Pornography

[Churchman25]

I think most people would agree with this is that pornography should be made illegal in the united states. Because nothing good comes out of it religiously speaking and non religiously speaking like in society. I know that it is a huge money maker but law makers need some sense knocked into them. To make it illegal.

 

[anon67074017]

I would like pornography to be illegal. It is a leftist tool to bring down Christian culture. States have the right to ban the sale of pornography. That does not violate the Bill of Rights. Supporting a ban on pornography does not mean you are a fascist. It means that you are against the degeneration of culture.

 

[dshix]

I think most people would agree with this is that pornography should be made illegal in the united states. Because nothing good comes out of it religiously speaking and non religiously speaking like in society. I know that it is a huge money maker but law makers need some sense knocked into them. To make it illegal.

I agree.

 

[esieffe]

The US is to porn what Afghanistan is to poppies, so I doubt it will happen anytime soon. However… we COULD be doing a much better job mitigating and preventing some of the damage by nationwide awareness campaigns, including curriculum in High School and college health classes about the dangers of porn, especially the long term health consequences which include neurological damage.

If we could get state insurance regulators to require coverage for porn addiction treatment, that would be very helpful. Corporations should get in on the action; imagine the lost productivity to employees who are porn addicted, working from home and in the field.

Once you have things like that in place, it would give legislative initiatives traction they would not have right now.

 

[Beryllos]

Laws prohibiting porn aren’t going to do it. Look how effective drug laws are in the US. Pornography and illegal drugs will continue to be huge problems because the American people have such a demand for it. If nobody was interested in buying, nobody would be selling.

Just trying to brainstorm here: Why do people want pornography? What can be done to reduce the demand for pornography?

 

[AmericanFighter]

The Governments job is to protect our liberties not enforce morals. Porn is an ethics issue that is not for the government to ban. It is the churches job to encourage morals.

 

[Beryllos]

The Governments job is to protect our liberties not enforce morals.

No, the government’s job is to promote the common good, which sometimes goes against liberty. It could be argued (though I am not sure it would be persuasive to many Americans) that pornography brings harm to American society and the American people. If the American people called for anti-porn laws, the government might not be able to outlaw porn (prohibition might be unconstitutional), but they would probably tax it like tobacco and alcohol. It’s not going to happen, though, because the American people seem to be happy with porn.

 

[AmericanFighter]

No, the government’s job is to promote the common good, which sometimes goes against liberty. It could be argued (though I am not sure it would be persuasive to many Americans) that pornography brings harm to American society and the American people. If the American people called for anti-porn laws, the government might not be able to outlaw porn (prohibition might be unconstitutional), but they would probably tax it like tobacco and alcohol. It’s not going to happen, though, because the American people do not support it.

“common good” that’s your problem. Who decides what the common good? a Dictator? thats what a dictator does. It is up for the people to govern themselves and to decide what the common good is. We are all moral agents of society its up us not big brother government.

Also you guys are starting the story in the middle. As if there is a pre destine about of porn The core problem is not the porn but the morals of the people and the only to really fix the problem is to improve our morals. As you said its in demand and that is because of our morals.

 

[LittleScoty]

Laws prohibiting porn aren’t going to do it. Look how effective drug laws are in the US. Pornography and illegal drugs will continue to be huge problems because the American people have such a demand for it. If nobody was interested in buying, nobody would be selling.

Just trying to brainstorm here: Why do people want pornography? What can be done to reduce the demand for pornography?

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[dshix]

Laws prohibiting porn aren’t going to do it. Look how effective drug laws are in the US. Pornography and illegal drugs will continue to be huge problems because the American people have such a demand for it. If nobody was interested in buying, nobody would be selling.

Just trying to brainstorm here: Why do people want pornography? What can be done to reduce the demand for pornography?

I disagree with your argument in that the goal is to stop porn from being distributed. That’s not the point. The point is that it shouldn’t be legally sanctioned.

Murder is against the law. People still commit murder. Does that mean murder should be legally sanctioned? No.

Just because people are intent on buying/selling porn doesn’t mean the law should sanction it.

Now, aside from that, I agree with what you have to say. From the viewpoint of “how can we reduce the porn problem”, we really should be looking at realistic options of reducing the demand for porn by informing people of the damage it does.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Whoever wants pornography should be allowed to view it. There exists a certain perversion already in the viewer, and it is up to each viewer individually to eventually recognize their addiction. Such perversions must get worked out, not repressed into the unconscious where it acts as a conflict and produces other unwanted behavior. Working through this perversion can lead to great personal insight and allow the person grow much higher spiritually had the perversion never existed.

 

[exnihilo]

I agree. Pornography should be illegal. At the very least the government could force pornography sites to certain domains and require internet providers to allow blocking of these domains. This won’t stop it but it will help.

