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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 6, 2025

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I'm against this law because, even ignoring moral policing (and I'm against moral policing), how will it be enforced? Will Michigan set up their own GFW? Round up everyone and force them to install spyware? Install hypersensitive mics in every neighborhood and use ML to detect porn sounds? Imagine the money, resources, and time needed to prevent people from doing something in private that, right now, is widely accepted and extremely common. Money that could've been spent on, for example, lowering taxes or improving infrastructure.

This is different than CSAM, which is widely condemned and already illegal. There are no multibillion dollar websites distributing CSAM, you can't get easy access to it just by crossing state lines or using a VPN, and almost nobody is defending it (people defending basic rights like encryption and control over their own devices, e.g. opposition to ChatControl, aren't defending CSAM; those things would lower CSAM but have much worse consequences).

If this were to ever become law (and fortunately I doubt it), I bet it will be selectively enforced. Politicians in office and their families will watch whatever porn they desire and brag about it, but their opposition and "enemy tribe" celebrities will be charged on the smallest suspicion. Even if they genuinely don't watch porn, they could be indicted on fake evidence, and considering people thought "Shut up and Dance" was plausible, maybe even convicted.

Moreover, if cops have any incentive to prosecute this besides lawfare, lots of stupid but harmless people will be wasting their lives and taxpayer dollars in prison (as opposed to, worst case, wasting their lives more comfortably and wasting less taxpayer dollars at home). I can't imagine Michigan implementing anything that isn't trivial for anyone with the most basic technical knowledge, or basic ability to read and follow instructions, to bypass. But there are a lot of people who are very dumb, very tech illiterate, very unaware of current events, and very horny.