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Are there really no other problems for the SC legislature to solve? Is this really the most burning problem facing the state or is this some bible thumpers push

Are there really no other problems for the SC legislature to solve? Is this really the most burning problem facing the state or is this some bible thumpers push to be relevant and in the news?

waynecochran 10y ago
You may disagree with the method and whether it is effective or not, but if the goal is to stop sex trafficking then that indeed should be a high priority.
- morgante 10y ago
  Stopping people from looking at porn is, at best, orthogonal to sex trafficking. This is a bunch of religious zealots trying to control others under the guise of humanitarianism. It's a classic technique: who can argue with sex trafficking as a cause? So just wrap up hideous legislation in that disguise.
  - mst 10y ago
    > who can argue with sex trafficking as a cause? Anybody who thinks the police raping prostitutes is a bad thing.
  - TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago
    There seems to be a creeping habit of quietly slipping in draconian legislation as a rider to otherwise routine proposals. This feels like a slightly different approach in that the primary legislation has a nice easily defendable title. Who wouldn't want to stop human trafficking? Unfortunately, it seems that there is little interest in challenging this behaviour, presumably because the only ones who are in a position to directly challenge those doing it also have a vested interest in keeping such behaviour out of the public eye.
  - module0000 10y ago
    > Stopping people from looking at porn "Porn" is open to a lot of interpretation. What is pornography... women wearing colored clothing? Pictures of Islamic women's ankles? It's a slippery slope as they say, and incredibly subjective.
    - morgante 10y ago
      I know it when I see it.
    - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
      >"Porn" is open to a lot of interpretation. No, it's open to completely arbitrary redefinition for the sake of an authority figure's personal power. If this bill passes, I give an 85% chance that at some point someone will claim the Democratic Party's website is child pornography. I am willing to bet money on this. A power-grab is a power-grab.
- mst 10y ago
  Given "stop sex trafficking" usually means "empower the police to harass and often rape sex workers", I really don't want any legislature prioritising it. I'd recommend reading up on sex workers' rights movements - you'll find that, in general, "anti-trafficking" operations mostly hurt the very people they're claiming to protect while appealing to people's prudishness to deny the agency of the women in question when they dare to disagree.
- wcarron 10y ago
  Personally, I doubt it. Feels like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Rep says: "It's to stop human sex trafficking save children!" History says: "It's to push my religious agenda and reduce the privacy and freedoms of the populace under the guise of helping the disenfranchised"
- venomsnake 10y ago
  Is there any recent development I am unaware of that makes SC the sex trafficking hotspot of the United States?
- heartbreak 10y ago
  If the Upstate is a hotbed for sex trafficking, then it only makes sense that the Greenville County Sheriffs Office spent $26,000 over the course of a year at a single strip club "investigating" illegal prostitution. Source: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article25716517.html http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article25716517.html
- belorn 10y ago
  If we are going to disregard the cause and effect, then there is such better methods available to deal with this high priority problem. Lets just eliminate free movement of people and require travel paper for anyone moving between cities and states. People may disagree with the method, but free movement is what enables sex trafficking. Drastic problem require drastic measures, and if the goal is to stop sex trafficking then indeed it should be applied, right?
- Spooky23 10y ago
  If you want to stop human trafficking, enforce labor laws in Chinese restaurants.
TheRealDunkirk 10y ago
FTFA: > The bill also would prohibit access to any online hub that facilities prostitution and would require manufacturers or sellers to block any websites that facilitate trafficking, Chumley said. At this point, I'm thinking to myself, "South Carolina is a hotbed of human trafficking?!" > “The human trafficking thing has exploded. It’s gotten to be a real problem,” Chumley said. > State officials have categorized the Upstate as a hotbed for human trafficking due to its location on Interstate 85 between Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., two cities that consistently rank among the top 20 for human sex trafficking in the U.S. Oh. Yeah, it's a stupid solution, but he says that's not the point. It's to draw attention to the problem. The article wasn't even long.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  It doesn't seem like he's proposing the bill as a PR stunt to bring attention to human trafficking, but rather to the fact that porn is easily available: > “It’s where almost everybody has access to a computer now. It’s porn on demand,” Chumley said. “We have to start somewhere. … We’re bringing attention to it. We’re not being political. It’s an issue I’m pretty passionate about.” He also said that they're going to continue debating the bill: > Chumley referred to the bill as a “beginning point” and said once the legislation is debated in session, changes could be made.
MisterBastahrd 10y ago
Conservative southern politicians aren't exactly worried about what makes sense past what gets them re-elected. Vigorous hand-wringing about nebulous moral issues due to the self-righteous nature of their constituents is one of the issues that checks that box. Pay no attention to the fact that this is one of those regulations that will unduly burden businesses. Or the fact that every PC already has a hosts file of sorts. The only thing a porn filter has in common with sex trafficking is that they both have something to do with sex.
couchpillow 10y ago
I moved to SC (somewhat unfortunately I suppose) a couple of years ago and I have been quite surprised at the many Stop Sex Trafficking bill boards and things I've seen around. It seems to be a fairly big issue in the state (or at least the upstate area). I lived up in PA most of my life and spent about 4 years in Southern CA and I don't really ever recall seeing sex trafficking billboards anywhere else that I've traveled or lived. So when I first saw that a bill was introduced about combating sex trafficking, I thought - man this must REALLY be a big problem here. And maybe there are some pieces of it that make sense. But they always seem to bury in and hide so much extra bullshit that it starts to make zero sense what they are trying to really achieve. tl,dr: not surprised SC trying to pass stop sex trafficking law; not surprised bill contains extra bullshit tactics for raising more money to fund said law.
- makomk 10y ago
  That's pretty much how "sex trafficking" works as a political issue - people see all the billboards and laws and articles and think that it must be a really big problem, so they support more billboards and laws and so on and infinitum. No evidence that it actually exists is required.

