Porn Politics

Statist politicians, religious extremists, and lots of other self-anointed socially conservative authoritarians think that it is their responsibility to dictate their personal cultural values to the rest of us. They’re constantly trying to scare us with their apocalyptic fantasies.

In my own lifetime during the 1950’s the statist whining was about rock and roll music and the terrible cultural damage being caused to teenagers by Elvis Presley’s hip movements. During the ‘60’s and ‘70’s it was the hippie culture and the War on Drugs., Sex drugs and rock & roll were leading us down a path to the end of civilization as we know it.  

These cultural statists never give up. They’re still whining today about the same crap. And they’re still trying their best to scare people. Statist lawmakers in Utah, for example, are about to designate pornography a public health crisis – an "epidemic."  Utah State Sen. Todd Weiler (R) has introduced a legislative resolution that would recognize a range of “societal harms” from the pornography “epidemic.”

This idiot admits that pornography is protected by the First Amendment. Americans enjoy a constitutional right to look at porn. But Weiler wants to use his political office to promote his personal cultural values. “I’m hoping this will start educating people that pornography is actually addictive, that it’s harmful to families and relationships,” he declared. Sex, especially gay sex, is dirty he thinks, and gratuitous sex is dangerous and addictive.  

Well, if porn is addictive then so is stamp collecting, reading comic books, watching TV and eating ice cream. Any of those activities can be equally harmful to families and relationships. If porn is addictive then any activity is addictive and the word “addictive”  is losing its meaning. Statists use the word to invoke fear. They want impose their personal political and religious values on others.

It’s porn politics.