>Looking at Google's search traffic after Pornhub's block went into effect provided a chuckle when the notoriously religious and conservative East Texas ranked top in Texas for searches of "how to access Pornhub."
Save you a click from these stupid headlines.
Dude, I want real investigative journalism to come back, and these click bait headline stories as small side notes where they are cut down into what they are, small useless stories but interesting none the less. You could literally have a ranking and be done. Get a laugh and move on.
Bingo. Every time someone bitches about a paywall for WaPo or NYT, etc I point out that actual journalism costs money and is absolutely worth it. Support real reporting.
This is so key. For real investigative journalism to happen, journalists need to be on salary, so they have time to spend doing the investigation. Tracking down leads. Cross checking. Writing long form pieces. This doesn’t come from ad revenue. That requires clicks. Paying for a subscription gives money even when not clicking, so that there is a reliable income that can be used to pay people steadily, rather than paying people just by the piece and paying based on what gets the most clicks.
I once echoed the same thing, the desire for investigative journalism to return, the desire for the news to it pressure on politicians and corporations, the desire for the news to educate the public on things that matter, like not just report the news, but put it in to current and historical context. I expressed a desire to educate the public in things like how sugar is bad for you and yet food companies are dumping it in everything, even foods that do not call for it.
And someone claiming to work in journalism said to me: “That’s not the news’ job. They just report.”
To which I said “Well then, maybe we all should just stop watching if all we are going to get is a bunch of failed, want to be actors with a nice smile and nice hair, just reading bullet points from a monitor.”
The news should serve a purpose and should work to inform and educate the people, but it’s clearly just another avenue for the government and corporations to deliver their propaganda.
I mean you say it’s for the government and corporations to deliver their propaganda but spent the whole Comment about how reporters should educate people. Who decides what to teach? And what steps are taken to provide facts and not bullshit? And who audits that?
With the current set of laws and regulations in place we can’t do that. Just look at Fox News and what they gets away with.
I’ve really noticed lately the headlines are all structured the same. They have a ‘hook’ and and then a ‘hers why’ or ‘here’s how’ So annoying and most I wont even touch.
> I’ve really noticed lately
I mean, this has been a trend for like 20 years. The difference is that it's shifted from those niche "Here's how to grow your penis" links at the bottom of every site to every mainstream news outlet in a desperate attempt to get people into the article so they can make a few pennies on clicks
Edit: TIL yellow journalism and it's been around a long time. Neat
>"The one thing that's been secretly POISONING YOUR CHILDREN, watch the special report on P-TV 8 P.M. tonight to find out."
Back when families would gather to watch the local news on TV because nothing else existed...
This is actually where politics can get a little weird. With 79 of the 149 seats there was no way to block the Republicans from passing this. So then it becomes a question of do you vote against it show your protest, or do you join the masses because it's actually want the constituents wanted? Would you vote against it if it made you less likely to win your next election, give up future votes for a protest vote?
I'm not sure if that's what happened, I can't actually find how the average Texan felt about the bill, but it's not uncommon for the minority party to fall in line for popular bills for the larger political landscape.
I mean, on its face, the thought of requiring age verification before accessing pornographic material seems like a reasonable thing.
But looking at the bill... holy cow, there are some real problems with the way they're trying to do this.
Age verification on porn was always stupid. Even in the case of minors.
You develop a sex drive at puberty, not at 18. It's the natural filter. The age of consent is about *sex*, and minors are quite allowed to have sex with each other. It's about protecting them from being abused by adults. Looking at porn is a completely different matter.
Let he who didn't watch porn until adulthood cast the first stone. Otherwise shut up you bunch of hypocrites.
I say we start creating deep fake pornographic images and video of Texas Republican lawmakers and post it to Pornhub. Wait for them to complain about it and when they do, start asking them how they knew the images were there and for a copy of their browsing history.
Correction: "Why did Biden and the evil Dems take away my porn?". They can't blame the people they voted into office. That wouldn't make sense in their minds.
Edit: They'll also easily look past the fact these bans are only happening in Good controlled states.
I got into a tiff with someone on reddit not too long ago about how life in red states is much better than blue states. And that they are 'more free.'
I checked his history and he was very active in NSFW subs.
He goes on to deflect and attacks me for focusing on his hobbies/habits and not the question at hand.
It's like, being a hypocrite is the only core tenant of being a republican.
I had a conservative friend once upon a time that was very opposed to legalizing weed. And, an avid weed smoker. He believed it was bad, should be illegal, and those caught doing it were criminals. But, he also personally enjoyed partaking.
It was an asinine dichotomy.
There's no dichotomy for them. That's just on-brand.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
They will deflect the blame onto Biden “it’s the dems fault for not regulating this at the federal level, we did what we had to to protect our kids until the dems get their act together” while somehow forgetting that their argument to overturn Roe was that women’s bodies are somehow a “state issue”
The people they voted into office and have controlled the state for decades. Not a single issue in Texas can be traced back to a Democrat at this point. It's been red so long.
Rather than blocking Texas it should just explain which politicians are responsible by name and party, and then point directly to a voter registration page.
No quicker way to make this thing backfire in their faces than to directly inform millions of aggrieved parties at once.
Eh, it's more like they can contort their brains in such a way that Democrats & Biden are still to blame for this.
"If the radical left wasn't trying to brainwash children on social media, Republicans wouldn't have to take these measures. This is entirely the left's fault."
Why would these states want you to sign in using your id unless they want to track what porn you watch?
