man. for reals?

[amand_r]

I am not a serious person here that much, so I like to think that when I do get serious, it means something.

One of my greatest fears, aside from Jaws, zombies and gas station coffee, is someone telling me what I am and am not allowed to see. What my kid should be seeing. You are not my child's parent. You are not my parent. Not even my parents tell me what I can and cannot look at, because I am a grown up now, with real coffee and real debt and a brain inside my skull that is capable of higher thought processes, even when I'm wanking to porn that I got off the interwebs.

Because that's what the censorship issue in Australia is all about: kids, wanking, getting off, who does it, who's not getting any, and who gets to decide any and all of these things.

I forget sometimes, that Australia doesn't have a bill of rights, and so this is a very real thing.

And I can't really do anything about it, except direct you here, so that you can read it yourself and decide if you think it's real. I think it is. And I don't know what legal recourse Aussie citizens have if this goes through, to appeal. It makes me very grateful that we are actually capable of saying, "that's unconstitutional", because they don't.

Woah. For srs. So look. If we can do anything as non-Aussies, it's raise awareness.

This week, from the 25th to the 29th is the Great Aussie Website Blackout. If you're an Aussie, I feel for ya, and this is ridiculous.

I have a small soapbox, so: information should be unfettered by censors of this nature (I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that all information is running free through a daisy field, even as a society we often ourselves censor and each other, but that is for another day.). No one gets to decide what's appropriate for me to read/watch. You don't like spanking? Fine, DON'T LOOK FOR IT, AND WHEN YOU FIND IT BY ACCIDENT, GO AWAY. You don't remove it for everyone.

Seriously, people who thinks this is a good idea? And how much are they not getting laid? Or what? I got nothing.

Comments

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this -- I didn't write about it over the weekend because I've been away, but this "clean feed" is really scary. Most Australians don't want it at all -- we know that it won't work in terms of actually stopping child porn, but it CAN be used to stop us seeing sites that the government doesn't think are "appropriate". It only takes one religious right douche to have balance of power in the senate before those sites include information about sex ed and abortion, and of course, fully legal porn created by consenting adults.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't even remotely see how it's a good thing. lastrega is involved in the anti-movement, and she told me the leaked list of things to be blocked is fucking scary.

and they're going to charge you. Man, this is the crap that could lead google to pull out. Wouldn't that be terrifying? It's like "What do Iran, China and Australia have in common?" You have to be kidding me.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen that list too. It's just ... yeah, scary.

I have no idea how anyone thought this was a good idea.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling that the people who think this is a good idea think that Jesus told them this is a good idea.

I hate those people.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Some of them, yes. But I think that some of them also think that being perceived as "tough on child porn" is a vote winner, even though most of us are not nearly stupid enough to actually believe that this will stop one bit of child porn (and Australians can be pretty damn stupid -- just not that stupid, most of the time). And of course, there are the politicians who no doubt simply want to have more control over what the population is reading (which has little to do with pornography at all).

The scary thing is that the opposition at the moment is more socially conservative than the actual government (they are technically our "progressive" party, not that you'd know it), so there are no major voices of dissent in parliament. Bloody hell, I have an article open in another tab right now which reports that the leader of the opposition (who IS a "Jesus told me so" type) is telling Australian women (just women!) to remain virgins until marriage, while also claiming that contraception has been bad for women because it lets men be more promiscuous (in other words, women are less effective as sexual gatekeepers). Oh, and he says that a woman having sex with a man is "a gift" -- because, you know, there's no chance that we'd do it for ourselves or anything.

We're fucked. And not in the good way.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Seriously, this sounds horrible.

[oncomingscone.livejournal.com]

Don't forget North Korea. No-one ever goes in. And no-one ever comes out.

I think it must be full of Oompa Loompas. With no porn. OMG. Consider the conseqences of that.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I like to think that in the face of there not being porn, they MAKE their own, every night.

[oncomingscone.livejournal.com]

I think North Korea is one giant porn orgy which happens to be very exclusive.

With Oompa Loompas.

Bring on THOSE nightmares.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

why oompa loompas?

[oncomingscone.livejournal.com]

Because 'no-one ever goes in, and no-one ever comes out' (ref: Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory).

Ergo. North Korea: Oompa Loompas.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Haahahah I forgot that part.

[oncomingscone.livejournal.com]

My grandmother tatooed that movie on my brain when I was 7. It won't come off.

But really - well done for posting about this. Hopefully you're not Chicken Little (or Chicken Licken as we called him in England for some reason).

Thank you and goodnight.