What Craigslist's "Adult Services" Decision Means for Free Speech
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Wait, what does "sex trafficking" mean in this context? Is it just "prostitution"? Because many people disagree with the banning of prostitution.
And the prohibitionists love to use this type of package-deal language. That one can oppose criminalizing sex for money between two consenting adults, but still support criminalizing sex slavery is a notion intentionally excluded from the conversation.
I couldn't sleep at night even if one child's future was destroyed through something I had created like this.
In this poll of New York voters 30% supported legalizing it. Clearly the parent is correct, the use. of "no one" in the quote is clearly not true
Prostitution was once legal in many jurisdictions where it's illegal now; some jurisdictions have tried forms of re-legalization, or tacit acceptance in various kinds of 'red-light districts' (real or virtual), sometimes as a means of sex-trafficking harm-reduction.
In 2008, a San Francisco proposition to decriminalize prostitution got a 42% 'yes' vote.
'Everyone' except for some rather heartless criminals is against 'sex trafficking'; views on the more general 'prostitution' are far more varied.
Measure Q in Berkeley in 2004 pulled 36%.
In the Bay Area a considerable number of people support decriminalization. Craigslist is hardly completely out of whack in terms of public opinion of the population in their region of the world.
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?submit=rss_sho...
That case, the one I believe most people are citing when they use the words "common carrier" in conjunction with craigslist, was about an advocacy group targeting craigslist for allowing discriminatory rental housing ads. "Go sue the people posting the ads", it said. But note also this, from the opinion:
Nothing in the service craigslist offers induces anyone to post any particular listing or express a preference for discrimination; for example, craigslist does not offer a lower price to people who include discriminatory statements in their postings.
This is clearly true for rental ads, where craigslist provides a forum for a huge variety of different real estate ads, most legitimate, in which it is prohibitively difficult for craigslist to isolate the offensive ads. It is not as clearly true for the "adult services" ads, where craigslist has gone out of its way to segregate the ads most likely to violate state pandering and prostitution laws.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danah-boyd/how-censoring-craig...
Put aside your views on the legality of prostitution for a moment, and remember that it is currently illegal.
It's illegal to yell fire in a crowded movie theater. That's not stepping on free speech, it's an adjustment by society to keep things sane and fair. Same thing for asking business to stop helping the selling of women.
And it's not "many people disagree with banning prostitution" - it's most MEN want to reserve the right to trade money for instant sex, regardless of the cost to society because they don't know how to regulate their cravings.
They figure it's always going to be there and if so, it's better that it's out in the open so women can at least get legal support instead of the cops laughing them off when they get hurt.
I say that's not the answer, it's a poor choice of lesser evils. Just imagine what if it would be like if everyone could get hard drugs and it was out in the open. Imagine CL full of ads for hard drugs being condoned.
In a better society when you've made bad choices you should be able to get help for yourself regardless if it's prostitution or hard drugs. And yes I think those two are about the same level in bad choices for all involved, buyers and sellers. It means you've crossed certain lines where instant gratification is overriding long term thinking and it damages you and society.
If you want prostitution LEGAL well then campaign for that but don't do an end run around the illegality by saying there should be open ads for illegal activity. That's a double standard.
Some people choose to drive while intoxicated, but nobody's demanding we take down the roads, or calling local governments accomplices to illegal activity (nor car or alcohol manufacturers).
There are plenty of sites on the Internet where one can engage in illegal activities. The question is why this one? And why this activity?
You've never read an ad looking for a "generous" friend to "hit the slopes" with?
Lower prices, better quality control, less drug-trafficking violence. Maybe even less social stigma surrounding drug use, so more people who needed help could get better help.
Or did you think the 18th Amendment was a good idea?
Indeed, it's said that you don't pay the [man|woman] for the sex; you pay them to leave.
BTW, just because you're a woman doesn't give you authority to speak for all 150 million of them. Or to make up statistics about MEN.
[1]"Shouting fire in a crowded theater" is a popular metaphor and frequent misquoting of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s opinion.
The misquote fails to mention falsely shouting fire to highlight that speech which is merely dangerous and false which can be distinguished from truthful but also dangerous.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_thea...