[ale] OT: The Amazing WEB

[Greg Sabino Mullane]

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Someone wrote, in The Thread That Would Not Die:

> Couldn't the same things be said of RCA, Magnavox, Panasonic, etc... 
> For it is on their products that the viewing happens.  Identifying 
> motives, and keeping proper perspective, is key to arguments such 
> as these.

Huh? The TV companies have nothing to do with it. What a strange 
argument. The cable companies are directly selling the porn, and 
their motive is profit, pure and simple. The more porn they sell, 
the more money they make. Seems black and white to me.


Someone else wrote:

> I have a proposition: Let's prohibit tv, radio, inet, all and any 
> magazines and newspapers. Then, to enforce this "law", let's kill 
> everybody who doesn't agree and then live happy ....
> Huraa!!! Welcome to the Soviet union and china!!! Huraaaa!

I take it you haven't been to the Soviet Union lately :)

> now more seriously:
> If U ( i mean person ) don't like porn/Maxim/TV/car - don't use it, don't 
> go out and spend Your money on it.

You missed the original argument in the thread. If AT&T keeps buying 
out other companies until they are the only choice in town, then you 
have nowhere else to go - it's "their way or the highway". Consumer 
manipulation of corporate behavior happens most effectively when there 
is competition. The only other recourse is goverment regulation, which is 
a slow, burdensome, and eminently corruptable process, and which almost 
everyone on the entire political/moral landscape is opposed to. Far better 
to allow the "voting with your feet."

> Porn industry is doing money on CUSTOMERS. They don't "taxed" You as 
> government do - U want it - u paying them. Bum of inet porn - people 
> simply want to have porn at their homes.

I've read this a few times, but still cannot decipher it.

> So before crying "Bad AT&T.. etc, " check out Your own tapes/DVDs and 
> spend more time with Your children.

In an ideal world, people could simply not do business with companies 
that they don't agree with morally. In reality, especially in today's 
hyper-consolidated and unregulated marketplace, we do not have that 
luxury. My tapes are just fine, thanks for asking. :) Your implied 
"hypocritical consumer" argument is weak - it would be a beautiful 
world if corporations acted *half* as moral as the average person.

> Don't You understand that banning -is the best they to make these people 
> ( porn ind ) rich ?

This one I don't follow at all...


Greg Sabino Mullane  greg at turnstep.com
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