> dipshit: this person thinks PORN ADDICTION is fake!
> James: ok, explain to me the difference between porn addiction and a person possession a normal healthy sexuality that is simply unashamed

do you think i'll get an answer, plurk?

No

Not at all

porn addiction is only as real as "some people have such addictive tendencies that they could technically get addicted to anything"

^^^^^ There are people who get addicted to porn to the point it effects their lives negatively, but those are the people who would be the same with anything their brain latched onto in that way.

yeah, like - I'll concede the nuance of that, it's like gambling addiction or shopping addiction etc, but them acting like it's cocaine But Worse For Some Reason is.... asinine, and I know they'll not be able to give me an answer

YEAH????

And like...I have never heard of it being a sole addiction. It's generally one of many for a person, because they have a highly addictive personality.

thingslike porn, shopping, even vide games can be addictive for some people but unlike addictive drugs they are... not harmful in small quantities LMAO

Yes exactly. Those are not inherently addictive things full of chemicals that trigger a physical dependency. Most people can consume porn just fine without getting 'addicted'.

yeah, like porn addiction difference from a normal healthy sexuality is the unhealthiness of it. The same way everyone has to shop for things, but some people do so in a way that actually impacts them negatively while being unable to stop the compulsion to keep doing so.

Also, lbr, porn addiction probably goes hand in hand with a spending addiction, the same way people overspend on doordash or something. they're like "click, dopamine...bye bye monies"

it's almost like treating like 'porn addiction' is somehow more insidious that any addiction is part of aploy to bring back social mores to pre 1970's, but please tell me how that hentai is corrupting men's brains in a special way somehow.

for some strange reason we don't take certain addictions seriously, and porn is at once a joke and something that needs to be destroyed.

we aren't doing the research, we aren't treating the people with it with empathy, we have names to demean them, but somehow it's worse than cocaine and the making of it always involves horrible shit.

Like you have to listen to how anti-porn crusaders talk, both the 'feminists' and the holy rollers.

I think people have literally disproved the idea that porn is inherently addictive in studies

Because, yeah, the only people who get genuinely ADDICTED to porn in the sense that any psychologist would understand addiction are people who would get addicted to basically anything that gives a positive feedback loop, so like. It's not really the porn, is it

It is a matter of brain wiring

Also, a lot of what is referred to as 'porn addiction' is not addiction at all, it's "X person likes porn and I personally hate that they like it"

Like, the only negative impact of the 'addiction' is that the person calling it an addiction is mad about it and CAUSING the negative impact

And like - for example - if you're in a relationship with someone and they consider looking at porn cheating, yeah, then it becomes a problem if you look at porn knowing that they feel that way

But that is a problem that could be just as productively solved by ending the relationship and finding someone who's a better fit for you than giving up the porn, frankly

If you like looking at porn and consider being asked not to look at it a significant imposition on how you live your life, then yeah, a porn-negative partner is a bad fit for you and maybe the problem is that you shouldn't be together

And like...that's just reasonable? Some people are very anti-video games, and it wouldn't be considered unusual if someone who enjoyed gaming both 1) refused to give up gaming entirely for a partner just because the partner doesn't like how they spend their free time, and 2) decided a relationship was a bad fit if their partner made that an ultimatum

(Obviously, whether with porn or video games or whatever, there's nuance - someone who looks at porn/plays video games so much that they neglect their partner and/or their relationship is causing the problem themselves.)

(But it's totally possible, and in fact common, to engage in those things a Reasonable Amount and have a controlling partner who insists NO, none AT ALL because I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DICTATE WHAT YOU CAN AND CAN'T DO even if it would affect me in NO WAY WHATSOEVER to let you enjoy your own things independent of me!!! And that's its own hot dogshit)

But yeah, like...unless someone who watches porn is actively causing problems for themselves or others in some way - and "looking at porn" is not, in itself, a meaningful problem, that's a subjective issue and value judgment - maybe just let people do whatever

(Standard disclaimer that I shouldn't have to make but some assholes WILL try it, though probably nobody here that this is of course referring to standard-ass porn and not like...something like CSEM, because there is a difference between 'watching porn' and 'committing a felony')

like the 'man with an addiction to porn that has problems with seeing women and sex in realistic way' is a complex problem I don't think will be solved by taking the porn away. despite what a lotta people say.

Yeah, and tbh odds are that man was having trouble seeing, interacting with, or relating to sex and women before and regardless to the porn

Like, porn doesn't make people like that - plenty of people indulge in porn and don't BECOME that

maybe instead of using porn as the fallguy, maybe we should be approaching this better?

It's very much in the same vein as dark subjects in fiction, ironically

People who are into it in The Bad Way weren't fucked up BY the fiction, they were fucked up to start with and then sought out the fiction because they were leaning into Being Fucked Up Like That

So the idea that the fiction is somehow the problem isn't just incorrect, it's illogical and totally unhelpful

it's why I don't use the the term 'poison' with porn and annoying ass neckbeards that think all female characters are for sex appeal. likeit's an insult towards those that engage in the gooner shit and are normal towards people that have different tastes.

the ones that know better are cool, know there is a time and a place for that.

Likewise in the parallels department, is some fiction fucked up? Yes. Is some porn made unethically? Yes. Is that any reason to treat literally all of it as though it is all like that? No now you're just milking your agenda like the intentionally disingenuous asshole you are

Like, if you want to crusade against the Bad Porn, then do that, don't try to get rid of ALL PORN because some percentage of it is made exploitatively

(And fiction is even more complex because like...it's hard to objectively say when someone made something fictional But For The Wrong Reasons)

(I take the radical stance that hey guess what it's fiction we don't have to care about it because it's not real)

(Oh no this fictional character is being treated exploitatively! Anyway now on to real problems)

At least people who object to exploitation in porn are actually talking about a problem that can and does affect Real People That Exist, although of course they still leverage it to be like "and that's why All Porn is bad"

Okay so when did we make the jump that it is not possible to make porn in a non-exploitive manner because I need to pinpoint exactly when you started honking the clown horn

like exploitation is in EVERYTHING in captialism, but I don't see calls to stop those industries.

I mean, to be fair, lots of people put out calls to stop lots of exploitative industries, so those calls do exist

But you're right in that a lot of the people trying to stop exploitation in porn ONLY care about exploitation in porn

Because it's not about exploitation, it's about Sex Is Bad And You Shouldn't Enjoy It The Way You're Enjoying It Because I Say So

and they won't admit it.

nods

like swerfs, conservatives, and bad true crime and OBSESSED with exploitation in sex work. they only want 'addicts' and victims

they don't want to talk to normal people that delve into porn and kink or the people that supply it. that doesn't help their line.