Jesus fucking Christ… Qatar is basically a scumbag real estate agent conning an idiot into buying a condemned shack in a swamp as a “cozy waterfront getaway”, but on a colossally stupid level.

We will get somewhere, but I’m not sure it’ll be a good place. Here’s my prediction of how it will go:

Once Gaza and the West Bank are fully and exclusively populated by Israelis and American tourists, once the Palestinians have all been slaughtered or run out of their own country, once all the dust has settled and resort hotels have been built on top of all the mass graves, then and only then will our news agencies finally refer to what happened as a genocide. Some well-known news anchor will look into the camera with weary eyes and a little ribbon pinned to their lapel, they’ll take on a somber tone, and they’ll say “never again”. Someone will win a Peabody for the story. And just as society starts to believe those words, “never again”, the history of those events will be banned from schools and libraries, and those teaching it will be fired and jailed. The memo will come down from corporate and that same news anchor will again appear on TV. They’ll look into the camera with a sparkle in their eye, flashing their overly white news anchor smile, and talk about how all the trans people being rounded up and put into camps is definitely not a genocide, and saying so means you hate God.

“This is Jim Tradman for Channel Five News, signing off. Blessed are the fruit, under His eye.”

But then, I’m a bit of a pessimist.

Most definitely. And since their entire job is illegal, why not go all-in and do more illegal stuff on cam for higher pay? That would be my thought process.

Some will. But like with alcohol prohibition, many of the people who work in the industry will just go to work in the black market.

Yeah that $3 billion won’t do squat. California spent $24 billion over a five year period and didn’t track any of the money, how it was spent, or the outcomes. It’s a safe bet that most of the money went to contractors charging extortionate fees for services while providing almost nothing in return, and probably quite a bit landing in the pockets of local politicians. It was basically a big scam to further enrich a bunch of greedy parasites. A few low-level idiots were charged with fraud and embezzlement of like $400k, but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of corruption involved in that whole scheme.

This is exactly it. A couple of days ago there was an Ask Lemmy thread about the legalization of marijuana. My entire argument is “Prohibition of vice does not work and only empowers organized crime.” This has been proven over and over again throughout history. It shouldn’t even be a question anymore.

Just think about the popularity of the “schoolgirl/barely legal” image as it currently exists in porn. If it becomes just as illegal to hire a young-looking 25 year old actress as it is to exploit an actual child, a lot producers will opt for the latter.

If you think the porn industry is exploitative and abusive now, just wait until they push it all underground.

Not that I’m in favor of disarming citizens, but if you bring up gun control around these people, one of their first arguments against it is that a database of people who own guns is bad because it will be used for nefarious purposes. The unspoken part is “because that’s what we would do.”

They’re starting with “Illegal Immigrants,” and to them, deviant “Transsexuals.”

Once they get rid of all the immigrants and trans people, does anyone really think they’re going to dismantle the infrastructure, bulldoze the detention centers, and fire all the excess agents? Or is it more likely that they will just find new out-groups to throw on the pile?

It blows my mind that people see this happening in real time and just go “that’ll never happen to me”.

“Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.” - Heinrich Heine

Book burners have never once been on the right side of history.

This won’t stop until the job becomes too dangerous for them to do.

Totally off topic, but Maggie is just awesome. If you aren’t familiar with her, I suggest doing a deep dive into her video essays on cinema and pop culture. Here’s a link to her site. Also, there’s a really interesting episode of Behind the Bastards with her as a guest, talking about being a descendant of notorious cannibalistic child killer Albert Fish.

I have nothing to add on the actual topic though.

Fair enough. It happens to us all.

I think it’s odd that you left out the part explaining what these men aren’t getting called out by their peers for.

These are men writing about their wives, their mums, their mate’s daughter, exchanging images, sharing women’s names, socials and contact details, and no one – not one man – is calling them out. They’re patting each other on the back.”

Men who are doxxing and sharing revenge porn of women is not the same thing as men “looking to fuck” a woman. This is sick sociopathic behavior. It’s weird that you can’t tell the difference.

Yeah now it’s all written by AI, sourcing their info from Twitter and Reddit posts that were also written by AI.

I realized journalism was truly dead a few years back when I noticed that most news articles online are just a bunch of Twitter posts talking about the headline. I fantasize about writing a movie where Edward R. Murrow comes back from the dead as a demon and just goes around slaughtering lazy journalists, which forces other journalists to actually do their fucking jobs.

I hate how many people are already starting in with conspiracy theories. She was sex trafficked as a teenager, for fucks sake. Then her whole life was dragged through the mud in public view while she sought justice. Countless people take their own lives every day under far less stressful circumstances.

She didn’t know anything that Ghislaine Maxwell doesn’t know, and that bitch is still breathing.

The point isn’t to convert the fascist. It’s to humiliate them

The point isn’t to make them feel humiliation

Make being openly fascist an embarrassing

Do you think about the things you say before you say them?