Encounters with Neo-Puritanism

Criminalizing Our Way to Heaven

In the war for the future, American puritans wish to be victorious. They see the excesses of freedom as something corrosive. Too much porn, too many abortions, and not enough prayer in school. We’re heading towards a cliff – but if we all jump into the time machine we can return to the Golden Age!

Edward Robb Ellis, the most prolific diarist of the 20^th century, scoffed at those who like to claim that history has borne witness to any such era. It’s a myth. There was no such time. The human condition has never been in great shape. (And so I don’t think you should scold the anti-natalists and black-pillers while rejoicing at the “growth” that comes from inevitable earthly pain). However, Ellis also thought there was a general “worsening of everything.” He was writing in 1987. I’d think it’s even worse now, yet my examples would include different items than those given by the puritans. We have endless warring, incalculable debt, technologized everything, healthy bodies in short supply, and a public body that’s been subjected to the most sophisticated means of mass control.

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You’ll have to ask the American Puritans if they think these are all part of the same problem, or whether they’re nefarious factors each acting independently of the rest. Either way, the puritans have a plan, and it does not include the Lord, at least not in His corporeal embodiment. They await His return, but they long ago lost their patience. His help would be appreciated, but it’s no longer required. After all, any law that gets into the books is sanctioned by the Almighty, never mind how confusing that can get. Expectedly, the methodology of the puritans entails new calls for prohibition. The world gets slightly better with every new thing that’s banned. Find your way to the pulpit, push aside the prayer book, and start legislating our way to Heaven. How quaint. (I, too, laugh at those lefties who think assault rifle bans would lead to less violence).

Alicia Bittle, a writer for Evie Magazine, is the kind of American puritan I’m referring to. I’ve had a few conversations with her on Twitter. Bittle isn’t all bad, as she is opposed to genital mutilation. Does she think the practice should be criminalized? This I don’t know, but since she wants to ban most everything else, “yes” would be my first guess. I’d also wager that I’ve been an intactivist for longer than her.

If you were to ask me, I would not want the practice to be criminalized immediately. Why? Practicality is not unimportant. Where, I must wonder, would all those thousands of children go after their parents have been locked away? In life, very often we must choose the best-of-all-bad options. So is it off to the foster care system, where they’re sure to be injected with every vaccine out there? Or should we keep the family intact while remaining confident that the child will one day learn about it?

We pragmatists throw our hands up in hopelessness, but also in victory. The losers are the ones who throw down their hammer of absolute, unwavering justice. Theirs will end in maximum pain. These folks know that the solution is a law waiting to be signed, with a cage ready to be slammed. Then we hear the pathetic charge that one must necessarily be in favor of the thing if they don’t agree. That’s disingenuous. Instead, I ask for education: convincing people of the wrongness of the thing. That brings permanent change, without growing the state or creating a hostile public. We seek an enlightened populace that simply stops doing it.

Bittle sees pornography as another culprit in humanity’s downward spiral. The internet does seem to be saturated with smut. (I haven’t done a whole lot of reading on the subject, and so the following is just some preliminary thoughts). It’s easy to see how porn turns the brain into a switchless and wheelless engine of dopamine production. It makes the mind mush. Soon there’s nothing but exhaust fumes and dead corners. As for “mass control,” it could be argued that porn is the most potent and distractful form.

Internet vernacular defines the “coomer” as someone addicted to pornography. Alone they sit inside their room, trancelike, with porn beamed directly into their frontal lobes. Anyone saying this is a problem only for men would need to check the stats, as women make up a good deal of the consumers, depending on the country.

Yet the definition of porn is iffy. Who was the feminist who said there was a difference between pornography and erotica? I think the photographer that exhibits a woman’s large breasts certainly means less harm than the videographer who films the scene of “little teen destroyed by five monster cocks.” With one of these, violence and humiliation is well understood. But are they both pornographers? Bittle thinks so. Nevertheless, the content found on porn sites are featured in these gradations. One will go to a porn site and be greeted by a thumbnail of a man and woman having sex. Below that, in the “suggestion” gallery of thumbnails, will be the gangbangs. Remember the days when they showed cleavage to sell beer! The evolution of marketing has come so far.

Then there’s the amateur stuff. The internet allows so much to be uploaded by anyone. So many seem to believe that their bodies and sexuality can bring them revenue, and so we see the rise of OnlyFans. The CEO of the website says its 3 million creators have resulted in a “global business.” Full disclosure: I have some female friends who upload content onto OnlyFans. I had even subscribed to one of them for a couple months, doing my part to help out a struggling single mother. She’s posted nothing hardcore. Just titties and legs. According to Bittle, both her and myself should be imprisoned.

In having this debate, I was, and am, perfectly willing to concede that some porn can be harmful. And more, that there’s likely a fair amount of women featured on the big sites who have shot scenes only after being pressured, coerced, or misled (I am reading more articles on FightTheNewDrug.Org, as well as making a list of books). PornHub is facing serious charges and investigation over such claims. I don’t want to be the guy who defends this industry, or to insist that it’s normal to sit inside your room all day masturbating to porn.

Bittle says porn consumption is “common,” but not normal. But neither is it normal to sit inside your room all day playing video games when you could be chasing girls and having sex. Thankfully, I did both. At around 10 years of age, my friends and I discovered one our dad’s porn staches in his garage: several large cardboard boxes of magazines. In my later teens, I started having sex with girls. (No, I’m not married to any of them). Normal? Healthy? I can think of several things that are far more abnormal and unhealthier.

If I’m sick and weird, then Bittle is unserious. She’s the one who thinks that criminalizing abortion would pretty much put an end to the practice. Citing Leslie Reagan’s classic study, I showed otherwise. (I suggested that maybe we can try to reduce the number of abortions. Ah, but then Bittle also wants to ban condoms, along with all other forms of contraception.) Why is it so hard to realize that the same would happen if we tried to ban porn? Granted, if some of the big industries and websites were sued and prosecuted for actual trafficking, they might go defunct. But, in any free country, and with sexual desire as the most powerful force known to us mere mortals, the amateur stuff and smaller studios would still do well. If we’re going to ban institutions that sexually abuse young people, perhaps we should start with the Catholic Church, considering how many pedophiles it has sheltered. Bittle, a Catholic herself, would protest.

Until humanity improves, somehow, the situation will remain hopeless. Women will continue to be exploited in the porn industry. Lonely and lost young men will consume their “work” in between playing Call of Duty. Christian Fascists will keep trying to place the pulpit in front of Congress. And the unborn will miss all the action thanks to the combined efforts of birth control, abortion, and the growing number of people refusing to subject anymore sentient creatures to this painful thing called existence.

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