I think most of my readers know that I think the idea that there is only One True Path to Decriminalization is as wrongheaded and destructive as the notion that there is only One True Path to Salvation. Those who claim that a labor rights approach, or a privacy rights approach, or a social justice approach, or a civil liberties approach, or a medical approach, or a harm reduction approach, or whatever, represent the only way to achieve sex worker rights, have been drinking their own Kool-Aid and need to move on to more potent and adult beverages. But there is one popular approach that I’m going to ask y’all to reconsider, because I believe it’s doing more harm than good: Please stop telling authoritarians that their terrible laws are harming sex workers and even getting us killed. Look, I fully understand why y’all think this will work; it’s because you’re decent human beings who care about others, so naturally you think other decent human beings will also care. And you’re mostly right, except for one small factor: politicians, cops and other authoritarians are not decent human beings. They are sociopaths who think that “law and order” trumps every other concern, and at a minimum accept harm to sex workers as acceptable collateral damage in their war to establish a jackboot Utopia with them at the top; in the worst cases (which means most of them), they are happy when their laws harm sex workers, because that is their specific intent. In other words, when you tell these moral imbeciles, “Please stop because you’re killing us,” you are not dissuading them from their course of action; you are encouraging it. Don’t believe me? Consider that the Skarhed Report, the Swedish government’s own report on their eponymous “model”, stated quite clearly that “negative effects of the [sex purchase] ban…must be viewed as positive from the perspective that the purpose of the law is…to combat prostitution“…in other words, “it’s a good thing that those dirty whores are dying, because omelettes and eggs and all.” And then there’s this video, which I’ve shared often, that states the prohibitionist attitude so clearly and distinctly you may even be able to see it through rose-colored glasses:
And here’s a selection from a recent article on Florida’s creation of an adjunct “sex offender” registry strictly for clients and sex workers accused of any of the “offenses” that are now fashionable to call “sex trafficking”:
…Savannah Parvu, an anti-sex-[work activist] and [prohibitionist] who advised Rep. Fitzenhagen on the bill…[believes] that that sex workers are…acceptable collateral…“Sex workers…claim they’re doing it willingly, so if a bill that is designed to [empower the police state]…puts sex workers in danger or is bad for…business…then maybe it’s time for a career change”…The bill’s authors are well aware of the criticism—but they don’t…see the issues that activists raise as problems. “In case it was lost on you, a consensual sex worker, AKA a prostitute, is committing a crime,” Rep. Fitzenhagen said in…March…“It is not my intent to work with them moving forward”…
By all means, keep making this argument to the public, and pointing out the dangers of prohibition to reporters, academics and other potential allies. But when you tell die-hard prohibitionists their schemes are hurting us, that’s just free intel for them from the front lines of a war against humanity they will do anything to win.
I’ve always said that debating the other side isn’t about appealing to them, but to the audience to the debate.
I have no problem, when confronting a prohibitionist in public, of posing a loaded question to them: “So you really don’t care who gets hurt as a result of your actions?” As they don’t want to seem insensitive in front of voters, they’ll likely flounder for a rationalization — and I’d keep pressing the point that they don’t care about people getting hurt until “something gives” and members of the audience begin to see that the Emperor has no clothes.
❝More and more I’m convinced that one of the greatest and most destructive evils humanity has produced is Meddling For Your Own Good.❞
That’s one of mine. Odd how these “moral crusades” always involve someone else paying the price. Or,
❝Why does your enlightenment demand that I sacrifice?❞
You make some great points, and I value you perspective.
Authoritarianism in all of its forms is what it is destroying this country.
Unfortunately, that includes those who will not recognize that their “rights” end at my nose. Those who believe that liberty is license without responsibility, and gives them the right to do whatever they want without regard to the consequences it might have for others.
Here in Colorado we have too many homeless and ne’er-do-wells who shout libertarian platitudes to justify their bad behavior. They quote Aun Rand from high and/or drunken memory, and then curse you when you don’t give them a back.
I still believe in maximizing everyone’s rights under the Constitution, but 150 years ago I’d have have pulled out my Colt ,44 Navy and shot them.
The Colt Navy was a .36. It was the Army that used a .44 with a 1″ longer barrel. 🙂
Besides most people being basically decent folks (if often sadly misinformed), there is another factor at work: The authoritarians have a very strong propaganda machine that tries drive drive home the message that _they_ are the good guys and many people cannot see though that. Just look at all the “cop shows” on TV, for example, and the whole mythology of the cops being the best/finest/whatever of “us”, when in actual reality, nothing of the sort is the case. “The Law” is also routinely depicted as the one force of good that protects everybody against the marauding hordes of criminals that would otherwise rape and kill everybody.
They do not do that for politicians, probably because these people are so obviously and publicly bad apples that nobody would believe it.
Hence I completely agree, these people _want_ to do harm. The whole thing is also quite in line with the research results into authoritarianism. They basically say “you are with us or against us” and application of any amount of violence to the “others” is not only legitimate, but called for, in true cave-man fashion.
There may also be a factor of attempting to get a “victim bonus” for sex workers, because some parts of modern culture seem to believe that victims (real or imagined) are somehow heroes that need to be celebrated. This does of course not work against the adversary here, as this adversary classifies everybody not in their camp literally as not human and hence incapable of being a target for compassion.
I think the only thing that can be done is keep repeating this message.