If you don’t understand why this witch is carrying a sackful of toys, I suggest you consult my column from this day in 2015, which also (not by coincidence) contains links to the columns for the previous four years. That should give you all the information you need to understand why I’m wishing some of my readers a Merry Christmas, some a Good Epiphany and others a Happy King Day, and welcoming all of you to the Carnival season!
Posts Tagged ‘witchcraft’
Little Christmas 2023
Posted in Holidays, tagged carnival, holidays, Italy, witchcraft on January 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1265)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Arkansas, Between the Lines, censorship, consensual crime, cops, dehumanization, drugs, hysteria, Kansas, libraries, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, politicians, propaganda, rape, South Dakota, statistics, surveillance, Texas, The Implosion Begins, The Last Shall Be First, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, transgender, violence vs. sex workers, Welcome to the Future, Winding Down, witchcraft on August 24, 2022| 4 Comments »
If there’s one thing law enforcement agents are not, it’s modest. – Elizabeth N. Brown
Cops covered up these crimes for six years:
A [typical and representative] Hutchinson [Kansas cop] was arrested…[for] more than a dozen sexual assault cases…between 2012 to 2018…Todd Allen…was arrested…on…multiple charges including rape, kidnapping, aggravated sexual battery and…child…[molestation. When current police chief Jeff] Hooper…took over the…department in 2018…[he discovered that there had been] a series of sexual assaults that had not been reported to the public…After…he [held a] press conference [on the subject]…the sexual assaults stopped happening…[and] Allen resigned from the department shortly after[ward. Then]…in 2022, the…department…received multiple “prowler” and “peeping tom” calls…and [arrested Allen while answering one of them]…Allen’s arrest closed 17 active sexual assault cases, including 12 cases between 2012 and 2018 and five since…
Liz Brown tries to assess the damage from this year’s “Operation Cross Country” pogroms:
Operation Cross Country, the FBI’s annual vice squad bonanza disguised as a human-trafficking rescue mission, is back. This year’s operation…involv[ed] more than 200 [cop shops and spook houses and claims to have]…located 37 missing minors, identified “more than 200 victims,” and led to the “identification or arrest” of 85 suspects. But it gives us little information beyond these broad statistics…the FBI press release mentions only three federal cases, none involving sex trafficking…
The hysteria is imploding so hard, it’s falling all the way back to its roots:
Accusations involving ritual sex abuse and the sexualization of children have surged into the mainstream of American politics over the past year…We ran a nationwide poll in cooperation with Qualtrics from May 26 to June 30 to gauge Americans’ views toward these topics…Twenty-six percent of Republicans and 29 percent of Democrats strongly agreed or agreed that Satanic ritual sex abuse is widespread; 36 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of Democrats strongly agreed or agreed that members of Satanic cults are secretly abusing thousands of children, and 32 percent of both Republicans and Democrats strongly agreed or agreed that government and Hollywood elites are running a massive child sex trafficking scheme. Sixty-three percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Democrats believed the debunked claim that 300,000 or more children are currently victims of sex trafficking in the US. These numbers suggest that these types of beliefs transcend typical partisan divisions…
Remember this when the New York Times or another media outlet who profited from this panic for two decades tells you it’s a “far-right conspiracy theory”.
Everything I read about modern corporate work makes me happier I became a whore:
In lower-paying jobs, the monitoring is already ubiquitous: not just at Amazon…but also for Kroger cashiers, UPS drivers and millions of others…Now [so-called] productivity monitoring is also spreading among white-collar [and professional] jobs…Many employees, whether working remotely or in person, are subject to trackers, scores, “idle” buttons, or just quiet, constantly accumulating records. Pauses can lead to penalties, from lost pay to lost jobs…Architects, academic administrators, doctors, nursing home workers and lawyers described growing electronic surveillance over every minute of their workday. They echoed complaints that employees in many lower-paid positions have voiced for years: that their jobs are relentless, that they don’t have control…[or] even…enough time to use the bathroom…[they] describe…being tracked as “demoralizing,” “humiliating” and “toxic”…But the most urgent complaint, spanning industries and incomes, is that the [surveillance systems]…are…inept at capturing offline activity, unreliable at assessing hard-to-quantify tasks and prone to undermining the work itself…
The Last Shall Be First (#1132)
What kind of mind thinks it’s OK to protest by threatening health care providers?