Are there really no other problems for the SC legislature to solve? Is this really the most burning problem facing the state or is this some bible thumpers push to be relevant and in the news?

waynecochran 10y ago

You may disagree with the method and whether it is effective or not, but if the goal is to stop sex trafficking then that indeed should be a high priority.

morgante 10y ago
Stopping people from looking at porn is, at best, orthogonal to sex trafficking. This is a bunch of religious zealots trying to control others under the guise of humanitarianism. It's a classic technique: who can argue with sex trafficking as a cause? So just wrap up hideous legislation in that disguise.
- mst 10y ago
  > who can argue with sex trafficking as a cause? Anybody who thinks the police raping prostitutes is a bad thing.
- TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago
  There seems to be a creeping habit of quietly slipping in draconian legislation as a rider to otherwise routine proposals. This feels like a slightly different approach in that the primary legislation has a nice easily defendable title. Who wouldn't want to stop human trafficking? Unfortunately, it seems that there is little interest in challenging this behaviour, presumably because the only ones who are in a position to directly challenge those doing it also have a vested interest in keeping such behaviour out of the public eye.
- module0000 10y ago
  > Stopping people from looking at porn "Porn" is open to a lot of interpretation. What is pornography... women wearing colored clothing? Pictures of Islamic women's ankles? It's a slippery slope as they say, and incredibly subjective.
  - morgante 10y ago
    I know it when I see it.
  - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
    >"Porn" is open to a lot of interpretation. No, it's open to completely arbitrary redefinition for the sake of an authority figure's personal power. If this bill passes, I give an 85% chance that at some point someone will claim the Democratic Party's website is child pornography. I am willing to bet money on this. A power-grab is a power-grab.
mst 10y ago
Given "stop sex trafficking" usually means "empower the police to harass and often rape sex workers", I really don't want any legislature prioritising it. I'd recommend reading up on sex workers' rights movements - you'll find that, in general, "anti-trafficking" operations mostly hurt the very people they're claiming to protect while appealing to people's prudishness to deny the agency of the women in question when they dare to disagree.
wcarron 10y ago
Personally, I doubt it. Feels like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Rep says: "It's to stop human sex trafficking save children!" History says: "It's to push my religious agenda and reduce the privacy and freedoms of the populace under the guise of helping the disenfranchised"
venomsnake 10y ago
Is there any recent development I am unaware of that makes SC the sex trafficking hotspot of the United States?
heartbreak 10y ago
If the Upstate is a hotbed for sex trafficking, then it only makes sense that the Greenville County Sheriffs Office spent $26,000 over the course of a year at a single strip club "investigating" illegal prostitution. Source: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article25716517.html http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article25716517.html
belorn 10y ago
If we are going to disregard the cause and effect, then there is such better methods available to deal with this high priority problem. Lets just eliminate free movement of people and require travel paper for anyone moving between cities and states. People may disagree with the method, but free movement is what enables sex trafficking. Drastic problem require drastic measures, and if the goal is to stop sex trafficking then indeed it should be applied, right?
Spooky23 10y ago
If you want to stop human trafficking, enforce labor laws in Chinese restaurants.

