{"id":3860,"date":"2013-04-27T10:53:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T14:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/?p=3860"},"modified":"2013-04-24T10:56:53","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T14:56:53","slug":"heavens-help-me-im-reading-the-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2013\/04\/27\/heavens-help-me-im-reading-the-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavens help me, I’m reading the news"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hate to get all serious and controversial, but I see a growing global trend of preposterous legalities.\u00a0 There has recently been a man in Australia jailed for buying\/watching animated sex involving characters like children<\/a>.\u00a0 It shouldn’t be surprising given Australia’s zero tolerance position (that and more found in this\u00a0wikipedia article:\u00a0 legal status of cartoon pornography depicting minors). \u00a0 <\/a>But a whole cacophony of details make this story icky all over.<\/p>\n

Before we launch into the meat of them let’s consider how damning the man’s legal\/behavior history is with previous convictions for assaulting teenagers.\u00a0 Now that we’ve considered that let’s stop thinking about it.\u00a0 It is not the point here.<\/p>\n

The point is the worrying trend of treating the production\/consumption of creative depictions of incorporeal fantasy as a criminal offense against a real person or persons.\u00a0 And this isn’t the first alarming case to make the news on this issue.\u00a0 The lolicon manga case where a man was taken to court under accusations of violating child abuse laws by buying comics, <\/a>was\/is worrying to comic fans for a long while.<\/p>\n

And yes, you may qualify that these two cases involve depictions of characters\/creatures who could be labeled as minors or children.\u00a0 I think pedophilic fantasies are gross and rank out there, in my mind, with bestiality and necrophilia:\u00a0 also gross.\u00a0 I also think that every human is bound to think\/dream up some pretty nasty fantasies at some time in their lives.\u00a0 But fantasy is important, nasty or not.\u00a0 I think it is perfectly natural to indulge in fantasy, especially where entertainment is concerned.\u00a0 And I think that if this indulgence doesn’t hurt or involve anyone else unwillingly then its OK by me.\u00a0 Really, it’s none of my business.<\/p>\n

I’m sure there is also an argument that indulging in non harming fantasy also deters people from acting it out on others, but I won’t go in to that ’cause the flip side is that indulging will lead to acting:\u00a0 just like how violence in movies makes kids kill each other (tongue firmly in cheek).<\/p>\n

Back to treating the production\/consumption of creative depictions of incorporeal fantasy as a criminal offense against a real person or persons.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at two parts of that sentence:\u00a0 creative depictions and incorporeal fantasy.\u00a0 Regardless of the circumstance, it is never alright to censor or criminalize creativity as long as it ‘doesn’t hurt or involve others unwillingly.’\u00a0 No matter how fervently any one case is labeled as an isolated case or a special case, censoring\/criminalizing creative output of any kind is a gateway for more censorship.<\/p>\n

Today it will be sexual depictions of minors, tomorrow it will be bestiality and necrophilia, and soon enough it will be BDSM, homosexual relations, and plain old porn.\u00a0 It will be anything that any politician needs it to be because the public and the courts once said it was OK to censor and criminalize.\u00a0 That’s called precedent people, and it actually has weight in law and government.<\/p>\n

Today it is animation and comics of sex among minors, tomorrow it will be fiction describing sex among minors.\u00a0 Can you imagine how this will decimate the Young Adults section in the bookstore where the sexuality of minors is often written about by adults?\u00a0 Can I leave this dangle here?\u00a0 Whether the picture is painted with words or drawn, the creator is simply depicting and sharing a fantasy with a willing audience.<\/p>\n

The creator is sharing a fantasy that is incorporeal, that is: not physical; didn’t happen outside of a person’s head.\u00a0 History shows us that defining what fantasy is alright to express and which is not lends to black markets for taboo items (hullo Victorians!).\u00a0 And the censorship of creative expression lends people to label the originating thought and\/or fantasy as alright or not alright to have.\u00a0 While this type of guidance is often part of religious practices it can’t effectively be tied to governance.\u00a0 George Orwell’s Thought Police hunted and arrested people based on politically approved opinion, will we first hunt and arrest people based on public decency approved opinion?<\/p>\n

The point is:\u00a0 using laws that are built to protect us from physically harming each other to censor creative products that physically harm no one is just censorship, plain an simple.\u00a0 Censorship is an evil beast that should be avoided at all cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate to get all serious and controversial, but I see a growing global trend of preposterous legalities.\u00a0 There has recently been a man in Australia jailed for buying\/watching animated sex involving characters like children.\u00a0 It shouldn’t be surprising given Australia’s zero tolerance position (that and more found in this\u00a0wikipedia article:\u00a0 legal status of cartoon… Continue reading Heavens help me, I’m reading the news<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[188,178],"class_list":["post-3860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-censorship","tag-ranting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3549,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2013\/03\/27\/cat-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":0},"title":"Cat love","author":"leems","date":"March 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Crisco likes the camera, but sometimes gets too close.\u00a0 He was too lazy to investigate this time and I ended up with a cover for Cat Fanciers magazine or something.\u00a0 Isn't he handsome? 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