Boston Children’s Hospital has warned employees about mounting threats…after [anti-trans] activists on social media began targeting the hospital with false claims about its treatment of young transgender people…One allegation said that the hospital offered gender-affirming hysterectomies to [legal minors]…fact-checking organizations debunked the claims…but many of the same accounts continued to spread the false allegations…and…also targeted…individual doctors…leaving vulgar and harassing comments on their social media accounts and flooding their online pages with negative reviews. Some hospital staff have since made their social media profiles private…
Texas just won’t stop plunging that ice pick into its frontal lobes:
A day before kids return to class, Keller [Texas bureaucrats ordered] school [librarians to remove]…any book that was challenged last year from library shelves…among the titles…[are] Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Anne Frank’s Diary (The Graphic Adaptation) and The Bible…Keller [politicians]…kept its book c[ensorship] committee deliberations secret in part because of fear of retribution from Gov. Greg Abbott…Also this week, [politician] Jared Patterson…[of] Frisco…[demanded censorship of] nearly two dozen books…and…[complained that] Frisco…[politicians are]…not banning as many books as other local districts…
Over half of Americans now live in states with legal cannabis:
Voters in at least five states will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana this fall, and a similar measure may yet qualify for the ballot in one more state. If all six initiatives are successful, recreational use will be legal in half of the states, underlining the untenability of continuing federal prohibition. In Arkansas, where medical use was legalized in 2016, voters will consider a ballot initiative that would allow…recreational use [despite strong opposition from politicians]…In Maryland, where legislators authorized medical use in 2013, voters will consider a [similar] ballot initiative…In Missouri, where voters approved medical marijuana in 2018, this year’s ballot initiative would amend the state constitution to…remove state prohibition…North Dakota [is trying to legalize recreational use for the second time after a loss in 2018]…and…South Dakota…[is trying to circumvent] Gov. Kristi Noem[‘s]…overturn [of the will of the people using a legal technicality]…In Oklahoma, where voters approved medical marijuana…in 2018, they could have a chance to…legalize recreational use…Oklahoma has become an improbable model for marijuana reformers troubled by the problems that states like California have encountered in trying to displace the black market. Medical marijuana in Oklahoma is strikingly cheap and accessible, thanks largely to fast application approvals, light regulation, and modest taxes…
Links #629
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged Colorado, cops, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, video, witchcraft on July 24, 2022| 1 Comment »
There is no evidence (that I know of) that a Bigfoot can be summoned to do one’s evil bidding, like some kind of hairy hitman. – Kevin Underhill
This song used to be such a favorite on New Orleans classic rock stations during the summer, I always assumed the band was local (which it definitely was not). The links above it were provided by Cop Crisis (x2), Radley Balko, Tim Cushing, Dave Krueger, and Popehat, in that order.
- Cops beat man for kidney failure.
- Imagine the sentence you’d get for this.
- Cops burn down house to catch trespasser.
- This is clearly a case of justifiable homicide.
- Cops shoot 5 people while trying to murder a 6th.
- Just another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
From the Archives
- “It’s odd to make body cavity integrity dependent on who penetrates ’em.“
- This psychopathic wacko even makes some “rescue” fans uncomfortable.
- In case anyone still doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs.
- Corporations are becoming the favored tool of censors around the world.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives. Some don’t stop with beating.
- Is “this tool of oppression is only sold to oppressors” meant to reassure?
- Politicians’ war on the internet moves us another step toward idiocracy.
- Government wants blacks to think of rational thought as a white thing.
- The abuses committed by the “therapeutic state” are rarely so blatant.
- The European Court of Human Rights just keeps kissing racists’ arses.
- “Prisons act as though they’re entitled to exploit people in perpetuity.“
- Hawley’s long history of spouting self-aggrandizing lies about whores.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is ruled unconstitutional.
- Swedish model pushers are starting to be recognized as copsuckers.
- Will Western media ever stop tiptoeing around calling this what it is?
- The biggest problem with working through someone else’s platform.
- Prohibitionist attempt to destroy Leeds red light district is defeated.
- Even the request for screening info acts as a form of pre-screening.
- Cops, sharks, Henry Mancini, William F. Nolan, and much more.
- Twitter accidentally admitted what everyone already knew.
- On the ethical abomination that is cop glorification drama.
- Internet-connected devices surreptitiously eavesdropping.
- Just another of those nonexistent false rape accusations.
- A retrospective of my columns from July 2016 and 2017.