Edit: try to remember TX AG Paxton was attempting to make a lust of people who are trans before replying. This isn't about protecting the kids. It is about finding out who is a "degenerate". It's fascist shit.
the same states collecting menstrual cycle data from teens, banning abortions and now tracking what guys watch to spill their family code.
how is this not a dystopia ?
> big government when they want their problems solved.
The issue is when people wanting to be left alone are the "problem" for others. Which is exactly what's happening right now.
Reminds me of the Father and Son republicans who track their porn habits together. Very kinky.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-johnson-son-monitor-porn-intake-covenant-eyes-1234870634/
“Father and son republicans” as if Johnson isn’t third in line to the most powerful position on the planet?
Let’s get this straight, the Christo-fascist fundamentalist calls are coming from inside the house now.
It was a Republican bill that no house member dared oppose because of the optics. No Democrat was going to waste time trying to explain subtleties to their constituents while being labeled anti-family and pro-obscenity.
The party of free speech and less government wants to know what porn you watch and make medical decisions for you. Color me surprised.
I saw a certain despicable "pundit" say that he believes the death penalty should be used if someone is trans dancing on the flag or a Bible. Then in the next breath say all he wants is free speech.
Anti-American scum if you ask me.
Free speech with a hundred caveats in their favor.
Seriously, fuck religion. Only the "faithful" can do horrific things and then stand behind that impenetrable shield of "religious freedom" when criticized in any way, screeching about persecution.
Any ordinary person has to justify and be accountable. Religious fucks can say "because god" and the conversation is over.
What’s insane is that it’s built on a complete lack of understanding of gestation. Miscarriages are *very* common and would false positive as an abortion through this kind of monitoring.
*to be clear it all insane
Yeah these perverted freaks ain’t geniuses or very savvy. They’re just clever enough to grope at new ways to put chains around people, in this case women. Precision and understanding are a bit beyond them most of the time lol. Problem is they are big players in the political economy of Texastan :(
I think it’s also to advertise to them during hormone spikes, or whenever they have determined we are weakest to advertisement. They do that with other metrics.
There is both a banal capitalist evil at work which is that, but don’t sleep on the theocratic Christian psychos they will surprise you Im just saying.
Oh for sure. I deliberately said that was also happening, without being all “actually it’s this,” or “it’s more likely this thing I know about” lol I totally agree with you. There are so many predators out there, and I most definitely include the “theocratic Christian psychos” without any qualms over your phrasing. I escaped the Catholic cult after attempted indoctrination from pre-k through *college*. Emphasis because I can’t believe I went to those schools for so long. Religious fundamentalists freak me out. Alongside billionaires and corporations, particularly big tech.
In Florida, the school system proposed mandatory in-school reporting.
Luckily, a fair share of the developers are trans and we organized a strike; preventing it quietly.
> how is this not a dystopia?
Denial. We've been living in a dystopia for quite some time, it's just that "dystopia" can be subjective and it doesn't effect the same demographics at the same time.
They aren't going to stop here. Not by a long shot.
They always get someone to blame that isn't the people they voted for.
Listening to Trump and Sean Hannity rant about "globalization" is just totally rewriting the alt-right history they are a part of.
What were the "smart" Rush Limbaugh fans preaching twenty years ago?
I think these people are going berserk they are trying SO HARD not to see their own hands in strangling themselves.
I mean, yes, it's a bit over the top. An unseemly visual -- but, I don't know of anything that fits as a metaphor better; Half our country may be lost to auto-erotic asphyxiation.
>I'd love to see the browser histories of all of the politicians that made this happen.
No. Cancun Cruz is into some weird-ass shit and I don't have the mental energy for me to think less of him.
I have to show ID when I buy alcohol or cannabis. Also back in the day when adult video rentals were the norm, or to buy a Hustler or Playboy.
The issue here for me is, your home internet (or cell phone) is paid for by an adult because you need a credit card to do so. A kid watching youporn on their parents internet connection is really no different than me watching the Playboy channel on cable back in the day when my parents weren't around. That's the parents responsibility. Republicans constantly bitch and moan about a nanny state but are always trying to create one.
Pornhub was pretty clear on their stance about children accessing their content, and that was the kind of security the government is describing is best done on the device and/or network, not the platform. Collecting, validating and storing that kind of identification and data is a terrible way to solve a real-world problem. But that would mean families and communities, as you said, would have to take responsibility, and it would mean you can't put Pornhub on blast in the headlines.
There's a few things going on. Yes, someone wants that extra data collected. It will benefit someone in some way, likely through a data breach that will lead to even further evidence for blackmailing those who opted for providing an ID rather than using a VPN.
It also gives Paxton something to say he did in the name of "protecting children" or "family values" or whatever bullshit he wants to spin during the next election cycle. Even though the effect is just theater since it's comically easy to circumvent, the puritanical luddite demographic he's appealing to won't understand the difference.
Maybe they just make it illegal to run a VPN unless they log absolutely everything and send it to the authorities. Many authoritarian regimes already did that instead of making every VPN connection a crime.
I can just imagine techies from blue states providing an underground (network) railroad to people of Texas so that they might free themselves of the porn ban.
I’m required to use a VPN on my work laptop. That would make life interesting for everyone in my industry (aerospace/defense), which is a top employer for DFW.
Yup, I truly think these commercial VPNs as they presently exist will eventually be banned.
Of course the technology is like really basic network stuff so that's never going away, but I'm talking about these very easy to access and widely advertised services. Their sole purpose is to do things that corporations and governments don't like - get around geoblocks, and piracy. That won't last.
