Subject:
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Re: What is spam? (was Re: Scary Survey results about the US First Amendment
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 11 Jul 2001 19:34:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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847 times
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I know this was a troll, but I thought I'd bite.
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Scott Arthur writes:
> > I think he was referring to your efforts to veer the debate
> > in an attempt to make First Amendment = Child Pornography.
> > Granted, there's room for a .debate there, but that's not the
> > crux of the matter (nor, technically, is it a problem with
> > the First Amendment--child porn is *illegal* in every state
> > of the US, and just because people still do it doesn't mean
> > that the First Amendment is to blame).
>
> Why is it illegal? Is it because the majority find it offensive, or because
> of the exploitation/harm to children? Perhaps both?
Certainly we tell ourselves that the children involved are deeply damaged by
the experience. I'm not so sure that it's just our squicky puritanical
knee-jerk doing that rationalizing sometimes. But of course it depends on what
you mean. Child pornography, as I understand it -- in the US, can mean a
snapshot of a naken six year old playing in the sprinkler or it can mean movies
of nine year olds being raped, or of fourteen year olds having consensual sex.
So what do _you_ mean? Or what do _we_ mean?
> If no exploitation/harm
> to childrenwas involved in any way, should it be available in a free
> society?
I think so. Further, I think that even _some_ degree of exploitation needs to
be tolerated. One could make a case that prostitutes are being exploited, but
I encourage our society to legalize prostitution. Heck, I'm being exploited by
my company, right? Or am I exploiting them? Or both? So we'd need some
deeper definition of exploitation too.
> Should the market be allowed to decide?
Maybe. If there is no victim, there is no crime.
Chris
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