With an effort, I can imagine someone who objects to “accessible” humor as a matter of principle. But what could possibly be wrong with “original”?
I’m not listing things that are bad, I’m listing things that appeal to children. Children are attracted to some things that are objectionable, and they’re attracted to some things that aren’t. When you put all the attractive things together in a bundle, you get something that is very attractive, but which is complicated to value morally. Consequences can be difficult to predict, and they can be dire.
As for your second part, I’m not listing things that I think are bad, I’m listing things that you can’t ban because some people will go out of their way to make them anyway, especially if they’re already used to them.
I am somewhat confident that I could successfully argue, from a utilitarian standpoint, that alcohol and porn are bad (not “sinful” or “immoral” or “unacceptable” or “evil”, but that they result in a net loss of happiness and productive activity in the societies where they are ill-regutlated), but that’s not what this discussion is about. If you want to talk about that in more depth, please open a discussion on the open thread or send me a PM.
Edit: similarly, out of “alcohol”, “porn”, and “racism”, one of the three is not like the others, i.e. it is actually bad.
Alcohol damages health and impairs judgement, causing sizable numbers of deaths every year. Much pornography is produced in ways that harm women, whether they are being physically abused or effectively raped in order to afford food etc.
Arguably both could be done without harming others, even if they are not currently done that way; but I don’t want to get into this discussion (unfortunately, I also didn’t want to leave you without a reply entirely). You do have a point that the difference I wanted to point out isn’t actually clear-cut.
With an effort, I can imagine someone who objects to “accessible” humor as a matter of principle. But what could possibly be wrong with “original”?
Edit: similarly, out of “alcohol”, “porn”, and “racism”, one of the three is not like the others, i.e. it is actually bad.
I’m not listing things that are bad, I’m listing things that appeal to children. Children are attracted to some things that are objectionable, and they’re attracted to some things that aren’t. When you put all the attractive things together in a bundle, you get something that is very attractive, but which is complicated to value morally. Consequences can be difficult to predict, and they can be dire.
As for your second part, I’m not listing things that I think are bad, I’m listing things that you can’t ban because some people will go out of their way to make them anyway, especially if they’re already used to them.
I am somewhat confident that I could successfully argue, from a utilitarian standpoint, that alcohol and porn are bad (not “sinful” or “immoral” or “unacceptable” or “evil”, but that they result in a net loss of happiness and productive activity in the societies where they are ill-regutlated), but that’s not what this discussion is about. If you want to talk about that in more depth, please open a discussion on the open thread or send me a PM.
Alcohol damages health and impairs judgement, causing sizable numbers of deaths every year. Much pornography is produced in ways that harm women, whether they are being physically abused or effectively raped in order to afford food etc.
Arguably both could be done without harming others, even if they are not currently done that way; but I don’t want to get into this discussion (unfortunately, I also didn’t want to leave you without a reply entirely). You do have a point that the difference I wanted to point out isn’t actually clear-cut.
Racism can also be done without harming others if it doesn’t have anyone to be racist to and you’re right, this is getting offtopic.