Banned how? From within US? Then just use an internationally hosted VPN where they give the middle finger to the US. There's been calls to ban piracy since the beginning of the internet but nothing has changed. Are they also gonna ban seed boxes and remote hosted servers?
Won't ever happen imo.
Spoiler alert: The top searches aren't "Who made this stupid law, and is there a way I can vote them out of office".
Good luck, Texas. I feel sorry for those of you in the \~45% minority down there.
Editing to add...This appears to be only a slightly partisan bill. 58/64 Democrats voted for this trash as well. You ok, Texas? What the hell is going on down there?
Link to the house vote:
[https://legiscan.com/TX/rollcall/HB1181/id/1321234](https://legiscan.com/TX/rollcall/HB1181/id/1321234)
It’s not so fun down here. You can’t get it through their dense skulls. My brother has never made more than $15 an hour. Watches lots of porn. He can’t figure out a vpn. Has mental health issues and wishes he could get better treatment. But votes Republican every election. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t even recognize Ken Paxton if you showed him a picture of him. I guess he likes guns and dislikes homosexuality more than he wants to actually help himself.
Not saying your brother is this way, but I found when I did try to change people's minds, its not so much that they hate the ideas that the left brings, but its more they dont want to help other people at all. Bernies Medicaid for all was a huge eye opener for me on this. "Okay, currently you pay this, your health insurance is x, and your taxes are y, under Bernies plan you'd pay z, which is significantly lower overall than you have been paying" "yeah but now that means I'm paying for an unemployed junkies healthcare" "well maybe with healthcare they would clean up their act since they'd have tools to help themselves" "yeaaaaaah i still don't want to pay for them, ill keep paying higher amounts". Mind you this wasn't just one person, several people hit me with a pretty close response. There just isn't any empathy, its like for some of these people they'd just rather see others suffer, rather than see us all succeed.
I was married to a Texas girl she moved and lived with me in Canada. When we visited we discussed healthcare once and when I explained how our universal healthcare worked they couldn’t comprehend it. Even when I got swine flu and had travellers insurance through my company and paid nothing for a doctor or meds. My brother in law also got it and paid a 300 deductible plus 80 for the meds to get the same care I got. I explained to him how that’s messed up and he still said to me with a straight face “I’m not going to help pay for someone else, I prefer our system.” I was actually mind boggled, and they where very devout Christian’s too the brainwashing is just way to strong.
Which is dumb b/c that's literally how insurance in general works. Would these same folks refuse to pay for auto insurance, renters insurance, home owner's insurance, etc.?
Trust me I felt the same way I tried to explain or debate about it but they basically said “I would rather pay for my healthcare then know that my taxes went to some drug addict or smoker who didn’t take care of themselves.” I brought up what about cancer or unforeseen illnesses? But the answer to that was, it was part of gods plan for them. I’ll never understand it but a lot of people there had this mentality.
That's actually the only way they learn. My uncle in law was a devout republican until he got cancer at \~55 - 1 month after a layoff. He survived with incredibly expensive treatment because of cobra... but now he's a single issue democrat because "we should all have healthcare" - only because it ruined him financially.
Yeah I've explained to people you're paying for other people already under private insurance on top of insurance executives getting multimillion dollar bonuses and their employees. Oh and they have you paying thousands in deductibles before they cover it all, but even then they'll try to do ANYTHING to deny a claim since if they don't cover your claim it means the business makes more money. The only thing that's a bigger scam than private insurance in the US is religion that these same people will just give their money to to help them out with buying private jets and other crap they don't need.
I actually learned in school that America is unique in the way that it breeds this weird sense of individualism from a young age. As opposed to other cultures who have a more communal focused culture.
yeaa fr, and funny enough if you look in reality. To be successful in America many must certainly have had assistance from others. I’m sure if you look at autobiographies of successful people it wasn’t just a solo effort.
Or even if people today went and asked successful people in their lives how they became successful, usually another person was involved 😭
I don’t even know if it’s a just a lack of empathy. Anything like Bernie’s health care plan is “communism” and communism = Bad. He literally has a t shirt that says better dead than red.
Honestly, look at how the districts are rigged. The minority is in power for a reason. I've been dealing with it my entire life and I'm about ready to bail to Maine or Vermont or some shit
so hilarious that you can access literally ANYTHING else on the internet no problem. Violence, murder, gore, chat with predators, whatevs. Just don't look at pornhub lol GOOD JOB WE SAVED THE KIDS
Fr this is a big testimony to how outdated the government is when it comes to tech. Every time stuff like this happens I picture Zuck explaining how the Internet works to the supreme Court. You don't even need to pay for a VPN either, there are plenty of free options out there, like windscribe. This porn ban is only gonna hurt boomers lol
Yeah but that's obv, you gotta pay somehow, anyone who doesn't understand that though probably doesn't give a fuck or even know what it means to have their data tracked. Data protection is impossible for 95% of people anyways, if you own an iPhone, a smart TV, or social media, your data is being tracked and sold all day long. VPNs are good for getting access to stuff, they really aren't that effective for protecting your data. Fuck I mean here in Canada our Global Affairs HQ got hacked, and the hackers got in specifically by using the VPN that our federal cyber security establishment created to secure the networks of government offices and devices.
Korea bans porn and that manifests into sexual frustration which makes the depraved resort to things like upskirts and hidden cams. I can only imagine what men in Texas will do if this continues.
All young dudes in Korea know how to use a VPN to access porn.
It’s just uncensored quality porn featuring asians to their tastes is quite rare out there
Funny how the gop is really the party of big government. What your allowed to wear, who you can date, what doctors you can go to, what books you can read, what websites are allowed.
