The people who produce and distribute [pornography] should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
— Project 2025
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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The age old question: what is porn? One person’s porn is another person’s erotica or art. A long time ago, I read a rant in a magazine from a RW nut. He said if he ran the world, the first thing he would do is destroy that “disgusting, pornographic statue of David by Michelangelo.” Then he would destroy “all that filthy, so-called art in those degenerate European museums.” Even the art showing Christian themes because nudity is automatically pornographic. Yes, he wanted to knock down the Sistine Chapel.
Now, the porn boogie man is anything LGBTQA+, anything about sex education, anything about health (HIV prevention, birth control). I’m starting to see this has nothing to do with protecting kids and everything to do with controlling people and the culture.
I am ashamed to admit that I struggle with an online pornography addiction, in addition to being a devout Catholic. When I have relapsed in the past, PornHub is the site I use, since it is easily accessible. Thankfully, I have remained abstinent for several months now. This is something that is very difficult for me to talk about on this page, but I feel it is relevant to the topic. As I said earlier, this is a habit I am very much ashamed of. My prior use has all involved the use of legal adult pornography. When I do relapse, I suffer more than just good old fashioned Catholic guilt. I suffer physical and mental affects from what essentially is a multi-day binge of doing nothing but watching pornography. This addiction is a real thing, and it causes real pain. It is not anything to joke about or laugh at. I no longer judge people with a drug or alcohol addiction, because I know the effects of having a compulsive/addictive personality.
There was a book written about PornHub, called “Takedown” by Laila Mickelwaite. She began her legal action against PornHub when she discovered that a good deal of their “tube” pornography that had been uploaded was either done without the consent of the woman depicted, or involved obvious underage participants, despite the page notice warning anyone against uploading illegal content. This is a good book to read about the abuses of PornHub. She is not a religious zealot, nor is she an overly conservative person, even though the executives and lawyers for Pornhub tried to depict her in this light.
I say this because the pornography issue is not black and white. Do I believe internet pornography should be totally banned? No, absolutely not. We are not North Korea, Nazi Germany or Communist China. Despite my own personal addiction issues, that is my cross to bear, not everyone else’s. Do I believe sites like PornHub need a lot more oversight? If what Laila wrote is true, and from what happened to Pornhub there is good reason to believe it is, then I absolutely believe sites like these need to regulated and punished when they fail to properly monitor the content that is uploaded.
However, the most destructive pornography is illegally produced and shared using covert peer to peer encrypted email. This is already illegal and is regularly prosecuted (just read some “Black Collar Crime” posts to find out how many “good men of God” were doing alot of “exhaustive research” into illegal pornography).
So I think the best approach is to just enforce the laws already on the books. Pornhub engaged in a pattern of deliberate illegal activity. Prosecute those responsible (the problem is they are based out of Toronto). Prosecute those who create and purposely dispense illegal pornography. Expose those who intentionally and habitually view it, while also mandating that they get mental health counseling.
Prohibiting pornography will just cause a scrupulosity epidemic like Obstacle described. A lot of Renaissance artwork has nudity. Are we going to go after that next, Cultural Revolution style? Pretty soon we won’t have any art left. Just empty pedestals.
Frankly, we have a lot more pressing issues both foreign and domestic than to be worrying about what all the evangelical men in Texas are watching on Google incognito after their wives go to bed.
So….does than mean we should also ban Presidents who sleep with porn stars and then pay them off to (try) to shut them up? Yah know…since they’re the party of “family values” and all that shit.
Jen the evangelical MAGA-stapo are most likely some of biggest hypocrites in this regard, with their own secret world of using online porn, as well as their minimization of Dear Leader’s past conduct. I distinctly remember an evangelical Pastor, being interviewed by a media outlet during the 2016 election, describing Trump’s audio comment about “grabbing them by the p—-y” as a “mulligan”..like his very un Christ-like comment was the same as a damn mistake in a golf match.
This isn’t about helping people who are victimized by pornography, it’s about controlling people’s freedom to decide. The pornography that is already illegal (involving minors) and websites that do not adequately monitor their content is where the focus should be.