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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 23, 2025

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what if you're homeless/transient and don't have a driver's license or any other sort of ID? That's the argument that's always been used against requiring voter ID, so I don't see why it wouldn't apply here.

So what? You don't have a right to easy porn, so even if an ID requirement is an onerous burden, onerous burdens are fine sometimes.

I feel like these burdens should get their own category. It's not really onerous. It's actually very easy to meet the requirement to upload a picture of my driver's license. It's just stupidly dangerous for my well being.

It would be like if airport security asked you to stick your hand into a wood chipper that sporadically turns on to get your fingerprints. There is a helpful little red and green light to tell you when it's safe, but damn I'd rather not trust my fingers to this machine run by minimum wage employees. And of course if my hand gets mulched I'm allowed to sue the judgement proof employees, or the shell company wood chipper manufacturer, but not the government that put the requirement in there in the first place.

Yeah I don't disagree it sucks and is inconvenient and has risks. It's just they're allowed to make porn access inconvenient and risky.

I think if you are not allowed to ban something then you shouldn't be allowed to make access risky. All bans are is adding a risk component to a thing. You can at least pretend like onerous requirements serve a purpose. Where onerous crosses over into risky is where I'd prefer courts to draw a line and say "you are just banning the thing, so unless you are allowed to just straight up ban the thing, get rid of that requirement."

not allowed to ban something then you shouldn't be allowed to make access risky.

Isn't this how it is in meatspace?

Going to the shitty area of town to the adult bookstore was one of the things you could do when you turned 18.

No. There isn't a crime rate minimum for opening an adult bookstore.

Uploading your driver's license is a government-mandated risk to your privacy, while going to the bad side of town is just an unfortunate coincidence.

There isn't a crime rate minimum for opening an adult bookstore.

No. But typically they can't be near schools, parks, houses of worship, other areas frequented by children etc.

They are excluded from some areas because of the nuisance they bring.

Okay? So ban porn advertising on any site that targets children. I'm pretty sure that law isn't even necessary because websites have a lot more control over their ads than stores have over their neighborhood.

If a city council sorted their areas by crime rate and excluded adult bookstores from the bottom X%, then I'm pretty sure the (prospective) store owners would have a good case the restrictions are illegal. If the city pulled all its cops and banned private security from them, it would be a slam-dunk case.

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