Porn: The Land Of Make Believe

Think a hundred times, however, before you go further and tamper with the consensual behaviour of adults. Everyone who wants wide-ranging censorship prefers vague claims about ill-defined threats rather than precise information. Intelligence services want to ban all revelations about their work to preserve their mystique and hide their crimes. Religious people want to punish all cases of blasphemy to protect their jealous god or gods. Homophobes argue against homosexual equality because it poses some hazy threat to heterosexual marriage.
If the protesters can find a link between the mysterious world of consensual sexual fantasy and crime, they would be right to ban. But, if they charge ahead and legislate without even bothering to explain the connections between image and reality, word and deed, they will give up more than they know.

Nick Cohen, The Observer.

At last some sense from The Guardian/Observer, who've published no end of silly "ban porn" "ban stuff" "ban wanking" "ban everything" articles online of late.
Cohen's a bit like the late Christopher Hitchens, a neo-imperialist apologist who occasionally makes much sense, lucidly.
The piece is called Hate Porn, Sure, But Be Wary Of Banning It.
It's surely a sign of our collective sexual immaturity, that no writer appears honest enough to say he quite likes looking at porn and having a wank, like almost all men do.
Daily.
Welcome to the land of make-believe.

"You're living in a world of make-believe. With flowers and bells and leprechauns, and magic frogs with funny little hats."
Homer Simpson.

Oh, tell me when this madness ends.

PS Article on BBC News on why most "research" on porn and "harm" is junk science. Also listen to the radio programme linked; "Is it possible that what we call 'moral indignation' is just disgust for what doesn't turn us on?"
And here they explain why oft quoted statistics on online porn are made-up. Not that you can say any old rubbish in this "debate" and get away with it or anything...

PPS Always a tough choice, but this week's award for the stupidest anti-porn article has to go to this monumentally hysterical, dumb and dull piece by Hannah Pool in The Independent.
Stop wanking at Tesco!!!