Sigh… there has to be something we can use to blow them out of the water aside from calling out the fallacious nature of it. I’ve never been a fan of “cultural harm” as a means to justify censorship, wherein the justification is the thoughts themselves. That approach in and of itself undermines the very prospect of freedom and it makes me very depressed to think about. It reminds me of North Korea.
This will be perhaps the biggest test of faith ever. Otherwise I may just learn Japanese or Danish and immigrate. I’m not into the dolls or even porn. I just want to live in a free country where I shouldn’t have to second-guess my own thoughts.
Fingers crossed on the study, though. hopefully there are others available to step up. I’m hoping it doesn’t seem biased, but we have other bits of literature to use, namely the ones for pornography consumption and Danish study showing that virtual/fictional CP having no causal relationship.
There’s an overwhelming lack of consensus with this realm of science on the effects of pornography, as well as research into pedophilia and sex abuse.
I’m very glad this charity exists. it helps me sleep at night.
I can’t live in a society that enforces draconian censorship and restrains the hearts and minds of its people.
Alright.
I’ve figured that I should bump this thread up so that way it maintains visibility, as well as re-addressing some of the fallacious points raised by @Gift_For_All (even though they were banned for violating the forum rules).
There actually is evidence that it decreases crime.
The Milton Diamond studies actually documented a stark decrease in contact sexual offenses against adults and children where pornographic materials, including those which appealed to non-normative interests or child pornography.
Milton Diamond’s findings aren’t the only one’s which show this inverse correlation.
This is the same line of reasoning that racists used when defending laws targeting racial minority groups were being reassessed. Conservative and racist groups argued prosecutorial discretion was needed so that way certain use cases or scenarios intrinsically linked to racial or cultural standing would receive sound enforcement (interracial sexual violence) while appeasing liberal reformist/progressive groups by turning a blind eye to cases where, they argued, racial and cultural standing were not relevant.
Deference to the arbiter of prosecutorial discretion in matters of obscenity does not change the fact that obscenity laws, like laws targeting interracial marriage or common law which proscribed disproportionate penalties to racial or ethnic minority groups, are unjustified and unconstitutional.
There is simply no rationale by which the obscenity doctrine can continue to exist. It is a blatant violation of fundamental civil liberties and serves no valid purpose and serves no legitimate government or social interest that are based on proven fact.
This isn’t even true.
Texas and Alabama continue to target the sale and distribution of pornographic DVDs and sex toys and there has been an effort to target child-like sex dolls on both a federal and state level.
Revenge porn has been targeted via specified legislation that defines or classifies the nonconsensual dissemination of sensitive or intimate imagery and harassment laws, and the Constitutionality of revenge porn laws are uncertain, as the SCOTUS has refused to hear cases from states where these laws were challenged and struck down.
The death of the obscenity doctrine would have no bearing on the government’s ability to target “revenge porn”.
Abolish it.
As I’ve proven already, the doctrine is simply not compatible with our Constitution and is fundamentally antithetical to the ideals grounded therein. They are not grounded in fact, as studies have consistently failed to link pornography consumption of any kind with subsequent harm or the risk of it, and relevant laws do nothing to prevent or punish harm.
It will be gone by the end of this decade. Even conservatives know that they can’t maintain the facade.
This isn’t even true.
Back then, and even today, we still see politicians elected at all levels of governance, from municipality positions to state legislatures, to even Congress, who have expressed support for allowing individual states to decide whether interracial marriage should be allowed or recognized within that state, and the amount of conservatives who believe Obergefell v. Hodges should be overturned has not changed, as they do not recognize the legitimacy of gay marriage.
I come from a Southern state where racism was common. I grew up watching my own family members profess the virtues of racial equality while acting against those very virtues, expressing overt racial prejudices and perpetuating these cultural scourge by instilling them on my cousins and siblings.
Growing up, I was discouraged by my older relatives and neighbors, and in many cases, disallowed from socializing with black people outside of school, and when I did so anyway, I faced punishment or scolding and was fed awful stereotypes in an attempt to force me to accept their biases against my own better judgement, and I knew this type of behavior was nothing new.
Jesus Fucking Christ, I’m so, so sorry about these circumstances. I’m Virginian born and raised, the very state that featured that deplorable display at Charlottesville. I feel you, man. The local high schoolers protested mask mandates a couple months ago. Insanity, simple insanity…
I’m lucky that my father grew up around different people. Despite having racist cousins, he grew up on a military base in Germany with Americans of every color. When his fam moved to the States, he grew up close to the black ghetto, had lots of friends from there. He even has a very particular way of speaking he picked up from his friends. He sympathizes with black people being discriminated against because he remembers being discriminated against when visiting the ghetto. “Hey, whiteboy, where d’ya think you’re goin’?” His friends always defended him, and he always defended them from his cousins.
So yeah, he never got any racist bullshit instilled in him, and he never instilled it in me. The fact my sister and I am mixed race (albeit 3/4, 1/4) is a testament to this.