I don’t advocate big government, but we already have big government. It interferes with all areas of life but this one. The government successfully gets internet taxes. It for the most part got rid of online gambling. Yet it does nothing to stop pornography. That tells you what its priorities are. It will get involved when it stands to lose revenue. But it will do nothing to protect adults and children from filth.

Laws prohibiting porn aren’t going to do it. Look how effective drug laws are in the US. Pornography and illegal drugs will continue to be huge problems because the American people have such a demand for it. If nobody was interested in buying, nobody would be selling.

I agree in a general sense with your comments. I’m actually against the criminalization of drugs. We already have child pornography laws. Should we get rid of them for the same reason? I doubt most people would say yes.

I think pornography laws have more of a chance of making an impact. Back when you had to go to the store to get pornography that was somewhat of a deterrent. And I think the old obscenity laws did help keep it down. Now that you can get it instantly on your computer or phone we have no deterrent. Any deterrent, no matter how slight, might help in this case. I don’t think it will stop pornography but it could help. Nothing I said really takes away from the point about drug laws. I haven’t thought of a principled distinction to draw but I have an instinct that there is some difference, even if slight.

 

[1ke]

I think most people would agree with this is that pornography should be made illegal in the united states. Because nothing good comes out of it religiously speaking and non religiously speaking like in society. I know that it is a huge money maker but law makers need some sense knocked into them. To make it illegal.

It used to be illegal, maybe you are too young to remember that time.

Numerous constitutional challenge on first amendment free speech overturned bans, censorship efforts, and restrictive distribution/sale laws.

 

[on_the_hill]

Just curious: What’s the definition of pornography?

 

[mikekle]

I disagree with your argument in that the goal is to stop porn from being distributed. That’s not the point. The point is that it shouldn’t be legally sanctioned.

Murder is against the law. People still commit murder. Does that mean murder should be legally sanctioned? No.

The problem with that is, the laws are not effective…if you create a new law and 50 yrs down the road, you are still dealing with people who are willing to break that law, it just means the law is not effective and must be changed. You cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

Strangely, this is only done with some crimes/laws, like prescription drug laws, once they were found to be ineffective, they were changed/ altered to give them more teeth, but other laws, like murder, DUIs, traffic laws, etc. even though countless people are willing to break these laws, they are not made to be more effective…??

So, I guess the real question would be, why are some laws changed to be effective and others left as they are?

There is plenty they could do to slow down or stop porn, but making it illegal would only benefit the criminal, as porn would go way up in price and create an entirely new criminal cartel to meet the demand.

 

[Solmyr]

Just curious: What’s the definition of pornography?

This is the crucial problem. Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it) “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description “hard-core pornography”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.[4]”
To try to regulate, not to mention to make something illegal which cannot be precisely defined is a nightmare. And, of course “porn” cannot be defined. One person’s disgusting “porn” is someone else’s “artistic expression” of physical love.

There is only one advice we can give to those who don’t like “porn”: close your eyes and go on. And don’t forget the event of the “great castration”. I have been in the Vatican museum, and saw the result of the barbaric mutilation of beautiful ancient statues.

 

[TheDoctor]

Just curious: What’s the definition of pornography?

Sorry, don’t really understand the “” - but for those who don’t know, it is defined in the Catechism:
2354 *Pornography *consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.
On a secular level, what we call pornographic is more properly classed as obscenity. The Supreme Court has defined it this way:

1. A thing must be prurient in nature
2. A thing must be completely devoid of scientific, political, educational, or social value
3. A thing must violate the local community standards
   If it meets all three of these things, it is obscenity.

 

[Churchman25]

Porn should be illegal and in my view it should be classified as something along the lines of a drug because of how it affects the brain. It is especially harmful to young population. If the U.S. is not going to make it illegal they could certainly put sanctions and restrictions on it to make it harder for people to obtain it. For example sites like youtube could start putting sanctions on their pornagraphic content to make it harder to view. Or companies like youtube could just rewrite their company policies and ban the stuff all together.

Apart from a government ban if more awareness is raised then I think that individual companies could implement their own bans on a corporate level.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I think most people would agree with this is that pornography should be made illegal in the united states. Because nothing good comes out of it religiously speaking and non religiously speaking like in society. I know that it is a huge money maker but law makers need some sense knocked into them. To make it illegal.

I don’t think most people agree porn should be made illegal. In fact I think it is a small small percentage who would really want that. I might, you might, but the vast majority of Americans would not ever want that to happen. Somebody is watching it…

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Just curious: What’s the definition of pornography?

Or as George Michael put it,
“What’s your definition of dirty baby? What do you consider pornograpgy?”