Let’s not kid ourselves, Hugh Hefner pioneered legal
porn.
That’s his legacy.
The first issue of Playboy was wildly popular because it
featured naughty pictures of Marilyn Monroe who was, at the time, the leading
Hollywood sex symbol. Like most moral
corruption it begins with baby steps. Those pictures of Monroe would not get a second
glance today. Pictures like those can now be found in almost every magazine, usually selling fashion -
to women.
The heirs of Hefner have moved
on. Nothing that people have done to
themselves or to others in the name of sex can now be found … instantly, in living vibrant color.
Perhaps it was inevitable. Perhaps the culture was ready for this in 1953. Of course, the avant garde could not admit
they liked porn. Instead porn was peddled on constitutional grounds. You remember learning about the rights of free speech and a free press being vital to a free republic, don't you?
We were told that if we are prevented from instant access to porn the next thing we know we will have lost our right to speak freely about
political issues. In other words, porn was the guardian of the First Amendment. The watchman on the ramparts of freedom. This formulation is now axiomatic. It’s been internalized. It’s no longer an issue for debate.
Yet, despite the omnipresence of the most graphic porn, there are
large areas of this country where political speech is effectively banned. Where exercising your right to speak freely
about – say – support for Conservatism, to admit to being a Republican, and –
worse yet – a supporter of Donald Trump will get you a beating.
People are beginning to wonder if porn is really the “canary
in the coal mine” that protects my right to speak freely without fear of losing
my job, or being investigated by the IRS, or getting ostracized in Academia, or
being physically attacked by the AntiFa mob?
It was all a lie, wasn’t it?
It really was all about wanting to see dirty pictures.
How’s that turning out for you?
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