You can’t watch that, read this, or do that. You must do this, pray this way and worship this God. You can’t eat that, smoke this or drink those. I’m afraid that’s where we are and where we are headed if white Christian nationalists continue to meddle in the affairs of everyday man and woman.

It’s not just book banning and burning by people in southern states that worry me. It’s small rights being assaulted in many jurisdictions across the country. Small laws here and there or school boards pushing agendas into schools contrary to science and literary works.

Here in Virginia there is a relatively new law mandating websites that contain porn requiring them to verify the age of the viewer before granting access.

SUMMARY AS PASSED:

Civil liability for publishing or distributing material harmful to minors on the Internet. Creates a civil cause of action for any commercial entity that knowingly or intentionally publishes or distributes on the Internet material harmful to minors, as defined in the bill, and that does not take reasonable steps to verify that the age of a person attempting to access such material harmful to minors is 18 years of age or older. The bill also clarifies the definition of “sexual conduct” so that it is neutral regarding sexual orientation for the purpose of crimes related to prohibited sales and loans to juveniles.

PornHub, a Canadian owned company, streams various genre of porn on the internet. In response to the law enacted in Virginia, and other states, they have restricted access rather than complying with the bill which would require serious overwatch of personal data and change of infrastructure of their site. PornHub’s statement to Virginia users follows:

This law seems unconstitutional to me – not only violating my privacy rights, by making me share my ID with a company, but also my right of anonymity that allows me to surf the internet anonymously.

and

I enjoy porn occasionally, I’m not addicted or anything. I’d say I access a porn site or two maybe 2 or 3 times a month at most. I know there must be people that are daily viewers and some that are indeed, addicted to the services offered. To be fair there are numerous porn sites taking no action as a result of this law that I can access with no hoops to jump through. And I’m pretty sure I had paid my subscription right before the law came into effect, so there’s that.

But I say it’s a responsibility of the parents to monitor their children’s activity and restrict what they can and can’t do on the internet, not a corporation.

It’s a silly thing to take a stand on, I know and I may face backlash, criticism or mockery. But it’s another right that is slowly being taken from us. Another set or other peoples morals and beliefs being thrust upon us.

It won’t stop with porn, or the books they find offensive…. your rights are at risk and they’re coming for them.

It’s been a long time, but I read Animal Farm when I was a kid and I recall the slow, seemingly small changes that happened that no one thought would matter. But in the end all the rights are gone, things deteriorate and the pigs can’t be distinguished from the human oppressors. This kind of thing is happening now. Our rights and freedoms are being attacked by a loud minority. People who’s goals include their brand of government, religion and rights.

Please pay attention, yes there is a big orange elephant in the room, but there are small battles being lost that will impact even you and your rights happening in your own backyard.