European Parliament Decides Not To Ban Internet Porn 397
An anonymous reader writes "The European Parliament passed a proposal Tuesday which included a blanket ban on pornography, including Internet porn, in European Union member states. However, Members of European Parliament (MEPs) removed explanatory wording from the porn ban section, essentially limiting the ban to advertising and print media. The proposal, titled 'Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU,' was put to a vote in Strasbourg. MEPs passed it 368-159."
thought police (Score:5, Interesting)
"The proposal, titled 'Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU'..."
What an Orwellian purpose.
Re:why are stereotypes so bad? (Score:5, Interesting)
It is imperative that people be judged based on their individual characteristics. It is a simple undeniable fact that variation within large groups of people FAR exceeds the variation between the means of the groups. It is the idiocy of stereotyping that ignores this fact. It is appalling that people do not understand this basic truth.
Let me give you an example of how this stupidity affected me, personally.
My wife is a Hispanic immigrant. She came to the US as an English medieval lit PhD candidate on a Fullbright scholarship to an elite university after studying in Europe for 3 years. She graduated from university at age 17. At one time she held the highest score ever achieved in the Oxford English Competency exam by a South American.
That ethnic background meant my children were automatically stereotyped by the schools they attended. In particular one of them was misdiagnosed as having an English deficiency when in fact he had Asperger's.
This diagnosis was done on the basis of my wife's ethnic background despite the fact she speaks English better than 99.99+% of US citizens.
The harm done to my son from of this cannot be undone.
The very definition of "Liberal Fascism" (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem with a very liberal way of thinking is, that if the state knows better than you naturally it follows that the state should control all aspects of your activity.
Thus as you say, social engineering is no longer scary, but required in all actions you take so you have only "right minded people" in your populace.
Human nature is not something to understand, but to be ironed and whitewashed over to get that perfect homogenous bland - er, I mean, blend.
Re:well... (Score:5, Interesting)
In America,the founders explicitly protected word media like "speech" and "the press". They knew about art and sculpture but said nothing about it.
Now I agree that banning some great works of art, including the ones you mention, would be bad, but that's a policy decision, not a question of "free speech". Just because you or I like something doesn't mean it is necessarily a right.
Off on a tangent, one of the reasons America is so divided is too many people have tried to turn every question of policy into a constitutional issue and thus an issue for the courts. When the courts step in rather than letting the legislative process play out, the debate is taken away from the people and placed in the hands of a very few. Even worse, the decision is final. This has the effect of removing the impetus for compromise that legislatures produce. It removes the feeling that people have some control over how they are governed. And it raises the stakes in every battle because the outcome is seen as permanent.
Re:well... (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't remember the name of the study, but a study was conducted which showed a correlation between lack of high speed internet access and number of cases of rape.
It was broken up by state, and the states with higher rapes were also states with lower broadband access.
Granted, it's just a correlation, and there's no reason to believe it's a causative relationship.