Neurath's Boat

A terrible idea with bipartisan support

I feel like I should be posting more philosophy, but I should be posting more total, so I'm going to go on record as being fiercely opposed to this new FOSTA bill. As with most measures billed as combatting "sex trafficking," it conflates trafficking with sex work generally. As usual, existing law provides plenty of ways to prosecute those who employ actual coercion or underage sex workers; such people are in fact often caught, unless they are themselves police (as happens disturbingly often) or at least armed with some kind of official protection. Another way they get caught is that organizations like Backpage cooperate with police investigations, making valuable evidence (concerning how a particular ad was paid for, enabling authorities to figure out who placed it) available in the extremely rare cases where their ads do involve underage or coerced victims. As is so often the case, the new law will push the truly bad actors further underground, making it harder rather than easier for the police to catch them, while similarly forcing voluntary adult sex workers further underground, where they will be more vulnerable to harassment and violence.

The NRA boycott

On facebook and on my blog feeds I've been seeing a lot of enthusiastic discussion of pressuring banks, or Amazon, or advertisers, or whoever to stop doing business with the NRA or with gun manufacturers. Discussions like this,or links to such discussions. And I'm against all of it. I don't want Amazon to stop selling books that talk about the Armenian genocide because they offend Turks or the Turkish government, I don't want banks to stop dealing with abortion providers or Planned Parenthood because it offends pro-lifers, and I don't like it that banks already often refuse to deal with sex work (even if what they do is legal, like porn actors) or any part of the legal marijuana industry in order to avoid controversy. And if I don't want causes I disagree with to be able to get away with trying to exert that sort of pressure, for consistency I must oppose the use of such pressure for causes I agree with as well. And I do.