Canaries in America's Coal Mine

Posted by Lex Konrad in Opinions | Oct 13, 2005

Yesterday I stated that the real target of American fundamentalists is not the porn industry but the mainstream media:

American fundamentalists are hoping to lay the legislative and judicial groundwork for a sweeping assault upon liberties most of us take for granted. Like, say, watching a racy television series or listening to music that contains offensive lyrics. Their vision of a child-safe world is, ironically, quite dangerous to adults.

As if to prove my point, yesterday the House passed yet another amendment to Regulation 2257, tucked away within the innocuous-sounding Children’s Safety Act, expanding Federal record-keeping requirements to include simulated sexual conduct of the sort you’ll find in many movies and television programs.

No big deal though, right? All the studios have to do is file the necessary paperwork. Not so fast:

The provision, written by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., could have ramifications beyond simply requiring someone to ensure that the names and ages of actors who partake in pretend lovemaking as compliance with Section 2257 in effect defines a movie or TV show as a pornographic work under federal law.

...

The 2257 provision also has ramifications beyond the artistic as a federal tax provision designed to stem runaway production is unavailable to anyone required to register a 2257. Many state incentives designed to entice filmmakers to shoot on location also contain similar language.

This presents the studios with rather unappealing options: 1) file the paperwork and risk losing federal and state incentives, 2) eliminate simulated sexual conduct entirely, 3) relocate to countries with more favorable laws. In any case, such a law will exact a heavy toll upon the American film industry.

I don’t know about the rest of you adults, but I certainly didn’t wait 21 years to have the full rights and privileges of adulthood—among them making my own decisions about what media to consume—only to have those rights and privileges taken away by the nanny state. Laws like these don’t protect the children (given the laws already on the books, child pornographers must by definition operate underground), they prevent us all from ever growing up.

If there’s a silver lining to this, it may be that people will finally wake up when the government comes for their Desperate Housewives or Sopranos. Even Red State America is going to have difficulty swallowing this Soviet-style media suppression.

There’s plenty of hand-wringing going on right now among sex-bloggers, writers, artists and people involved in the sex industry. People have begun censoring themselves or else pulling up stakes altogether. In the past I stated that I have no intention of becoming another Larry Flynt. If this keeps up, however, it looks like I’ll have no choice. As someone with a mother who grew up in Nazi Germany, a father who grew up in the segregated South and an uncle who spent most of his life behind the Iron Curtain, I know all too well how these kinds of moral crusades turn out.

It’s funny how they always start with the artists, the intellectuals, the “deviants.”

So to hell with all the yellow-bellied moderates out there in consumer-land, all the vacillating, equivocating technocrats; I’m sounding the alarm. Threat level Red. The Republic is in jeopardy, for this and many other reasons. I’ll be damned if I’m going to back down in the face of tyranny—that would be downright un-American.

The American Taliban’s primary tactic here is intimidation. If we collectively flinch things will only get worse. They’ve overreached and it’s time to force their hand.

I just hope that if the Feds come a knockin’ the rest of you will pony up a few bucks for my legal defense fund.

More: America | Law | Fundies | 2257 | Obscenity | Pornography. Fascism

Comment (13) | Top ↑

Mission Creep

Posted by Lex Konrad in Opinions | Oct 12, 2005

First the Justice Department amended Regulation 2257 in a not-so-subtle attempt to bury legitimate sexual expression under a mountain of paperwork. Then, no longer content to focus on actual criminal conduct such as the production and distribution of child pornography, the FBI began staffing up its so-called Porn Squad to pursue purveyors of “obscene” content. Raids soon followed against Max Hardcore and an amateur porn site operator who dared highlight the carnage in Iraq. As I mentioned last year, this sort of mission creep is to be expected of the administration and its fundamentalist allies:

... Just remember that this time the Supreme Court hangs in the balance, and the current administration would like nothing more than to crack down on sites like this and the individual freedoms associated with it.

At the time some people didn’t believe me:

I really don’t think that President Bush even knows or cares about this website. There is still the first amendment that protects what you say. I just think that the President has better (and harder) thing to take care of, like terrorism, the economy, the environment, and social security.

In my response, I predicted exactly what would happen:

I’ve done my homework. The first amendment does not protect obscenity, as defined by nebulous community standards. The justice department has been staffing up to go after all manner of “obscene” content. Then there’s legislation like COPA, which is more likely to survive challenges under a more conservative supreme court.

What we’re witnessing here are the opening skirmishes in a war on something much larger than pornography. By going after speech very few will openly defend, American fundamentalists are hoping to lay the legislative and judicial groundwork for a sweeping assault upon liberties most of us take for granted. Like, say, watching a racy television series or listening to music that contains offensive lyrics. Their vision of a child-safe world is, ironically, quite dangerous to adults.

Even assuming these indictments don’t survive judicial scrutiny, the simple threat of prosecution has a chilling effect upon free expression. The fundamentalists merely have to make enough noise to intimidate ISPs, web service providers, movie studios, cable networks, publishers, music labels and video game developers into backing away from controversial content. They only have to win a few small battles; to chip away, bit by bit, at the margins of protected speech. By the time the extremists come for the things you like the machinery of oppression will already be in place.

Although reasonable people, including those charged with enforcing the law, might balk at this waste of law enforcement resources, precious few organizations are gearing up for a fight. Regulation 2257 went relatively unnoticed. Porn prosecutions fall within the realm of obscure industry news. Apparently liberty does not in fact die to the sound of thunderous applause. No, when liberty dies you can hear a pin drop.

Now, alas, the written word is enough to earn you a visit from the G-Men. When they finally get around to raiding NLP headquarters I’ll simply direct them toward my bookshelf, where they’ll find tales of incest, sadism, rape, molestation, multi-partnered sex, pederasty, bestiality and coprophilia, among other depravities—and that only covers the great classics of Western literature.

At least I’m in good company.

More: America | Law | Fundies | 2257 | Obscenity | Pornography. Fascism

Comment (6) | Top ↑