A video made by Reason.tv found at my conservative counterpart Donald Douglas' site American Power, posted without commentary because Don supposedly hates the encroachment of government into our personal lives (like any good tea partier) yet also thinks there are things it should protect adults from for our own good (like any good Republican), hence the lack of a stated opinion either way. Regardless though what's happening to John Stagliano in America today is a crime not only against personal liberty but also against free speech rights. Yes, pornography is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. I don't know about you but I'm having a hard time hearing the shouts of outrage from anti-government, personal freedom loving tea party types when it comes to protecting the civil liberties of people like this man:
Friday, July 16, 2010
Obscenity vs Freedom Of Expression
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2 comments:
We had a case of an asylum seeker who did hairdressing work on porn films in Iran....
She was in fear for her life because you can be killed for breaking obscenity laws there. In her case the Refugee Review Tribunal accepted evidence from the Department of Foreign Affairs that people involved in the making of pornographic films faced the death penalty if they returned.
Now... 32 years in prison, which is what Stagliano was facing, is approaching that league of severity.
If the charges hadn't been dismissed... what kind of precedent would that have set...?
Anyone making any film more challenging than Free Willy would be looking over their shoulder. Horror films - most of which I like less than porn - would have been next.
I take particular and acute exception to Gail Dines when she says porn is 'hijacking our sexual culture'.
I can't stand the presumption implicit in someone seeking to own, or at least control, 'culture'.
Cultures are not castles on a hill. I'm very aware of an entire storm front of Right-wing thought that actively asserts otherwise... but ultimately culture is the accumulation of what people choose to do, choose to like and choose to create.
I'm all for protecting 'traditions'. Very much so. But that is not the same thing.
By the way, that video does present all sides... maybe AmPow agrees with you more than you think.
I was willing to give Don the benefit of the doubt magpie, but his track record to date would suggest that I do otherwise.
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