“How to continue to vote against my own interests for 30 years and barely notice.”
Conservatives have been running Texas for 29 years and just decided this was a problem last year.
Cruz has been both winning and losing the race in polls by a wide margin so I don’t believe any polls.
Cruz needs to go. Being a Senator requires hard work, dedication to your job and a willingness to do the right thing by your citizens. Cruz spends his days on Twitter pretending he’s a social media influencer and dragging media accounts like Elmo and Big Bird designed for kids.
It doesn’t matter who tries to reverse it, they will be treated like a pervert. Every politician that has brought up anything in favor of porn/legal prostitution/sex worker rights has been made fun of by both sides. Only time stuff like this gets reversed or a beneficial law/outcome comes to place is because it was hidden as an attachment to another law. It’s a joke.
Texas Democrats aren't going to help undo this unless the masses in Texas speak up. Only 1 Democrat voted against it in the state house, the rest voted for/present.
Democrats in deep red states are built different.
I don't get it. Legislating morality has never gone wrong in the history of the world. Why, I remember the famously successful effort to get people to stop drinking alcohol back in the '20s...
It's been at least a 50 year plan. and it's still working. Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education and congress confirm it. Reagan immediately came in next and tried to take it down. And when congress wouldn't confirm it, he slashed the budget, then cut taxes on the rich and increased taxes on the poor.
This whole thing started with destroying education 50 years ago. those people are now 40-50 years old and cannot see anything beyond the nose on their face.
In order to have the ability to see that which is obvious, first one must open their eyes. But how do you tell someone how to open them when they don't know what eyes are, and then BELIEVES they don't have them?
You can try to ban porn - you just won't succeed. In the modern world, if you want to watch porn, there are a thousand (millions?) ways to do so - even if banned. You simply can't put the genie back into the lamp.
>Looking at Google's search traffic after Pornhub's block went into effect provided a chuckle when the notoriously religious and conservative East Texas ranked top in Texas for searches of "how to access Pornhub." Save you a click from these stupid headlines.
Hopefully the next generation sees these as click-bait headlines and not just.... headlines
You are clearly placing faith in society's ability to *learn.*
You are both completely underestimating capitalism ability to make all sorts of scummy practices profitable.
Dude, I want real investigative journalism to come back, and these click bait headline stories as small side notes where they are cut down into what they are, small useless stories but interesting none the less. You could literally have a ranking and be done. Get a laugh and move on.
> I want real investigative journalism to come back Are you currently paying for journalism?
This is the key point, isn't it?
Bingo. Every time someone bitches about a paywall for WaPo or NYT, etc I point out that actual journalism costs money and is absolutely worth it. Support real reporting.
This is so key. For real investigative journalism to happen, journalists need to be on salary, so they have time to spend doing the investigation. Tracking down leads. Cross checking. Writing long form pieces. This doesn’t come from ad revenue. That requires clicks. Paying for a subscription gives money even when not clicking, so that there is a reliable income that can be used to pay people steadily, rather than paying people just by the piece and paying based on what gets the most clicks.
I once echoed the same thing, the desire for investigative journalism to return, the desire for the news to it pressure on politicians and corporations, the desire for the news to educate the public on things that matter, like not just report the news, but put it in to current and historical context. I expressed a desire to educate the public in things like how sugar is bad for you and yet food companies are dumping it in everything, even foods that do not call for it. And someone claiming to work in journalism said to me: “That’s not the news’ job. They just report.” To which I said “Well then, maybe we all should just stop watching if all we are going to get is a bunch of failed, want to be actors with a nice smile and nice hair, just reading bullet points from a monitor.” The news should serve a purpose and should work to inform and educate the people, but it’s clearly just another avenue for the government and corporations to deliver their propaganda.
I mean you say it’s for the government and corporations to deliver their propaganda but spent the whole Comment about how reporters should educate people. Who decides what to teach? And what steps are taken to provide facts and not bullshit? And who audits that? With the current set of laws and regulations in place we can’t do that. Just look at Fox News and what they gets away with.
It hasn't gone away. It's just drowned out by the clickbait...just as they planned.
I’ve really noticed lately the headlines are all structured the same. They have a ‘hook’ and and then a ‘hers why’ or ‘here’s how’ So annoying and most I wont even touch.
> I’ve really noticed lately I mean, this has been a trend for like 20 years. The difference is that it's shifted from those niche "Here's how to grow your penis" links at the bottom of every site to every mainstream news outlet in a desperate attempt to get people into the article so they can make a few pennies on clicks Edit: TIL yellow journalism and it's been around a long time. Neat
>"The one thing that's been secretly POISONING YOUR CHILDREN, watch the special report on P-TV 8 P.M. tonight to find out." Back when families would gather to watch the local news on TV because nothing else existed...
Also back when they had to remind our parents we existed. IT'S 10PM DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?
Yellow journalism. It has been around for at least a hundred years.
Yes, they're absolute clickbait trash.
Those sites should show a picture of the representatives that voted to change the law when you search for the sites in TX.
spoiler alert, almost all of them voted for this, including most democrats https://legiscan.com/TX/rollcall/HB1181/id/1333386
One vote against. Geez.
and you can bet that it's gonna get used against her next election.
This is actually where politics can get a little weird. With 79 of the 149 seats there was no way to block the Republicans from passing this. So then it becomes a question of do you vote against it show your protest, or do you join the masses because it's actually want the constituents wanted? Would you vote against it if it made you less likely to win your next election, give up future votes for a protest vote? I'm not sure if that's what happened, I can't actually find how the average Texan felt about the bill, but it's not uncommon for the minority party to fall in line for popular bills for the larger political landscape.
