From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 06:09:21 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Thoughtcrime   (Re: My War)
In-Reply-To: <339C4E1F.11DF@popmail.firn.edu>
Message-ID: <v0310280aafc22b34389e@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 2:17 PM -0700 6/9/97, Mike Duvos wrote:

>While I certainly think that society has every right to enforce reasonable
>workplace health and safety standards within the commercial porn industry,
>including setting reasonable age limits for employment therein, the
>current ban on any and all depictions of the sexuality of minors, even
>synthetic ones, is clearly an ideological purge of speech certain people
>are uncomfortable with, and not some glowing crusade to protect children
>from harm.

Precisely. The laws are designed to go after the thoughts. Synthetic
images, images of little girls in leotards. images of teenagers of legal
age *in the countries of origin*...none of these involve acts of sexual
congress with a child in violation of the laws of the U.S. The only crime
is thoughtcrime.

Thoughtcrime.

As for whether it is "sick" to be sexually attracted to an "underage"
person, I sure do recall being attracted to a lot of the girls in high
school, and they were certainly nearly all "underaged."

(I won't delve into this further, and won't get into issues of what the
ages should be. In earlier cultures, girls were married off by the age of
12-14, and boys by the age of 14-16, for various good reasons.)

This "se7en" person should understand that a strong crypto list is probably
the wrong place to find converts for a crusade against thoughtcrimes. For
one thing, what does he think remailers are useful for? Or anonymity? Or
digital cash? Or that evil technology, "morphing."

(A popular project is to use Photoshop and similar tools to juxtapose the
faces and bodies of various celebrities and nude bodies. "Sabrina the
Teenage Witch Meets Tiffany Towers." This act is apparently now a Class A
Thoughtcrime in several U.S. jurisdictions. Amazing.)

Oh, and "se7en" should go back with his newly discovered religious fervor
and watch the movie "Se7en," from whence he got his handle. It has been
declared "violence porn" by some of his ideological fellow-travellers.

Ironic indeed.

--Tim May



There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."