Well the FBI has a new priority task group. Their job ? To crack down on porn. Kiddie porn you say? Oh no. They are after the more questionable practices that take place between consenting adults. BDSM for example and other more riske sexual acts. Things which are unquestionably repugnant to a large number of people. The litmus test being applied for this Task group is cracking down on so called Obscene materials is one which has been employed before with a not so stellar track record. For example once upon a time perfectly 'normal' sexual acts pictured between interacial couples was considered obscene for one particularly poignant example. This is not a doctrine with a good history. It is one that has often been the rallying call of moral pundits up on their high horse trying to reign in all the "rampant indecency" that so offends them.
The idea here is to apply the so called community standard that recieved its strongest test in the case of the People vrs Larry Flynt. If there is no redeeming value then it is declared obscene and thus is declared off limits/ illegal etc... The thing is if people are buying it then you might just have to consider that they find value in it. Essentially that is what wound up being determined in the case againt Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt. In otherwords they decided that there was no accounting for some peoples taste.
America's schizo relationship with porn is nothing new. What people say in the light of day and then do in the privacy of their own home have long since parted ways. Porn is a multibillion dollar industry which last year made more money than all professional sports franchises combined. That is, as a society, we spend more on purient pursuits than we do on sports. And not a small portion of this money is spent seeking out the new 'obscene' targets of this task group.
In deffense of this effort a new conservative writer by the name of Benjamin Shapiro has tossed in this diatrab .
I loved this particular bit right here.
Plainly it is not governmental inefficiency these agents are worried about. They find the anti-pornography crowd disturbing because they believe that policing pornography violates fundamental rights. This has become the dominant view in our society: As long as what I do doesn't harm you personally, I have a right to do it. It's a silly view and a view rejected by law enforcement policies all over the country. Were we to truly recognize such a philosophy, we would have to legalize prostitution, drugs and suicide – as well as the murder of homeless drifters with no family or friends. After all, if someone kills a homeless drifter, how does that affect anyone else? Consent should make no difference here – that's an imposition of your values. Just because a murderer offends your moral sensibilities doesn't give you an excuse to impose your subjective values on a society
We would have to legalize prostitution, drugs, suicide as well as the murder of homeless drifters without family ????? Hold on their a minute Mr. Shapiro, that is what they call a classic slippery slope argument. Not to mention Killing someone is clearly violating their rights so it dosn't even fit the discription you are trying to slip it in as. So no one here is suggesting that we should ok the killing of homeless drifters... or genocide due to moral relativity as he later goes on to indicate are possible results of this dangerous idea that if something dosn't hurt others it should be allowed. If you don't believe me go read it yourself, thats why I put the link up there.
While I would like to say that this absurd line of argument whereby Mr. Shapiro exits stage left from rational thought largely invalidates his enitre discourse I am left unable to. He starts out well enough with the issues of such things as Drugs, Prostitution and Suicide. All excellent fringe freedom issues.
There are plenty of issues surrounding the Porn industry that could be tackled by such a task force. But deciding whether or not depictions of certain sexual acts between consenting adults should be allowed is not one of them. That is for the people to decide for themselves and as the courts found in the case against Larry Flynt... there just is no accounting for some peoples taste. Instead there are plenty of very legitimate issues for the task force to focus on. Such as the hiring of underaged performers. Drugs used for the express purpose of lowering inhibitions IE like rupinal in date rape scenarios and any number of other issues of the underbelly of a very seedy industry. Issues which need not require the FBI to get involved in deciding what it is ok for consenting adults to do to each other on film for the entertainment of others.
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