Trump supporters gather outside courthouse and ask: Who among us hasn’t paid for sex?
Donald Trump has not been accused of paying for sex, but several supporters protesting outside of his trial on Monday wanted to make it clear that they have. It seems the crowds that come out to protest the persecution of the former president are getting smaller, and weirder
…
Today, however, the crowd had thinned to a handful of true believers and true characters – those who don’t leave their house without a giant flag, a bullhorn, and an offensive T-shirt they made themselves.
It’s not only that the crowds are getting smaller, it’s that they are getting significantly weirder.
Of the people willing to step up to a microphone outside the courthouse and defend Mr Trump for allegedly paying off a porn star to hide his alleged affair from prospective voters, two offered something of a wild defence: that they opposed the charges because they too had paid for sex on more than one occasion, and assumed most men had done the same.
It didn’t matter to them that Mr Trump is not being accused of paying for sex, but rather accused of having embarked on several extra-marital affairs and falsifying business records over payments made to hide those affairs from the voting public in 2016.
Well, let’s legalize prostitution. Regulate it, tax it, legitimize it.
Conservatives: hell no, we can’t have that depravity and vice. We need to punish women for sex outside of marriage. Oh, yeah…and no abortions for them either. (Unless it’s my daughter or mistress)
Also conservatives: Yeah, we still pay for sex. Rules only apply to other people.
They legitimately believe it should be fine to pay for sex, but should be illegal to be paid for sex.
Most sex workers are women, so it tracks
I wonder how Lindsey feels.
That old post that posited conservatism is "ingroups to protect, outgroups to bind" was really on the mark.
True! Isn't there a famous quote related to that? Trying to recall....
The original is from here: https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288
I think it was just some guy on the Internet, but it's a compelling description.
It makes my head hurt how ridiculous conservatives are and how they spin things. They’re only making their lives harder. Imagine the amount of tax revenue that could be collected from legalizing prostitution.
Let's say it together: they don't actually care about fiscal responsibility.
It's obvious that they don't because they only ever work one variable (spending) of the fucking equation:
spending - income = deficit
Even if you stop all of your spending entirely, you'll remain in debt forever if you never have any income, so it's a losing way to fix the problem, but that won't stop them or their idiot voters from insisting upon it.
Their only consistency is inconsistency.
It's not a homogenous group. You've absolutely got libertarians on one end, wanting to dissolve the state and legalize a market for children as sexual commodities on one end. And then you've got the Holy Rollers on the order end, who think coffee and cigarettes need to be next on the chopping block.
They formed an alliance of convenience to crush the labor movement. But now they are very awkward bedfellows.
Oh yeah, and make it more difficult for those trapped in their situation to get out of it.
Gotta keep women in their place and under control, even if we say it’s the wrong place. It’s all about control and restricting their autonomy.
hey producing more slave class is important to. its not just about the women.
If we are going to make it illegal, we really need to flip the laws and make it illegal to hire one. This would give those in the business a legal way of asking for help.
Not sure what you mean. Soliciting a prostitute is already illegal in most states.
Well in Sweden it's legal to sell but illegal to buy
I see this sentiment a lot from the uneducated crowd, but unfortunately human trafficking seems to increase whenever sex work is legalized so I cannot condone it.
Human trafficking is there, anyway. The victims tend to be afraid, because they're forced to do otherwise illegal things, and therefore don't want to come forward. So what often happens under legalization is that a whole bunch of victims suddenly come out, which is now recorded as an increase in human trafficking.
So you're saying it's okay to torture and rape even more women and children because there were already women and children being raped and tortured anyways? I'm not seeing the logic, mate.
Studies show increases in the country where humans are sourced from, not explainable by "victims suddenly coming out".
No, try to read more carefully.
No, you try to read more carefully.
Royally ratioed.
As if 20 down arrows would change how I feel about human trafficking.
It might have encouraged you to notice that they are saying that the increase you are talking about is likely a statistical anomaly caused by the depressive effect sex work being illegal has on victims coming forward.
Put simply, sex work being illegal is beneficial to human traffickers because it keeps victims from seeking help. If you are a victim of a crime you're more likely to come forward when you are not likely to get charged yourself for the trouble of being trafficked.
I've already explained that the victims coming forward does not account for the increase in human trafficking from countries where they're being sourced from. Plus, it's not just a 5% uptick, in many cases the number is several times or magnitudes higher than before legalization of prostitution.
What is happening is demand is being created far faster than domestic supply.
Seems to be working well in the Netherlands, mate.
Not according to the Netherlands, mate.
https://www.nationaalrapporteur.nl/publicaties/rapporten/2021/01/21/dadermonitor-mensenhandel-2015-2019
According to them, Human Trafficking more than doubled over the observed period. They also saw despite the higher number of victims the number of suspects decreased.
Also a 2022 report in English shows the trend continued strong: https://www.dutchrapporteur.nl/latest/news/2023/10/18/annual-figures-human-trafficking-2022
“Uneducated”I think you need to do some reading, friend. Human trafficking is already a big problem. Legitimizing sex work and regulating it removes t some of the incentives to operate behind the scenes, just like legalizing pot, and frankly you get rid of the whole under-age thing because no government entity is going to allow that.S/he's right.
I wish it were true, but it's really not. Human trafficking increases in both countries that legalize sex work and also countries where the humans are trafficked from. Tons of studies over many decades illustrate the cold hard truth.
Well, damn...you're right. TIL.
https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/
The problem with these case studies are that they are small. If you don't know what's what and your pimp tells you it's illegal and you can't go to the police, you might believe them. If it's widely and commonly known that it's legal and that the police will actually help you, then that will change the results. That and if you throw the weight and resources of, oh let's say, DEA marijuana enforcement against human trafficking, that will also change the results.
Your theory is not supported by data. Massive amounts of data collected over decades.