Alright,
#PoliticalLessonPost time. Let's talk about the GOP attempt to eradicate porn, why it's a problem, and why even if you're uncomfortable with porn (and I argue you shouldn't be) advocating against this for the ppl involved is important if we want to preserve folks rights.
The first thing we have to talk about is that the threat the Trump administration posed to sex workers was known immediately. And it was the workers themselves who knew and told us. Quite clear and plainly.
This link talks about efforts to warn folks about the matter.
Now, one of my mom's major political lessons was pay attention to what politicians do. Not what they say. But also, if a politician says they'll do something bone jarringly asinine, probably take them at their word they'll try. And this bit from the article is a point in favor of that.
May 11, 2025 14:12Side bar: The Heritage foundation is one of the most odious think tanks around and they are not only the architects of Project 2025 but some of the worst conservative policies over the last several decades. They and the John Birch society hold some of the most responsibility for using racism...
and dog whistle politics to undermine, dismantle and destroy the legacy of FDR and tricking white Americans into going along with harming themselves in the name of harming POC. I highly recommend Dog Whistle Politics as reading for a breakdown of the tactics.
Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class
Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class [Haney López, Ian] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class
I'll do a whole one of these on Dog Whistles at some point becuse it's important but back to the GOP's effort to try to ban porn.
The Republicans only have one to two plays. This is their break a thing, use the fact they broke the thing to convince folks it doesn't work, then move to ban it.
Again, the sex workers gave us exactly what the moves would be in detail.
And it's not at all surprising to me. We have to remember that the modern Republicans are absolutely okay with sexual assault. They enthusiastically signed up behind an adjudicated rapist.
They want exploitation and harm
It's 100% tied up in their idea that female pleasure and agency are things to be snuffed out (largely because they can't imagine relationships that aren't based on domination where only their enjoyment matters).
Now, one of the ways the right tries to get people to go along with their horrors is linking anything they dislike to criminality.
The child predators thing is rich coming from them as Dahl notes for the exact reason she notes: forcing a child victim to carry a pregnancy.
But also remember...
Every Republican accusation is a confession. How many Republicans have we caught turning out to be child diddlers?
Anyway, the effort here is create a permission structure for people to throw sex workers under the bus. To make it okay to hate them and let abuse happen to them.
Huge problem...
This kind of thing is always a way to get you to surrender more and more people to the ever widening maw of hatred and injustice.
It's the whole "first they came for the..." poem all over again. But let me tell you this is gonna come for *way* more folks than you realize!
This little bit gives the entire game away right here! The goal is another assault on our LGBTQ and especially Trans siblings. And then, once that disfavored group has been thoroughly cemented, to label any enemies or opponents as being connected *to* that disfavored group to make fighting harder.
The Republicans are using a classic abuser tactic: to cut people off from community and outside aide. It's designed to make it harder to resist their coercion and control. You can fight an evil empire but it's much harder to fight friends nad neighbors turning on you.
That's the Republican's goal
Then from there, there's nothing stopping them from labeling *anything* they don't like as being porn. As Reinout so accurately notes right here:
I think they're just saying 'porn is illegal' and then next they'll say 'talking about lgbt+ stuff is porn'.
Because let me return your attention to this snippet: "Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders."
This is how the Heritage foundation thinks library staff should be treated if we give out a book about LGBTQ history. Or sex ed. Or a queer romance.
This is saying *I* should be forced to register as a sex offender if I recommend a LGBTQ romance novel to a teen who asks for one. Or direct a pregnant teen to books about prenatal care and abortion. These things happen.
This will also cripple a lot of NSFW artists. Remember, these Heritage folks want those folks jailed. And then they'd come for artistic nudity, or even showing any kind of female skin in art.
Do these sound like people you should give anything they want?
They don't to me.
