this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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I don't think the issue is simple distaste. It goes to the aggressiveness of solicitation. If my mailbox is overflowing with beaded curtains, I would still consider that a problem.
That's more market consolidation than censorship. Bigger and more profit-oriented pornographers can survive this rule in a way small fries can't. Even then, the so-called deregulated corners of the internet are the absolute worst of the lot when it comes to invasive advertising. Hell, the harshest criticisms of Google/Facebook/Microsoft atm is in how they've begun to adopt the advertising style of low-rent porn sites.
I agree that the Tipper/Hilary/Lieberman pearl clutching of the 80s and 90s was awful. And I'll happily spot you how attempts to censor and de-sexualize inevitably cultivated a class character (Skinamax and high end escorts are fine, but god forbid a poor person see a nipple during the Superbowl or get a BJ at a truck stop). We're seeing that come around again with the folks screaming "Pedophile" at every LGBTQ organizer. And I think Clinton herself has lived to regret the hysteria she helped fuel, after the Comet Pingpong hoax.
I'm right there with you. And I can't help but think the calls to End Smut would be curtailed significantly if billboards were - generally speaking - dismantled and made illegal.