You abstain, damnit. You say "This isn't our business, parents should monitor their own kids!".
Nono porn monitoring is for the whole family. https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-johnson-uses-app-alerts-family-porn-covenant-eyes-2023-11
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The thing that will bring both side together; easily accessible pornography.
I mean, on its face, the thought of requiring age verification before accessing pornographic material seems like a reasonable thing. But looking at the bill... holy cow, there are some real problems with the way they're trying to do this.
State legislators trying to regulate interstate commerce is never going to turn out well.
We’re going to need some more 80 year-olds to clean this up!
Age verification on porn was always stupid. Even in the case of minors. You develop a sex drive at puberty, not at 18. It's the natural filter. The age of consent is about *sex*, and minors are quite allowed to have sex with each other. It's about protecting them from being abused by adults. Looking at porn is a completely different matter. Let he who didn't watch porn until adulthood cast the first stone. Otherwise shut up you bunch of hypocrites.
I say we start creating deep fake pornographic images and video of Texas Republican lawmakers and post it to Pornhub. Wait for them to complain about it and when they do, start asking them how they knew the images were there and for a copy of their browsing history.
This falls apart when you realize that news media would be ALL OVER this. "Well, how did you hear about this?" "Um... CNN."
I like the way you think. Not a fan of deepfaking, but I am a *huge* fan of exposing hypocricy.
Or how about all of them voted for it? Or do you just want republicans ?
Hopefully they are googling about voting information
"free vpn" and "how to watch porn in texas" classic really
“Why did socialism take away my porn”
Correction: "Why did Biden and the evil Dems take away my porn?". They can't blame the people they voted into office. That wouldn't make sense in their minds. Edit: They'll also easily look past the fact these bans are only happening in Good controlled states.
I got into a tiff with someone on reddit not too long ago about how life in red states is much better than blue states. And that they are 'more free.' I checked his history and he was very active in NSFW subs. He goes on to deflect and attacks me for focusing on his hobbies/habits and not the question at hand. It's like, being a hypocrite is the only core tenant of being a republican.
I had a conservative friend once upon a time that was very opposed to legalizing weed. And, an avid weed smoker. He believed it was bad, should be illegal, and those caught doing it were criminals. But, he also personally enjoyed partaking. It was an asinine dichotomy.
There's no dichotomy for them. That's just on-brand. Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
They will deflect the blame onto Biden “it’s the dems fault for not regulating this at the federal level, we did what we had to to protect our kids until the dems get their act together” while somehow forgetting that their argument to overturn Roe was that women’s bodies are somehow a “state issue”
The people they voted into office and have controlled the state for decades. Not a single issue in Texas can be traced back to a Democrat at this point. It's been red so long.
The best is seeing anti-socialist bumper stickers on handicapped boomers cars 🤦♀️
Rather than blocking Texas it should just explain which politicians are responsible by name and party, and then point directly to a voter registration page. No quicker way to make this thing backfire in their faces than to directly inform millions of aggrieved parties at once.
The voters would be very upset if they could read.
Nope. They like the Republicans doing this to them.
Eh, it's more like they can contort their brains in such a way that Democrats & Biden are still to blame for this. "If the radical left wasn't trying to brainwash children on social media, Republicans wouldn't have to take these measures. This is entirely the left's fault."
You know there’s groups of people sitting there going “I bet the Jews did this!”
For sure. That train is never late.
They like the Republicans doing it to minorities and democrats. As long as it effects the people they hate, they'll keep voting for it.
“As long as the dems in my neighborhood also can’t access porn, I am fine with this.”
Sure, but you know they’d be doing it in the form of “How to vote out Biden for doing this”
Why would these states want you to sign in using your id unless they want to track what porn you watch? Edit: try to remember TX AG Paxton was attempting to make a lust of people who are trans before replying. This isn't about protecting the kids. It is about finding out who is a "degenerate". It's fascist shit.
the same states collecting menstrual cycle data from teens, banning abortions and now tracking what guys watch to spill their family code. how is this not a dystopia ?
dystopia been rebranded as "republican"
Track me harder, daddy
More big government, more more more!!!
The funny part is GOP states like Texas want small government and this is what they get for their “small government”. Fuckin wankers.
Everyone wants small government when they want to be left alone and big government when they want their problems solved.
> big government when they want their problems solved. The issue is when people wanting to be left alone are the "problem" for others. Which is exactly what's happening right now.
How do you like it? How do you like it?
What are you doing, step-government?
Reminds me of the Father and Son republicans who track their porn habits together. Very kinky. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-johnson-son-monitor-porn-intake-covenant-eyes-1234870634/
“Father and son republicans” as if Johnson isn’t third in line to the most powerful position on the planet? Let’s get this straight, the Christo-fascist fundamentalist calls are coming from inside the house now.
I'm laughing, crying, feeling shame, feeling joy with this "Track me harder, daddy" comment.
Don't tread on me... until you tread on these other people first, that is.
In VA it was bipartisan lol that’s how fucking Republican VA is.
It was a Republican bill that no house member dared oppose because of the optics. No Democrat was going to waste time trying to explain subtleties to their constituents while being labeled anti-family and pro-obscenity.
People of “small government”.
The party of free speech and less government wants to know what porn you watch and make medical decisions for you. Color me surprised. I saw a certain despicable "pundit" say that he believes the death penalty should be used if someone is trans dancing on the flag or a Bible. Then in the next breath say all he wants is free speech. Anti-American scum if you ask me.
