On Feb 22, 2006, at 4:06 PM, Josh Hansen wrote:
<snip>
I wasn't trying to make a pro-porn argument,
Interesting. So saying that it's a big industry, society is
functioning fine with it, etc., are not arguments saying that porn is
OK?
So, if I said that lots of people get abortions and it doesn't seem to
harm the mother or society, would you say I was pro-life or pro-choice?
I was trying to argue that
basing your vote on a candidate's stance on pornography doesn't make a
lot of sense,
Sure it does. People can base their vote on whatever they would like,
be it the War in Iraq, social security, Homeland security, tax reform,
etc, etc.
and I also added my opinion that porn is not harmful to
society,
But you're not pro-porn?
without adding a lot of hard facts and statistics because I
assumed that nobody would care.
If you are going to state an opinion that runs counter to what other
people have expressed, hard facts and statistics go a long way towards
proving that you may actually have a case.
If you want to read past the first few
lines of my original post and discuss the rest of it with me, please
do,
but any more of these pointless spams from you will simply get you
added
to my blacklist.
That _would_ be a shame. :)
Anyway, I rarely read slashdot, but from statistics I am finding now
(on
a lot of sites, but mainly from the same two sources,
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-
statistics.html
and http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html, porn is
a 57 billion dollar industry worldwide, and 12 billion in the US, which
is larger than the combined revenue of all professional football,
baseball and basketball franchises, and the combined revenue of ABC,
CBS, and NBC.
So just because an industry is big and brings in a lot of money, it is
a good industry? Is Microsoft a 'good' company just because they have
a large market share? What about Enron? They were the darling of the
energy industry? Were they a good company? The oil industry is way
larger than porn. Chevron alone brought in over 100 Billion dollars
last year. Is the oil industry a good industry? Is the OPEC cartel a
good organization? I believe that we should probably base whether an
industry or company is good or bad, good for society or harmful to
society, on more than market cap or revenue. I am not necessarily
saying that any of these companies are good or bad, just that success
and making money don't really correlate with how _harmful_ that
business or industry is towards society or individuals.
BTW, I would check some facts before using those as a basis for
argument, as in 2005 NBC Universal brought in 3.1 billion all on it's
own, and the one website you quoted claimed the revenue for all 3 was
only 6 billion. The website you pulled that info from provided no
information as to where _any_ of these stats came from.
If such a large industry is so harmful to society, where is all the
harm? I know that some people like to blame rape and other sexual
abuse
crimes, the divorce rate, etc on porn, but I don't buy that, and I
haven't seen any information to convince me otherwise.
You are free to believe whatever you want. I have seen statistics both
ways. From the experiences of people I know, I believe that
pornography can be _very_ destructive. If you believe otherwise, I
would base it on more than just how much money an industry rakes in.
Tobacco companies make a killing too, but it's an undisputed fact that
people who smoke are _way_ more likely to develop lung cancer than
those who don't. And yet people still buy cigarettes. I once saw a
guy who had lung cancer and whose lungs barely functioned (he was on
oxygen) and could barely walk (he was in a motorized scooter) driving
down the sidewalk smoking a cigarette with the oxygen tube in his nose.
Just because people spend money on things does not in any way mean
that those things can't, won't, or don't harm them.
Grant
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