this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Absolutely. I mean, I personally think someone who likes the game that I just mentioned is a porn-brained creep, but the fundamental issue when something is distributed that shouldn't be distributed is pretty much always going to be the distributor and not the recipient. It's a basic element of Marxist thinking that we should be deliberately cultivating environments that encourage people to be pro-social rather than leaving a bad environment as it is and moralizing regarding the individuals who respond to it in a completely predictable fashion. That kind of atomization and fixation on individual responsibility is how liberals deliberately avoid confronting systemic problems.
-- Victor Hugo (via MLK)
I don't take a view quite this totalizing and obviously here he is mostly talking about deprivation, but I think that materials that encourage misanthropic, chauvinistic, sadistic attitudes and feelings are their own kind of darkness and need to be dealt with accordingly.
Maybe most importantly, though I would still put a little fault on the consumer here if you asked me, fault doesn't actually matter, what matters is what creates a better world, and here that involves heavily prioritizing cracking down on distribution, rather than attacking the creeps buying it.
My whole point is that I don't appreciate the creeps who like this sadistic, exploitative sort of stuff, but that whatever complaints I have about them consuming this shit isn't fractionally as bad or worthwhile to discuss as the problem of it being put up for consumption to begin with.
I think the difference here -- once explained -- is pretty easy to understand. There's a huge difference between erotica (etc.) that either recognizes the other as human or just objectifies them in a way that is unconcerned with their view, versus actively reveling in their suffering and subjugation. That's it.
I think that's interesting because a lot of people take the opposite position -- that people who consume this sort of thing and say it should be banned are hypocrites who can be dismissed -- but I agree with you. I'd still think they're sus, but I'd accept them believing it should be banned and they're incomparably better than the chanlords who defend it.