- US newsmedia panic over hysteria of their own making.
- Anything that helps demystify sex work is a good thing.
- Cops, Florida, hot dogs, Art Neville and much more.
- Cops, curses, puritanism, “Jolene”, and much more.
- Moving into phase 2 of the bathhouse project.
- It’s that whole “could vs should” thing again.
- For me, travel never fails to provoke anxiety.
- This is quickly moving into the mainstream.
- What other country does this sound like?
- My little rose bush moves out to Sunset.
- To St. Mary Magdalene on her feast day.
- In which I learn the basics of welding.
- A “life hack” for a surfeit of daylight.
- A wound that never will heal.
- Rapist cops of the week.
Links #612
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, California, cops, drugs, Georgia, I can't breathe, racism, Tennessee, Utah, video, witchcraft on March 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I can’t breathe. – Edward Bronstein
When a musician with only one hit dies, deciding which song to feature is a piece of cake. The links above it were provided by Cop Crisis, Jesse Walker, Cop Crisis again, The Onion, Dave Krueger, Popehat, and Jesse Walker again, in that order.
- I can’t breathe.
- R.I.P. Timmy Thomas.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- And here you thought The Onion was satire.
- Cops arrest 65 people for partying while black.
- Cops are best employed chasing wannabe cops.
- Just as scientific as the majority of “forensic science”.
From the Archives
- It’s good to see a story like this quote at least one knowledgeable person.
- Everyone harmed by “prostitution stings” needs to keep suing over them.
- Prohibitionist profiteers will harass businesses thus until FOSTA is gone.
- They actually admit this shit law is designed to put people through hell.
- “You’re giving all your data to the porn equivalent of Mark Zuckerberg.”
- Hollywood actors really need to stop pretending expertise in sexology.
- Waffle House is so reliable, FEMA uses it as a disaster severity metric.
- The pandemic affects sex workers in Germany, Bangladesh & Bolivia.
- Prohibitionists’ next target isn’t just Pornhub; it’s all online sex work.
- “The careers of…politicians benefit from the war on female sexuality.”
- A reminder of what the government is trying to take away from you.
- Your regular reminder that rapist screws are not confined to the US.
- Violent, coercive “wing” idiots are completely detached from reality.
- Katz is in reality a duplicitous proponent of Swedish criminalization.
- For a change, this journalist doesn’t refer to torture as “correction”.
- Cops, Al Jaffee, Yaphet Kotto, George Segal, PBS, and much more.
- The majority of petty evildoers see themselves as just doing a job.
- Lots of sex workers are quoted in this rebuke of yellow journalism.
- Do I really have to add, “Not because a little boy picked a flower”?
- Cops, politicians, Stuart Gordon, Kenny Rogers, and much more.
- “Give me your huddled masses, so I can torture them to death.”
- This pro-censorship screed is utterly larded with dysphemisms.
- A thorough analysis of the awfulness of “end demand” policies.
- A glimpse into the violent sociopathy that is prohibitionism.
- The pandemic seems to be killing “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- And guess who gets to declare that an “emergency” exists?
- A retrospective of my blogging from March 2016 and 2017.
- Prohibitionist whining is becoming increasingly desperate.
- The beginning of “sex trafficking” morphing into QAnon.
- Ally Deviant Ollam on internet security for sex workers.
- Wow, two politicians with a particle of human decency!
- Dr. Laura Agustín with GAATW on the rescue industry.
- All too often, human tragedies are wholly predictable.
- As always, sex workers demonstrate our adaptability.
- Even rent-a-cops feel entitled to rape sex workers.
- Cops, censorship, Rube Goldberg and much more.
- How you can see The War on Whores for yourself.
- Predictable in the current Neo-Victorian climate.
- The Canadian premiere of The War on Whores.
- A fundraiser to promote The War on Whores.
- Like seeing pictures in clouds or inkblots.
- My new pullets at three weeks old.
- The best surprise is no surprise.
- On chickens and bookcases.
- What a sick, sorry waste.
Little Christmas 2022
Posted in Holidays, tagged carnival, holidays, Italy, witchcraft on January 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
If you don’t understand why this witch is carrying a sackful of toys, I suggest you consult my column from seven years ago today, which also (not by coincidence) contains links to the columns for the previous four years. That should give you all the information you need to understand why I’m wishing some of my readers a Merry Christmas, some a Good Epiphany and others a Happy King Day, and welcoming all of you to the Carnival season!
