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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 21, 2025

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to ogle up the pages of the high-class magazine with the naked women, AND to be a full-on gooner who consumes hours of porn

I think this betrays that the line you're trying to draw isn't really sharp. There is, IMO a slope (maybe even a frequently slippery one, not intending to claim otherwise here) between nudity in "high art" (enjoys fine wine and Rubenesque paintings), moderate-but-titilating scenes in Hollywood cinema, something like Playboy, and whatever depth of depravity you want to stop at. The debate on the appropriateness of nudity in art goes back literally centuries --- fig leaves are not a modern invention.

I'm not sure I would judge "modeled for the figure drawing course in college, maybe even for reasonable payment" in isolation harshly in general. But that's just my opinion.

I think this betrays that the line you're trying to draw isn't really sharp.

I can make it sharper, but I'm not really painting with a moral brush here.

I'm trying to reason about the type of person that's going to be wielding governmental authority and whether they are going to do a better job than the others I might be able to choose.