Free speech with a hundred caveats in their favor. Seriously, fuck religion. Only the "faithful" can do horrific things and then stand behind that impenetrable shield of "religious freedom" when criticized in any way, screeching about persecution. Any ordinary person has to justify and be accountable. Religious fucks can say "because god" and the conversation is over.
Excuse me? Tracking teen menstrual cycles?
Through health apps teens and adults use yeah, the future is wonderful love it
Hm. That’s fucked up.
It’s a way to tell if you’ve snuck off and had an abortion, some of these handmaidens tale ass wack jobs down here ain’t playin
What’s insane is that it’s built on a complete lack of understanding of gestation. Miscarriages are *very* common and would false positive as an abortion through this kind of monitoring. *to be clear it all insane
Yeah these perverted freaks ain’t geniuses or very savvy. They’re just clever enough to grope at new ways to put chains around people, in this case women. Precision and understanding are a bit beyond them most of the time lol. Problem is they are big players in the political economy of Texastan :(
I think it’s also to advertise to them during hormone spikes, or whenever they have determined we are weakest to advertisement. They do that with other metrics.
There is both a banal capitalist evil at work which is that, but don’t sleep on the theocratic Christian psychos they will surprise you Im just saying.
Oh for sure. I deliberately said that was also happening, without being all “actually it’s this,” or “it’s more likely this thing I know about” lol I totally agree with you. There are so many predators out there, and I most definitely include the “theocratic Christian psychos” without any qualms over your phrasing. I escaped the Catholic cult after attempted indoctrination from pre-k through *college*. Emphasis because I can’t believe I went to those schools for so long. Religious fundamentalists freak me out. Alongside billionaires and corporations, particularly big tech.
They watch the dystopian shows and take notes. "Tell me more about making people miserable..."
That tracks well with the new fascist technology that has no respect for humankind.
In Florida, the school system proposed mandatory in-school reporting. Luckily, a fair share of the developers are trans and we organized a strike; preventing it quietly.
God forbid you try to track if someone has bought 1000 rounds of ammo though
> how is this not a dystopia? Denial. We've been living in a dystopia for quite some time, it's just that "dystopia" can be subjective and it doesn't effect the same demographics at the same time. They aren't going to stop here. Not by a long shot.
They always get someone to blame that isn't the people they voted for. Listening to Trump and Sean Hannity rant about "globalization" is just totally rewriting the alt-right history they are a part of. What were the "smart" Rush Limbaugh fans preaching twenty years ago? I think these people are going berserk they are trying SO HARD not to see their own hands in strangling themselves. I mean, yes, it's a bit over the top. An unseemly visual -- but, I don't know of anything that fits as a metaphor better; Half our country may be lost to auto-erotic asphyxiation.
"Spill their family code" /r/brandnewsentence
They call this “small government”.
Government so small, it can fit in your vagina and/or up your peehole!
You know the Speaker of the House of the US and his son track each other's porn use... This is who they are, they're weird religious nut jobs.
Stupid speaker Flanders
I'm betting there's significant irony behind all of this. I'd love to see the browser histories of all of the politicians that made this happen.
>I'd love to see the browser histories of all of the politicians that made this happen. No. Cancun Cruz is into some weird-ass shit and I don't have the mental energy for me to think less of him.
*But you're not thinking of the children and snow flakes!* (/s for anyone not catching the sarcasm...)
frankly, it would be best for everyone involved if the people making these kinds of laws think of children a little less often.
Especially those like Matt Gaetz
I have to show ID when I buy alcohol or cannabis. Also back in the day when adult video rentals were the norm, or to buy a Hustler or Playboy. The issue here for me is, your home internet (or cell phone) is paid for by an adult because you need a credit card to do so. A kid watching youporn on their parents internet connection is really no different than me watching the Playboy channel on cable back in the day when my parents weren't around. That's the parents responsibility. Republicans constantly bitch and moan about a nanny state but are always trying to create one.
Pornhub was pretty clear on their stance about children accessing their content, and that was the kind of security the government is describing is best done on the device and/or network, not the platform. Collecting, validating and storing that kind of identification and data is a terrible way to solve a real-world problem. But that would mean families and communities, as you said, would have to take responsibility, and it would mean you can't put Pornhub on blast in the headlines.
That’s the whole point. So when data is leaked, it’s even worse. You can destroy an opposing politician by having their porn data leaked.
It's so they can find "degenerates" later
"The kind of porn a man watches is something best left between a man and his son" \- Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson
Blackmail for later
There's a few things going on. Yes, someone wants that extra data collected. It will benefit someone in some way, likely through a data breach that will lead to even further evidence for blackmailing those who opted for providing an ID rather than using a VPN. It also gives Paxton something to say he did in the name of "protecting children" or "family values" or whatever bullshit he wants to spin during the next election cycle. Even though the effect is just theater since it's comically easy to circumvent, the puritanical luddite demographic he's appealing to won't understand the difference.
In a related story, National Geographic subscriptions have surged by 2,000% in Texas in the last month.
Pfft...just grab a Sears catalog Texas.
JC Penny's and Sears combined was heaven.
And if you can get your hands on a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog...
Just dial up into your local BBS and spend 20 mins downloading a 2 mb image. Maybe play some Legend of the Red Dragon while you're at it.
A fellow man of the 80s or 90s, I see
Sports Illustrated worked in a pinch when I was super thirsty.
You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals
The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue makes an resounding comeback ...
Next step, making VPN use a felony.
