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We live in an increasingly weird world, where the weirdness is facilitated and accelerated by the Internet. We live in a world full of instantly-available bizarre pornography and terrorist attacks inspired by misanthropic ideologies whose manifestos are published online. Katherine Dee, an Internet ethnographer, writer and friend of Wisdom of Crowds, joins Christine Emba and Shadi Hamid to talk about the recent terrorist attack on an IVF clinic in California and Christine’s recent New York Times article about the social damage wrought by porn.

Shadi shakes things up by posing a blunt question at the very beginning: Should we ban porn? It hurts men as well as women. Why not? Can we reconcile the ideals of liberalism with a state effort to suppress pornographic content? This question inspires Christine and Katherine to reflect about the ethics of sex work, the perils of reporting on dangerous and soul-crushing topics, as well as signs of hope in American culture.

Throughout, Katherine applies her trusty reporter’s eye toward making an accurate, non-judgmental and perceptive account of what’s really going on with sex and ideology on the Internet. Christine, for her part, makes the case of norms and shame as useful tools for making society better. Shadi, in Socratic fashion, tests the strength of his interlocutors’ arguments.

In the bonus section for paid subscribers, Katherine explains the nuances of “efilism” and “promortalism”; Shadi reflects on the meaning of suffering and how belief in God changes one’s approach to suffering; and Christine reflects on “cold, rational logical measure — suffering v. pleasure. Pleasure v. nothing.”

Required Reading and Listening:

* Christine Emba, “The Delusion of Porn’s Harmlessness” (New York Times).

* Katherine Dee, “An Efilist Just Bombed a Fertility Clinic. Was This Bound To Happen?” (default.blog).

* Katherine Dee, “The Nihilism of the Mass Shooter” (default.blog).

* Katherine Dee, “The Trouble with Being Born” (default.blog).

* Sophie Gilbert, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves (Amazon).

* Dan Savage on kinks (AV Club).

* Andrea Dworkin, Pornography (Amazon).

* XO Jane (Wikipedia).

* “Supreme Court case on age limits for porn sites could affect 19 states” (Axios).

* “Palm Springs IVF clinic bomber ID’d as Guy Edward Bartkus, a ‘pro-mortalist’ who opposed people being born ‘without their consent’” (New York Post).

* Last week’s podcast: “How to Think about Power and Morality” (WoC).

* Sin-eaters (Wikipedia).

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Sex and Death and Norms and Shame

Wisdom of Crowds

Sex and Death and Norms and Shame