2013-02-14, 09:21 PM
Flonne Wrote:Politically, they have the right, as politicians have the "right" to do anything they please if there are no laws forbidding them, but if they do it, they must also admit that they are not a part of the free world. The key point on every issue of censorship is this; if lines are allowed to be drawn on rights, those rights have already been lost; every person has a different moral compass, and the most outspoken and powerful are outliers compared to the general populace. It's easy to take rights away, but it's VERY hard for people to give those rights back. By doing that, they are admitting that they were wrong, and there's nothing a powerful person hates to do more than admit that he/she was wrong.
While that may be true, at times powerful governments or people do admit they were wrong and things change. Clearly alcohol prohibiton completely failed, much like the prohibition of marijuana is failing today. Regardless, I disagree with your statement that if they ban porn, they must "admit that they are not a part of the free world." What classifies a country as being part of the "free world?" If simply banning something that others want to have the freedom to enjoy makes a country leave this classification, then most of the world is not free considering marijuana is banned in many places. What about prostitution? That is an agreement between consenting adults to have sex and yet it is banned. Are those countries also not free?
I am not sure how Freedom of Speech or Press applies to pornography, but if a society freely chooses to remove something that they feel is harming their citizens, I still would classify them as part of the free world.