Not Again...

Well, it looks like Max Hardcore, scumbag cum laude, is being indicted on federal obscenity charges. I hate it when this happens.

Extreme pornographers like Max Hardcore or Rob Black function as the canaries in the figurative coal mine of the adult film industry. They are the first to be prosecuted and persecuted when the feds start to crack down. This puts people like me in an awkward position: On the one hand, I despise Max's work. His pornography is degrading, violent, angry and everything that the anti-porn nutcases say that all porn is. I find it personally repugnant and I hate that he and I work in the same industry.

On the other hand, Max isn't doing anything that ought to be illegal. He uses adult actresses who let him do what he wants to them in exchange for payment (and yes, I've heard all the stories as well, but until someone can prove in court that he illegally coerces girls into making his movies, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt). He sells his product to paying customers that presumably want to see the content that they have purchased. There's no unwilling victim here, no children despoiled or houses burnt down. He has a right to his freedom of expression, and my personal tastes shouldn't affect the limits of what he can do.

So people like me are forced into a bad spot, where they have to support people like Max despite their personal feelings because of the very real slippery slope that threatens us if Max and his ilk get taken down. Once the federal government decides to arbitrate what does and does not constitute illegal content, who knows where they're going to draw the line?

Faugh. I have to tolerate necessary evils, but I don't have to like it.