms overseas. If it had been ruled bannable, there is a serious risk a “war on drugs” style policy would come into effect, spread like 4th stage terminal cancer and cause an enormous amount of harm not just to the United States, but abroad.
Yes, it’s true many countries do ban pornography without causing a huge porn gang problem, however, it’s very loosely enforced, and those seeking pornography are still able to access sites hosted in places where it is legal! I know no country where adult porn is banned that enforces that ban as strictly as the prohibition on drugs. NONE. However, as I said, given the punitive nature of American justice system… There is no guarantee that letting porn be bannable as constitutional would lead to a loosely enforced regime.
By keeping 18+ pornography legal, we allow the industry to be regulated, we keep predators like the various vicious cartels that exists in Mexico and abroad from having even more power. Because they must compete with the legal and regulated industries which do actually take effort to keep minors out. And this industry can indeed be regulated to take steps to reduce risks that actors are not manipulated or abused. Are some industries doing enough? No, nowhere nearly enough. But the fact is they can be held accountable and are accountable to governments and their costumers does allow us to keep them largely in the right track when it comes to weeding out abusive content. And it does deter them from using the money they earn for malicious purposes. A pornography industry ran by gangs like Los Zetas may not be as friendly or accountable.
Could you imagine the untold amounts of harm would happen if 18+ pornography were cracked down on just like drugs worldwide? The demand will still exist. People will still purchase pornography. But it won’t be the regulated industries websites that create it or monetize it. It will be the predators such as the Los Zetas drug Cartels that would have even more power than they do today who will produce pornography. But the “porn” they produce would be far less likely to be consensual. There would be little to stop them from trafficking tourists and natives to produce pornography. Furthermore, they won’t just stop at adults, what’s stopping them from trafficking teens under 18 and advertising them as adults? Nothing.
An actual prohibition and war on drugs style global attack on adult pornography would undoubtfully result in untold harms caused by both direct effects such as mass incarceration as well as indirect effects such as the fueling of black market pornography.