Links #600
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged California, cops, hysteria, Japan, Kenya, restaurants, Tennessee, United Kingdom, video, witchcraft on January 3, 2022| 2 Comments »
My freezer is full of roadkill. – Sarah Day
In honor of the death of one of its stars, here’s one of the more spectacular musical numbers from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The links above it were provided by Mike Siegel, Dan Savage, Scott Greenfield, a reader who prefers to remain anonymous, Jesse Walker, and Cop Crisis (x2), in that order.
- Wonka-san.
- R.I.P. Sally Ann Howes.
- It’s good to have a hobby.
- I hate it when this happens.
- The Golden Apples of the Sun.
- Why some restaurants turn away cops.
- They value their points above your life.
From the Archives
- Prohibition turns bodies into “crime scenes” which cops can violate at will.
- In case you thought screws restricted their petty sadism to the prisoners.
- More cops raping sex workers (excuse me, “rescuing trafficking victims”).
- Cops wait a year to arrest a dangerous, violent serial rapist. Guess why?
- A study trashes the justifications for ruinous authoritarian “lockdowns”.
- I recently gave an interview for the 30th anniversary of Pretty Woman.
- Imprisonment doesn’t magically become “care” for prisoners under 18.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is ruled unconstitutional.
- When will the US abandon “re-education” for sex workers and clients?
- A Nigerian vice gang allowed to do anything to terrorize sex workers.
- Just another lying politician who wants to police others’ private lives.
- The State finally “finds” what thousands have told them for decades.
- Even the yellow press can no longer ignore this megalomaniac’s lies.
- Even I am impressed with the speed this is happening in New York.
- “Give me your huddled masses, so I can torture and deport them”.
- Americans will believe basically any scaremongering about teens.
- “Efforts to abolish sex work have one thing in common—failure!“
- Cops, games, Bach, Pierre Cardin, Dawn Wells, and much more.
- Opportunists produce “studies” to “find” what is already known.
- A new level of public support for sex workers from a politician.
- Facebook doesn’t try to stop cops from making fake accounts.
- In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- A long-overdue move by Mexico to throw off US domination.
- A “national leader in the field of sex offender management”.
- Previous columns for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
- It usually starts with us, but it never, ever stops with us.
- The 20th anniversary of my becoming a full-time escort.
- The rising costs of promoting “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- Cops, government, racism, rock & roll and much more.
- Horrifyingly-abusive nuns are not restricted to Ireland.
- Fascist corporations are eager to assist in a genocide.
- Congress won’t stop until it controls the internet.
- Cops, fantasy, love in Iran, and much more.
- Beginning the remodeling project at Sunset.
- A video about China’s genocide of Uighurs.
- How my 2012 predictions looked in 2019.
- Enjoying some seasonal relaxation.
- The “security” system that isn’t.
- What a lovely Christmas I had!
- “Pastors” are as bad as cops.
- So progress! Much Seattle!
- My official semi-retirement.
The Sparkle of a Star
Posted in Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged drugs, imaginative fiction, LGBT rights, marriage, psychology, racism, witchcraft on May 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »
We are quicksilver, a fleeting shadow, a distant sound…our home has no boundaries beyond which we cannot pass. We live in music, in a flash of color…we live on the wind and in the sparkle of a star!
– Endora (Agnes Moorehead)
A couple of years ago I rewatched Bewitched, a show I always enjoyed in my youth but hadn’t seen since the early ’80s. I’ve always thought Elizabeth Montgomery was an excellent actress, but this time the magic of cannabis (which slows down my hyperactive nervous system so that I can really watch these shows in a way I’ve never been able to before) opened my eyes to just how talented she really was; she could convey so much with just her facial expressions and vocal manner, and her comedic timing was brilliant. But beyond that, I saw aspects of the show itself that were previously opaque to me. I’ve always recognized that many of the episodes are veiled commentaries on racism and other forms of bigotry; that was typical of the 1960s, when fantasy and science fiction shows could sneak controversial issues past uptight sponsors and network censors by disguising them as the stuff of alien worlds or magical happenings. When Samantha angrily denounced ugly witch stereotypes or mortals’ fear of those who are different, the perceptive viewer understood what the show was really saying. As I grew older, I realized that there was also a more-deeply-buried queer subtext which was too radical even for most contemporary viewers who thought of themselves as liberal: beside the fact that several of the principals were played by gay men, Samantha had to hide her true nature in order to exist in the judgmental mortal world, and only in the company of other witches could she really be herself. Furthermore, those mortals were willing to hunt, persecute and even burn those like her merely because they were different. But queer people weren’t the only sexual minority violently persecuted and actively hunted by 20th-century puritans; while I’m sure it was unintentional, sex workers can also see ourselves reflected in this magic mirror.
