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Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

craigslist.org

601–610 of 654 posts

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#601
post #497
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the #metoo feminist supremacist movement Yes, damn those feminists and their opposition of rape... /s

Due process is dead -- a simple accusation is enough to crush the career of any public-facing authority figure, regardless of the proof provided.

You never had a right to due process before being fired from your job.

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#602
post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case the typical liberal and the radical liberal are split, much as with trans identity. To sum it up with too broad of a brush, liberal (mainstream) feminists think sex work is positive, and that only coercion to sex should be criminalized. Radical feminists see sex “work” as an extreme outlier amongst sex trafficking which by their measure constitutes the vast majority of the sex trade. They would consider…

Curious based on this comment what you see as the rift in trans identity, as I also see unresolved opinions there.

I should preface that some trans people find the discussion itself deeply offensive and unwelcoming, so it's a very sensitive subject, but I'll try to sum it up respectfully...

The basic question is whether something like whether "visible performance of femininity and recognition as women" is fundamentally what differentiates men and women.

Some radical feminists would say that requiring women to behave in a way that they are recognizable "as women" is a primary mechanism for domination of women. These women want to consider themselves to BE women, while they do things which make them unrecognizable "as women" according to norms.

Many (not all) trans women seek to do somewhat the opposite... they WANT to be recognized "as women". And they will hold up both their desire to perform femininity and their experiences while being recognized "as women" as a thing which makes them women.

I think fundamentally both groups are correct. Trans women are correct that in practice recognition and performance constitute gender and even sex in a very literal way.

But the radical feminists are correct that gender recognition and performance is only one aspect of womanhood, and for some women's groups, it's not central at all.

MichFest is the historical event where I think all of this came to a head. Many women rightly valued MichFest for being a place where they were not recognized "as women" and no one expected anyone to perform femininity.

Trans women rightly felt that the rule excluding them from MichFest was anti-woman, that performance and recognition aside, trans women are women because they "be women" all year, not because of femininty or genitals or anything other than their own discrete self concept.

Personally, I suspect there is some sort of Hegelian dialectic here, and there is no resolution possible, only an infinite regress.

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case the typical liberal and the radical liberal are split, much as with trans identity. To sum it up with too broad of a brush, liberal (mainstream) feminists think sex work is positive, and that only coercion to sex should be criminalized. Radical feminists see sex “work” as an extreme outlier amongst sex trafficking which by their measure constitutes the vast majority of the sex trade. They would consider…

Ok sure, now what about the people that weren't raped and just got into prostitution the same way a stripper decides that life is for them? Are they still victims? A radical feminist (in my experience) will still say yes, effectively robbing these women of their own personal agency and shaming their choices. That is an important distinction, and your comparison is watered down by ignoring it.

That's very true. Thanks for the addition. I'll try to hold that experience more central next time I bring it up.

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe 'the boot' is a British term for the trunk of an automobile, which I think fits the bill here :)

The context is the British pharmacy "Boots" - think Walgreens. The parent commenter's argument is that our society at large does not want heroin and coke sold at the corner drugstore. They want these substances out of sight, out of mind. It's all very well for us to imagine legalized drugs would be safer and more easy to regulate, but a majority of people disagree - so for the time being, they will continue being sol…

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA)

  https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WBA?p=WBA

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#605

I’m confused. So they felt at risk by allowing adults to post personal ads in search of romantic connections but they leave open the “Services->Therapeutic” category that openly promotes ads for illegal rub-and-tug establishments that are frequently the target of sex trafficking raids.

I sent Craig an email this morning saying the same thing. I don't get why they close down the part of the website that was (mostly, I guess?) supporting people trying to get in a relationship and, I'm sure some sort of Tinder like hookups, and leave open the part where they actually have some real exposure. Doesn't make sense.

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#606
post #562
post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>You think it's a violation of your First Amendment rights to be unable to openly advertise criminal activities? I dont know... lets see Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, Yep seems pretty clear to me, that congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.... So what part of that is unclear to you? >>Where does that line end? No where? Freedom of speech is absolute. It you have…

The Supreme Court (and other US courts) have repeatedly found that the US Constitution does not hold that freedom of speech is absolute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...

You seem ... to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.... Their power [is] the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#607
post #606
post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Supreme Court (and other US courts) have repeatedly found that the US Constitution does not hold that freedom of speech is absolute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...

You seem ... to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.... Their power [is] the more dangerous as they are in office for life, a…

Agreed that judges are not infallible, and we must keep watch, both in appointments being made and the judgements they make. That's why the Constitution is structured the way it is. It's important that we continue to do so, particularly now.

I also trust, unless proven otherwise, that these judges have studied the law and are acting in good faith, both as arbiters of justice and as American citizens. These aren't isolated, unique cases. On the whole, I would defer to them over my own opinion, as I would for many experts. And, without additional information about you, I'd defer to their opinion over yours, as I'd expect you to, in the same situation, as well.

I don't believe that there is some conspiracy across all of these judges and justices to systematically deprive citizens of rights. You are free to believe otherwise. I do believe that assuming bad faith across the board is a recipe for the destruction of community, society, and government. Perhaps you believe we're already at that point. I don't believe we are, at least not yet.

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#608
post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What morale decision am I making?

My point of view isn't to demonize those who have gone into prostitution now, in the past, or in the future, but recognize that it's not a choice that pretty much any of us would make for ourselves, nor the ones we care about. There is a thin line between saying that very few people would make a choice, and very few people should make a choice. You are correctly asserting that you said "would" not "should", but other…

Even if the stigma were removed, I think the years of human evolution which encourages men and women to pair-wise mate for life would make it hard on an emotional level for more people to provide sex as a service. Outside of our biological needs, the health risks would be difficult to manage as well. Perhaps if technology caught up and allowed for an immediate STD screening that would mitigate those risks significantly, and/or if every possible STD was treatable, then sure. There would still be the physical/sexual assault risks to contend with.

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20105147 https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/why-do-women-become-prostit... And, as to who exactly, psychologists.

Interesting links, thanks. From the Mental Help article: > the major concern about [Johns] is not so much that they pay for sex but that they seem blind to the plight of these women. They convince themselves that prostitution is a choice and that none of the women they see are exploited. There’s a lot of exploitation in our society, and I don’t like any of it. Simple example: when I go to a restaurant, it’s very poss…

My counter, if everyone had basic necessities met like health care, and universal basic income, would they choose to work as prostitutes?

Re: Craigslist takes personals sections offline in response to FOSTA

#610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is key. I strongly believe that legalization is the only answer to the problem. Why do we have to "believe"? There are many examples to learn from, to see what works and what doesn't. For example, this study [0]. "This paper suggests it’s the latter. Using trafficking data from 150 countries, the authors find that "countries where prostitution is legal experience a larger reported incidence of human traffickin…

> As an example, they discuss Germany, which legalized prostitution in 2002. The minimum estimate of sex trafficking victims in the country increased from 9,870 in 2001 to 11,080 in 2002, to 12,350 in 2003." Careful, such numbers typically come from criminal statistics. Those count reported cases, not convictions, and (by design) can't contain unreported cases. Alternative reading: by legalizing prostitution, an enti…

That's a narrative (like the comment I was responding to), not backed by any studies as far as I can tell.

Sex trafficking has always been illegal, and the reasons for its under-reporting have little to do with prostitution being illegal.

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