Yesterday's online Exeter Uni debate about #sexwork was yet another reminder that the prohibitionist people are utterly irrational, driven by some kind of primal rage rather than knowledge of the realities...
They must have to regularly sit in debate situations against opponents who destroy every shred in their arguments, yet they come back and do it all again
Time after time, they rely on second hand anecdotes or arguments like "the presence of money removes consent". Weird
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As a leftie, I used to lean towards cultural relativism, though coming from a family of immigrants, and living in inner London, I was always a sceptical about it. It's a cool idea if you only hang around with "nice", white, middle-class people. But doesn't translate to reality
As a Jew, the first thing to deal with growing up was that Germans (and Poles, French, Hungarians) had managed to wipe out a large proportion of my family. While the Danes, Brits and Irish had protected us. Were we to believe that these were equally good cultures?
And then seeing my West Indian friends come to school with belt marks. And knowing that the father of the Sikh girl I fancied kept a sword near the door, and would chase me with it if he saw me walking with his daughter
For no particular reason, here's a short thread on how my book Porn Panic was born, in difficult circumstances...
I had long planned to write a book on the politics and economics of pornography. In 2012, my business closed and my partner got pregnant (the former wasn't planned, the latter was). I always enjoyed solo travel, and realised this might come to an end when my son was born
I also realised that I would be unlikely to start my book once we had a baby at home (based on prior experience with my first son, I knew I'd be tired and uncreative for some time)
The kids are finally back at school. 🍾 (thread)
Without exaggeration, a lot of parents I've met this week (here in one of London's poorest areas) are traumatised by the last 6 months. Teenagers have gone missing and been returned by police - some of them recruited by drug gangs
Domestic violence has been widespread. Children are suffering anxiety. The dread that classes might close again if there's a single case of Covid is often expressed. People, especially single mothers, and especially those with mental health issues are beyond breaking point 2/6
Anecdotally, there's been a surge of badly injured children admitted to hospital. The education system has simply failed to do its job: not just education, but being a safe, protective place for children living in terrible circumstances 3/6
Predictably: as time progresses, Sweden looks ever more like a winner. Our governments (almost all of them) need to admit they got it wrong, and go to Stockholm for advice
Comparatively, this is what you get when you lock down
I lost good friends when BLM was founded. They were often religious people whose religion was weakening. They switched their old cult for a new one. BLM offers the equivalent of prayer. Raise a fist for a fallen martyr - Eric Garner, George Floyd, whoever...
These friends were not political activists. They didn't dig into BLM's manifesto, or the views of its founders. They took the slogan as its programme. For me to reject BLM meant (to the cult) that I was rejecting the proposition that black lives matter...
They took at face value the myth that racist American cops were out of control, gunning down black people just because they could. To deny the myth - and provide evidence that it was a myth - would simply push you into the camp of the enemy
How anti-sex feminism plus wokeism = Apartheid... a thread
The pioneers of radical feminism, most obviously Andrea Dworkin, tried to establish the idea that all (straight) sex was a violation of women's rights...
They reasoned as follows: given that their mythical Patriarchy ruled the world, then all sex was between the ruler and the subject, or the coloniser and the colonised. Therefore it could never, ever, be consensual...
Although Dworkin is kinda embarrassing to modern feminists, they have turned her ideas into action via the vast overreach of the #MeToo movement, which establishes that men can be punished for sex, or even sexual advances, years after the fact...