When I last watched the show, in my late teens or very early twenties, I naturally identified most with Samantha. But on this rewatch, I found myself identifying with her mother, Endora, due in part to her age, in part to her unique personal style, and in part to her attitude toward her daughter’s marriage. I’m old enough to have a daughter in her twenties or early thirties, and I can certainly understand how I’d feel if she married a man I thought wasn’t good enough for her. But it goes beyond that: the association between sex work and witchcraft is a very old one, and even today many sex workers metaphorically describe our work as “magic” (not to mention the many sex workers who actually do specifically practice witchcraft, though obviously not the fantasy TV variety). Endora’s chief gripe with her son-in-law isn’t really that he’s mortal; it’s that he wants to rob her beloved daughter of her birthright by forcing her to eschew magic and submit to mortal drudgery. And every time I heard her say this to Samantha (in quite a few episodes), I imagined how I would feel if my beautiful daughter gave up a successful career in sex work to marry a “dumbo” who demanded she renounce her heritage, shun her whore friends, and work a shitty square job when she could make far more with far less effort by doing what she’s good at instead of letting herself be limited to behavior that doesn’t make dreary, unimaginative authoritarians uncomfortable.
Could It Be…Satan?
Posted in Current Events, History, Music, Philosophy, tagged homosexuality, hysteria, imaginative fiction, psychology, video, witchcraft on April 8, 2021| 4 Comments »
Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil. Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil. – Eric Hoffer
To paraphrase Baudelaire, the loveliest trick of religion is to convince people that the Devil exists. Humans have never been fond of admitting blame for anything, but when someone is caught red-handed committing some evil and therefore cannot blame any other human, the truly devout buck-passer blames an invisible, intangible, supernatural force. Authoritarians, too, love their devils; what better way to convince the Great Unwashed to render their obedience and surrender their liberty than to convince them of the existence of super-powerful evil spirits who cannot be stopped except by whatever snake oil those authoritarians are selling? Over the past couple of centuries, belief in actual anthropomorphic deities of evil has slowly been replaced by belief in more tangible devils such as “criminals”, “terrorists”, “pimps”, and “people who vote differently than I do”, but as we head into a new dark age belief in a literal red guy with horns, hooves, a tail and a pitchfork has once again become popular in the Underdeveloped States of America. The occult boom of the early ’70s (heralded by movies like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby) paved the way for the Satanic panic of the ’80s and early ’90s, which after an implosion around 1994 soon returned as the “sex trafficking” hysteria; its roots in the older, more openly-religious hysteria are clearly visible in its QAnon branch and in persistent nonsense about the supposed magical powers of “pimps”. And every so often, people whose entire understanding of how the universe works could be crammed into a chicken’s brain pan and still leave room for a politician’s moral compass, shit all over themselves because some musician employs “Satanic” imagery comparable in sophistication to that in a US television show from the 1950s. Every society has throwbacks like this; the difference is that in America, we pretend they’re adults and let them decide who’s going to run things.