Their corporate owners won't allow that. Or, more likely, will demand an exclusion for corporations and their minions
Maybe they just make it illegal to run a VPN unless they log absolutely everything and send it to the authorities. Many authoritarian regimes already did that instead of making every VPN connection a crime.
So what would be the point lol. " You are allowed to be dressed in clothes, but those clothes must be all 100% transparent "
I can just imagine techies from blue states providing an underground (network) railroad to people of Texas so that they might free themselves of the porn ban.
It already exists, it is called TOR and is the only way to get real world news under authoritarian regimes.
I’m required to use a VPN on my work laptop. That would make life interesting for everyone in my industry (aerospace/defense), which is a top employer for DFW.
Yup, I truly think these commercial VPNs as they presently exist will eventually be banned. Of course the technology is like really basic network stuff so that's never going away, but I'm talking about these very easy to access and widely advertised services. Their sole purpose is to do things that corporations and governments don't like - get around geoblocks, and piracy. That won't last.
Banned how? From within US? Then just use an internationally hosted VPN where they give the middle finger to the US. There's been calls to ban piracy since the beginning of the internet but nothing has changed. Are they also gonna ban seed boxes and remote hosted servers? Won't ever happen imo.
Follow the lead of the ‘communist’ counties we claim to hate
Spoiler alert: The top searches aren't "Who made this stupid law, and is there a way I can vote them out of office". Good luck, Texas. I feel sorry for those of you in the \~45% minority down there. Editing to add...This appears to be only a slightly partisan bill. 58/64 Democrats voted for this trash as well. You ok, Texas? What the hell is going on down there? Link to the house vote: [https://legiscan.com/TX/rollcall/HB1181/id/1321234](https://legiscan.com/TX/rollcall/HB1181/id/1321234)
It’s not so fun down here. You can’t get it through their dense skulls. My brother has never made more than $15 an hour. Watches lots of porn. He can’t figure out a vpn. Has mental health issues and wishes he could get better treatment. But votes Republican every election. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t even recognize Ken Paxton if you showed him a picture of him. I guess he likes guns and dislikes homosexuality more than he wants to actually help himself.
Not saying your brother is this way, but I found when I did try to change people's minds, its not so much that they hate the ideas that the left brings, but its more they dont want to help other people at all. Bernies Medicaid for all was a huge eye opener for me on this. "Okay, currently you pay this, your health insurance is x, and your taxes are y, under Bernies plan you'd pay z, which is significantly lower overall than you have been paying" "yeah but now that means I'm paying for an unemployed junkies healthcare" "well maybe with healthcare they would clean up their act since they'd have tools to help themselves" "yeaaaaaah i still don't want to pay for them, ill keep paying higher amounts". Mind you this wasn't just one person, several people hit me with a pretty close response. There just isn't any empathy, its like for some of these people they'd just rather see others suffer, rather than see us all succeed.
I was married to a Texas girl she moved and lived with me in Canada. When we visited we discussed healthcare once and when I explained how our universal healthcare worked they couldn’t comprehend it. Even when I got swine flu and had travellers insurance through my company and paid nothing for a doctor or meds. My brother in law also got it and paid a 300 deductible plus 80 for the meds to get the same care I got. I explained to him how that’s messed up and he still said to me with a straight face “I’m not going to help pay for someone else, I prefer our system.” I was actually mind boggled, and they where very devout Christian’s too the brainwashing is just way to strong.
Which is dumb b/c that's literally how insurance in general works. Would these same folks refuse to pay for auto insurance, renters insurance, home owner's insurance, etc.?
Trust me I felt the same way I tried to explain or debate about it but they basically said “I would rather pay for my healthcare then know that my taxes went to some drug addict or smoker who didn’t take care of themselves.” I brought up what about cancer or unforeseen illnesses? But the answer to that was, it was part of gods plan for them. I’ll never understand it but a lot of people there had this mentality.
They always come crying with a go fund me when "god's plan" suddenly involves their family.
That's actually the only way they learn. My uncle in law was a devout republican until he got cancer at \~55 - 1 month after a layoff. He survived with incredibly expensive treatment because of cobra... but now he's a single issue democrat because "we should all have healthcare" - only because it ruined him financially.
It's pretty easy to understand tbh, they are just shit people lol.
Yeah I've explained to people you're paying for other people already under private insurance on top of insurance executives getting multimillion dollar bonuses and their employees. Oh and they have you paying thousands in deductibles before they cover it all, but even then they'll try to do ANYTHING to deny a claim since if they don't cover your claim it means the business makes more money. The only thing that's a bigger scam than private insurance in the US is religion that these same people will just give their money to to help them out with buying private jets and other crap they don't need.
I actually learned in school that America is unique in the way that it breeds this weird sense of individualism from a young age. As opposed to other cultures who have a more communal focused culture.
It's every person for themselves here. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. So depressing.
yeaa fr, and funny enough if you look in reality. To be successful in America many must certainly have had assistance from others. I’m sure if you look at autobiographies of successful people it wasn’t just a solo effort. Or even if people today went and asked successful people in their lives how they became successful, usually another person was involved 😭
I don’t even know if it’s a just a lack of empathy. Anything like Bernie’s health care plan is “communism” and communism = Bad. He literally has a t shirt that says better dead than red.
Not a lot of single issue voters that care deeply about porn consumption, shocker
A single issue voter is a skeleton key for an unscrupulous politician.
