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  • If that legitimately happens and makes it into law in a broadly enforceable way rather than a "this person who I don't like was caught checks notes watching porn! book em!", which is definitely what it would be like basically every law that came before it, I guarantee that the government would collapse within about three weeks if less. Which I think is maybe a good rule of thumb, that if your law would collapse society if it were enforced equally, it should not be a law.

    Do not underestimate the power of the gooners when they are kept from the goon.

    • These laws will never be used against those who are passing them.

    • I guarantee that the government would collapse within about three weeks if less.

      Oh sure. Famously, whenever a worksite implements a blacklist on pornographic websites, the workers immediately begin screaming and flailing and eating each others faces.

      Do not underestimate the power of the gooners

      Generally speaking, the power of the gooner is to compile 500 TB of questionably legal pornographic data on a PLEX server in their basements and ride out the porn-pocolypse as a bunch of horny hermits.

      But the theory that this is going to be the last straw and hordes of angry horny dudes are going to take to the streets in a mass labor action is about as likely as the one where Tech Bros were going to take to the streets over Net Neutrality or women were going to have a sex boycott over the Abortion Ban or the hippies were going to tear down Wall Street over the drug war.

      Americans are shockingly pliant and far more prone to simply turn to black market cartels than actively resist policing.

      • I was being hyperbolic, but, a famous part of the prohibition was the organized crime which was both kind of naturally occurring at the time and was created specifically to traffic booze. Illegal material can't be protected by legal means, obviously, and so in order to trade it, you basically have to create your own police force, your own privatized military. a gang, a mob. That's how we got nascar and shit, the rumrunners. If you made porn illegal, I'd imagine it would just be added as kind of another form of valuable property which would be traded around by gangs which would see increased power and are kind of inherently anti-institutional. So, turning to black market cartels is a form of resisting policing, it's a form of anti-institutional action, I'd say, as it gives more economic power to anti-institutional organizations.

        I'd also say, you know, I mean, the hippies did go to wall street in 2008, so that's something. We had the big liberal feminist pussy hat shit sometime after that, which I'm not as familiar with. More recently we had BLM which was possibly the highest level of street marching we've seen basically ever, and then we've seen like two riots to try and overturn elections, one of which was successful. We've seen more recent campus protests which are still constantly ongoing despite a lack of media attention. I don't think it's as absurd as you think, that something kind of stupid like porn getting banned might be the tipping point, especially considering the pretty steady upward trend that we've seen with political action concerning other somewhat disconnected issues.

        • a famous part of the prohibition was the organized crime which was both kind of naturally occurring at the time and was created specifically to traffic booze

          Quite a few political families profited handsomely from alcohol prohibition. The Kennedys are probably the most famous, but the political system was rife with corruption. If you've ever watched Boardwalk Empire, the story was based on the notorious Atlantic City sheriff Enoch Johnson.

          So, turning to black market cartels is a form of resisting policing, it’s a form of anti-institutional action, I’d say, as it gives more economic power to anti-institutional organizations.

          The ability to selectively enforce prohibition gives you ample opportunity to profit from the gaps in the system. Sex work has long had a relationship with local politicians and police, and I have no doubt that criminalization of porn would create an huge market for kickbacks to enforcement organizations.

          • The ability to selectively enforce prohibition gives you ample opportunity to profit from the gaps in the system.

            It's like 12 at night for me so this might be a little bit rambly and stupid, be prepared:

            Yeah, that's pretty true, but I also mentioned that to some extent in my OP, that selective enforcement is the case with basically every law that has ever existed. I'm not really a stranger to the institutional fuckery that happens in the illegal market either, gary webb and allat, but also the classic uncontrollable mexican government drug cartel shenaniganery. I just also think, maybe to the core of what I'm getting at, that people shouldn't also be like, immediately snap judgement in terms of condemning illegal action on the basis of it's illegality necessarily. The black panthers collapsed and all the other civil rights organizations that were around at the time. MLK probably got assassinated by the feds, Fred Hampton definitely did, I think Malcolm X probably also did, but those organizations, or so I am told, didn't dissolve immediately, they just began a long process of ostracization and alienation and probably atomization as suburban poverty increases more recently, until they basically just became normal gangs, as they were engaging in illegal activity before, and selling drugs, or illegal property, is a quick way to make cash to fund ventures. I dunno I still need to find a good place to watch "the bastards of the party", I think that documentary has something to say about that. Also never heard of boardwalk empire

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