Quote:
Originally posted by Mojo_PeiPei
Censorship is fucked up, but what I never understood was how is pornography protected by the first amendment? Its not press, and its not speech, its fucking, not art, its fucking. Can anyone enlighten me?
|
For reference:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
--
Where's the part about art? Clearly the writers of this document wanted a degree of ambituity, or were at least okay with it. There's not even anything about your right to have a religion or worship, just that the state will not enforce one. There are limits to all forms of expression including pornographic ones. One of the big reasons american-made/bought porno is so boring is the limits placed on content. Checkout european/foreign produced or older american fare for anything but a very few rote postitions/situations. Try looking sometime at the legal codification and registrations that precede all porn sold state-to-state.
The question is whether porn, or a particular level of porn, is morally acceptable to your community, whatever that might be. States choose to enforce anti-porn laws at their discression. In some southern states its damn hard to come by. Ashcroft and his ilk would like it to be damn hard to come by everywhere in the country. I'm old enough to remember when Kentucky was making a fuss about pron traveling through their fair state on the internet.
The truth is though that Ashcroft and the Right don't have a very good sense of America's moral values. I'm convinced of that. If anything our standards on this issue need to be relaxed not enforced.