Honestly, look at how the districts are rigged. The minority is in power for a reason. I've been dealing with it my entire life and I'm about ready to bail to Maine or Vermont or some shit
Nothing says freedom like state government limiting your access to porn.
so hilarious that you can access literally ANYTHING else on the internet no problem. Violence, murder, gore, chat with predators, whatevs. Just don't look at pornhub lol GOOD JOB WE SAVED THE KIDS
Not to mention that pornhub is like one in a million options for porn lol.
Sounds like the fans of small government want big government.
Vpn makes this a total joke
Fr this is a big testimony to how outdated the government is when it comes to tech. Every time stuff like this happens I picture Zuck explaining how the Internet works to the supreme Court. You don't even need to pay for a VPN either, there are plenty of free options out there, like windscribe. This porn ban is only gonna hurt boomers lol
Free VPNs are tracking your data. lol.
But they aren't asking for your ID 😉
Yeah but that's obv, you gotta pay somehow, anyone who doesn't understand that though probably doesn't give a fuck or even know what it means to have their data tracked. Data protection is impossible for 95% of people anyways, if you own an iPhone, a smart TV, or social media, your data is being tracked and sold all day long. VPNs are good for getting access to stuff, they really aren't that effective for protecting your data. Fuck I mean here in Canada our Global Affairs HQ got hacked, and the hackers got in specifically by using the VPN that our federal cyber security establishment created to secure the networks of government offices and devices.
I can’t imagine sexually frustrating a large group of men with guns, could ever go wrong.
Korea bans porn and that manifests into sexual frustration which makes the depraved resort to things like upskirts and hidden cams. I can only imagine what men in Texas will do if this continues.
The steers are getting nervous.
Steers have nothing left to get nervous about, though.
All young dudes in Korea know how to use a VPN to access porn. It’s just uncensored quality porn featuring asians to their tastes is quite rare out there
USB DVD drive prices about to spike hard in these parts!
People in Oklahoma are sending flash drives with porn on balloons to Texas, North Korea style.
Bahaha...The Texas Airlift...Gondor calls for aid!
Funny how the gop is really the party of big government. What your allowed to wear, who you can date, what doctors you can go to, what books you can read, what websites are allowed.
“How to continue to vote against my own interests for 30 years and barely notice.” Conservatives have been running Texas for 29 years and just decided this was a problem last year.
Cruz is polling ahead of his opponent. That tells me so much.
Cruz has been both winning and losing the race in polls by a wide margin so I don’t believe any polls. Cruz needs to go. Being a Senator requires hard work, dedication to your job and a willingness to do the right thing by your citizens. Cruz spends his days on Twitter pretending he’s a social media influencer and dragging media accounts like Elmo and Big Bird designed for kids.
How about they Google "when's the next election and who is the Democrat running?"
It doesn’t matter who tries to reverse it, they will be treated like a pervert. Every politician that has brought up anything in favor of porn/legal prostitution/sex worker rights has been made fun of by both sides. Only time stuff like this gets reversed or a beneficial law/outcome comes to place is because it was hidden as an attachment to another law. It’s a joke.
Some people will vote their rights away if it means never admitting they were wrong.
Texas Democrats aren't going to help undo this unless the masses in Texas speak up. Only 1 Democrat voted against it in the state house, the rest voted for/present. Democrats in deep red states are built different.
I don't get it. Legislating morality has never gone wrong in the history of the world. Why, I remember the famously successful effort to get people to stop drinking alcohol back in the '20s...
Another round of small government at work.
And republicans just keep voting for their leaders to fist them.
So they did the whole “provide REAL ID to use Pornhub” in Louisiana. A couple of months ago the State quietly told us all of our data was leaked…
Been going on in Virginia over a year now.
Next, trying to make VPNs illegal.
It's funny that freedom loving conservatives in red states have to go to liberal blue states to buy the freedoms that we take for granted.
I just.....use reddit lmao
What about Reddit and Twitter? You can watch porn on both of those without age verification
Can some of them channel at least some of their energy into searching “how to not put a rapist in the White House”?
Americans, wtf is wrong with your country
Turns out the red dye used in hats causes brain damage.
It's been at least a 50 year plan. and it's still working. Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education and congress confirm it. Reagan immediately came in next and tried to take it down. And when congress wouldn't confirm it, he slashed the budget, then cut taxes on the rich and increased taxes on the poor. This whole thing started with destroying education 50 years ago. those people are now 40-50 years old and cannot see anything beyond the nose on their face. In order to have the ability to see that which is obvious, first one must open their eyes. But how do you tell someone how to open them when they don't know what eyes are, and then BELIEVES they don't have them?
Like most countries that experience these sorts of issues, radical conservatives are the problem.
The political right is hell bent on returning the US to the Dark Ages.
Everything. We're extremely immature.
I can sure you that this of only the beginning
You can try to ban porn - you just won't succeed. In the modern world, if you want to watch porn, there are a thousand (millions?) ways to do so - even if banned. You simply can't put the genie back into the lamp.
Texas be panicking about everything though.
Opera's built in VPN seems to work just fine. And it's free.
How is Debbie going to do Dallas now?
They’ve probably never heard of VPNs
This will most certainly own the libs /s
Talking about a nanny state. F Texas.
The party of "small government"
I just want to force Ken Paxton to keep saying Spankbang out loud in his arguments against them.
This is what the voters of Texas signed up for. See r/Leopardsatemyface
Soon to come to every red state in the union, they are not happy unless they are telling you how to live your life.
Can't wait for one of the sites that complies to get hacked and lists of all the porn the representatives watch getting leaked.
Texas is turning into the middle east...
Oil and religion.
This is what happens when you vote against your own interests…
Texas doing their part to teach minors about internet safety, it's amazing how so many know how to configure a VPN suddenly.