In the News (#1123)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged activism, agency denial, Business As Usual, cops, end demand, End Demand (updates), evidence, Georgia, Imagination Pinned Down, Lack of Evidence, lawheads, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Not for Any Reason Whatsoever, Ohio, politicians, Predictable Consequences, prisons, propaganda, psychology, racism, rescue industry, Safe Position, sex work is work, Stop faking!, Swedish model, The Naked Anthropologist, Torture Chamber, video, violence vs. sex workers, witchcraft, yellow journalism on March 27, 2021| 1 Comment »
This guy lay in shit and…died in [a] cell that looks like a friggin’ horse stall. – unnamed investigator
Like seeing pictures in clouds or inkblots:
When the unrecognizable body of Jeannette DePalma…was found atop a…wooded hill…called the Devil’s Teeth in 1972, rumors spread quickly that the [16-year-old] was killed in some sort of satanic rite…Police…[claim]ed…they had found signs they thought might be related to the occult, including crosses made of sticks and branches arranged in a coffin-like outline around her body…But crime scene photographs released for the first time [last month]…debunk those claims, showing that DePalma’s body was simply lying in a dense, brushy area…facedown with an arm draped over a downed tree branch…Jason Coy, a history professor…who researches witchcraft…said he can’t find any sign of the occult or any other symbolism in the jumble of brush and branches. It suggests that investigators, looking for something sinister, saw patterns that weren’t there…“Everything in th[e police] sketch that was marked out as a cross, in these crime scene photos just looks like a pile of underbrush…it’s a perfect example of how…i[f] someone…[has] the idea that something could be occult, they remember things that way”…
Here’s Dr. Laura Agustín with GAATW on the rescue industry:
For a change, this journalist doesn’t refer to torture as “correction”:
…Reginald Wilson spent more than 1,300 days in and out of jail since 1997 for charges often related to his fragile mental health…in December 2018 [Georgia cops abducted and caged him] for a probation violation…[dur]ing a mental health crisis…he was [lock]ed in a padded [cell and given no professional help, even after]…he smeared his own feces on the wall. “He never slept. He was constantly just up, doing almost like gymnastics when you watched the video,” one [screw admitted to]…investigators…Wilson stopped eating, drinking and refused to take medication…[yet] the jail’s psychiatrist never saw [him]. In[stead,] staff [just repeatedly yelled “stop faking” at]…him…[and cop]s tased him at least tw[ice]. After… eight days…a [screw] found Wilson not breathing…[and] covered in…feces…[he had] died from…dehydration…
Do I really have to add, “Not because a little boy picked a flower”?
[A] 6-year-old…was accused of picking a tulip from a yard at his bus stop, his attorney Julie Boyer said, and…was on trial…for injury to real property. The boy’s attention span was too short to follow the proceedings…[so] Boyer…handed him crayons and a coloring book…she…and others [explain that] children that age don’t have the mental capacity to understand the juvenile justice process and…can’t make informed decisions…[yet at present North Carolina]…expect[s them to]…”Should a child that believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy be making life-altering decisions?” asked…Judge Jay Corpening…[local] advocates…recommend…the age be raised to 12…The National Juvenile Justice Network recommends 14…
It’s good to see a story like this quote at least one knowledgeable person:
Columbus [Ohio politicians] are weighing changes to local solicitation laws that would emphasize pu…shing [propaganda about] those who pay for sex [in addition to propaganda about] those who sell it…[politician] Mitchell Brown [vomited out popular nonsense about]…sex trafficking…chief [copagandist and rape apologist] Jennifer Knight…[salivated about forcing people into “re-education”] sessions…[but actual] researchers like Jennifer Suchland argue “end demand” policies often backfire…“Because there’s now substantial evidence to show that they are, one, not actually reducing the amount of exploitation, and two, they are increasing the precarity of those people who are in the sex trade”…Suchland says…the “end demand” model is based on a faulty assumption…
Knight is the sow charged with making excuses for the Columbus rape gang, and claims the way to “build trust” with women is to hunt, rape and cage them.
Don’t be deceived by Katz, a duplicitous proponent of Swedish criminalization:
Queens, New York, District Attorney Melinda Katz moved…to dismiss nearly 700 cases against people charged with loitering for the purpose of prostitution…[on] the same day…Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed [Swedish-style]…criminaliz[ation]…The…law was repealed last month out of concern it too often targeted…people…based solely on their appearance…Katz [followed up by bloviating about]…sex trafficking…
Katz is dismissing these cases because she has to, since the law they were charged under was repealed. This isn’t some kind of personal move on her part toward sex worker rights, despite claims to the contrary.
Lots of sex workers are quoted in this rebuke of prohibitionist yellow journalism:
…The New York Times re[acted to]…the recent slayings of eight persons at three “Asian” spas…by a deranged religious nut…with a self-[indulgent article]…adopting the rhetoric…of…sex work…pro[hibitionists], painting the spas as havens for sex trafficking…without one quote from sex workers or sex worker rights advocates, the Times piece [claim]s that “experts say there are more than 9,000 such businesses” in the U.S. which are “fronts for prostitution,” and that “many of the women working there are being exploited.” That dubious statistic hails from a particularly odious non-profit, the Polaris Project, which has long conflated consensual adult sex work with sex trafficking and has a history of dealing in fake statistics and urban legends…Massage workers…have no agency, nor any voice, in this scheme or this article…
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