Reason takes on obscenity

While the video is about John Stagliano, There are a few points that need to be highlighted here.

First, the video hits on the fact that porn that uses children in its production is evidence of a separate crime and can be prosecuted independent of obscenity laws.  In other words, obscenity laws don’t protect children because the production of porn using children is illegal without obscenity laws.

Secondly, anyone with the intellect of a fifth grader could see that the First Amendment does not include any exemption for obscenity.  The words are just not there.  The Supreme Court invented that concept and the American public swallowed it just like Winston Smith finally accepted that 2+2=5 (except Winston Smith had the backbone to resist it for as long as he could).

The video points out that Lady Chatterley’s Lover was originally banned in the U.S. despite the First Amendment.  The lesson to be learned by that is that the First Amendment has absolutely no power of itself to protect anything if the public is unwilling to stand up for it.  In general, the public does not stand up for it.  A few civil rights organizations regularly defend it in court, but the voting public is often of the opinion that offensive speech does not deserve to be protected.

Finally, as we see in this case, one of the biggest defenders of the First Amendment happens to be one of the more reviled industries in the country: the porn industry.  Something to think about next time you hear someone disparaging pornography as being a destructive vice unworthy of respect.  The government knows that it can persecute the porn industry with impunity because the public doesn’t care.  And while it’s convenient to think of the porn industry as an impersonal monolithic entity, it consists entirely of ordinary people who, like the rest of us, simply work to earn a living.  I can think of a lot better uses for my tax dollars than beating up on them.

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