TheRealDunkirk 10y ago

FTFA: > The bill also would prohibit access to any online hub that facilities prostitution and would require manufacturers or sellers to block any websites that facilitate trafficking, Chumley said. At this point, I'm thinking to myself, "South Carolina is a hotbed of human trafficking?!" > “The human trafficking thing has exploded. It’s gotten to be a real problem,” Chumley said. > State officials have categorized the Upstate as a hotbed for human trafficking due to its location on Interstate 85 between Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., two cities that consistently rank among the top 20 for human sex trafficking in the U.S. Oh. Yeah, it's a stupid solution, but he says that's not the point. It's to draw attention to the problem. The article wasn't even long.

pavel_lishin 10y ago
It doesn't seem like he's proposing the bill as a PR stunt to bring attention to human trafficking, but rather to the fact that porn is easily available: > “It’s where almost everybody has access to a computer now. It’s porn on demand,” Chumley said. “We have to start somewhere. … We’re bringing attention to it. We’re not being political. It’s an issue I’m pretty passionate about.” He also said that they're going to continue debating the bill: > Chumley referred to the bill as a “beginning point” and said once the legislation is debated in session, changes could be made.

MisterBastahrd 10y ago

Conservative southern politicians aren't exactly worried about what makes sense past what gets them re-elected. Vigorous hand-wringing about nebulous moral issues due to the self-righteous nature of their constituents is one of the issues that checks that box. Pay no attention to the fact that this is one of those regulations that will unduly burden businesses. Or the fact that every PC already has a hosts file of sorts. The only thing a porn filter has in common with sex trafficking is that they both have something to do with sex.

couchpillow 10y ago

I moved to SC (somewhat unfortunately I suppose) a couple of years ago and I have been quite surprised at the many Stop Sex Trafficking bill boards and things I've seen around. It seems to be a fairly big issue in the state (or at least the upstate area). I lived up in PA most of my life and spent about 4 years in Southern CA and I don't really ever recall seeing sex trafficking billboards anywhere else that I've traveled or lived. So when I first saw that a bill was introduced about combating sex trafficking, I thought - man this must REALLY be a big problem here. And maybe there are some pieces of it that make sense. But they always seem to bury in and hide so much extra bullshit that it starts to make zero sense what they are trying to really achieve. tl,dr: not surprised SC trying to pass stop sex trafficking law; not surprised bill contains extra bullshit tactics for raising more money to fund said law.

makomk 10y ago
That's pretty much how "sex trafficking" works as a political issue - people see all the billboards and laws and articles and think that it must be a really big problem, so they support more billboards and laws and so on and infinitum. No evidence that it actually exists is required.