I try to see the silver lining in clouds, the bright side to every dark piece of news. One of the incidental benefits of the NSA revelations that it had plans to use the online viewing of adult online content as a means of discrediting people is that as more and more people are revealed as watching such content, it will reduce the stigma it once had.
After all, it was not that long ago that being gay in the US was seen as such a bad thing that it required it being kept secret. Those who were gay became vulnerable to blackmail and as a result they were even seen as security risks. As it has become apparent that many more people are gay than originally thought, and that they were just ordinary people we encounter in our workplaces and families, that stigma has disappeared except in the minds of the religious bigots.
As we know, the viewing of explicit sexual activity online is widespread but still carries a stigma. Few people will admit to watching it and as such it is hard to get a feel for how prevalent it is. It is safe to say that it is likely to be much more than what any survey will find. But as more and more people are involuntarily exposed as viewers by outfits like the NSA, it will result in it becoming mainstreamed and no longer have the power to discredit it once had.
Cartoonist Ted Rall seems to be thinking along the same lines as me, and is suggesting that we all watch porn a lot so that no one can be blackmailed by the NSA or anyone else.
It should not be hard to get mass support for this particular call to action. Maybe someone will proclaim a National Pornography Day (or Month) like May being declared as National Masturbation Month.
I could save them some time and just send them my porn bookmarks. :p
Well you know many adult films have really great plots, or so I’ve heard.
This is also a much smaller deal to anyone under 40, and especially for people in their 20s, as folks in those age groups grew up with a ton of freely accessable porn. My generation and the generation following me don’t view porn as “scary” or “harmful” in the way that the Boomers do.
If that would work, then blackmail would be impossible. After all, we all have embarrassing blots on our internet records that could be used to discredit us if they became known, especially when taken out of context. Yet blackmail and/or starting a distracting media feeding frenzy still works.
As long as incriminating details are released only one incident at a time as needed, then the technique will continue to work. This will help maintain the illusion that you really are uniquely a pervert and you’d better toe the line lest you be exposed.
So now all the jokes about the NSA’s gigantic porn-stash in Utah have suddenly become true. I wonder if they’re violating any Utah state laws with all that porn. And no doubt they’ve got a lot of the really nasty stuff -- the illegal stuff. The kind it’s a crime not to inform the FBI about kind of stuff.
While most of us would at worst be a bit embarrassed and more likely be indifferent if our more eccentric tastes on the ‘net were revealed, religious people regard such things as Absolutely Wrong and Sins. There’s the dilemma of whether they have the right to privacy on the one hand or whether they have no right to privacy if they condemn others for sharing their own tastes and whose hypocrisy should be revealed.
Good afternoon Mano,
Our own Derf went there as well.
Do all you can to make today a good day,
Jeff
Cartoonist Ted Rall … is suggesting that we all watch porn a lot so that no one can be blackmailed by the NSA or anyone else.
My god, what has our country come to, that such grievous sacrifices are needed to heal her? But rest asured, I shall do my civic duty, for the good of all, without complaint. Because I AM A PATRIOT. Yes, even if that means looking at women wearing Iranian-flag undies…
So now all the jokes about the NSA’s gigantic porn-stash in Utah have suddenly become true.
Why would they make their own stash, when they have access to everything that’s already out there? Or is this a stash of NSA-employee porn?
I think being more open about pornography could actually be a great thing. A friend of mine is a sex educator, and her only gripe with porn is that it’s often *bad sex education.*
For Germany, this is kind of an old hat. There was a report (in German) that the forensics team thought it was suspicious that they could find no porn on the hard disk of a suspect (single, male).
Re Marcus Ranum @ #5
It is my understanding that, on a per capita basis, Utah folks had the highest rate of accessing porn sites.
It’s not already? 😉
@ ^ Colnago80 : Mine too. Bible belt US states anyhow ironically.
Iranian flag undies?
Oh well, whatever floats your boat I guess..
I guess the NSA loves http://theporndude.com/ then. Over 750 porn websites to research there for them lol 😀
I think porn is going mainstream, at least that’s how I see it. We’ve seen pornhub’s bilboard in Times Square and sites like fapshows or webcam models like LittleRedBunny are getting a lot of mainstream attention as well. So yeah, I think soon enough people will openly discuss porn.
I would send this link to the NSA, https://thepornmap.com/: they would use better their time on this sites than doing their actual job 🙂