Sure, so let me preface my response with the fact that I am an atheist and an official member of the Satanic Temple. I absolutely have no Christian agenda when coming at this. Additionally, you can look through my post history and see where I've spoken about my mother who, until I was well out of school age, was a sex worker. We are sex positive over in this house and far far far from prudish on these subjects. Hell, my mom and I are both avid fiction readers and the last novel she recommended me had multiple orgy and group sex scenes - gay, bi, and straight. When I say my household has always been sex-positive and open about this stuff, I mean it.
That said, I understand the resistance to the term "porn addiction". I'll concede that pornography isn't addictive in the traditional sense, like gambling or heroin. I have no problem being wrong there. I'll gladly accept that it doesn't play on the same kinds of neurological pathways as these other addictions. I don't know if it does or not, personally, but maybe we don't have any evidence for it and I can accept that.
That doesn't mean that there can't be sexual pathologies or pathologies surrounding porn. Or that behavior surrounding porn and sex can't be detrimental to the individual. Or that the acts depicted in porn aren't harmful to the perception of sex in the consumer which might affect these pathologies and compulsions. There are well defined compulsive and pathological disorders described by extremely knowledgeable and experienced professionals in the mental health profession. Even the professional you linked talks about this. As I read it he is against calling it an "addiction". Fine. He's the expert, I'll accept his preference to call it a "sex/porn impulsive/compulsive disorder".
So now that we can all agree that there is a such thing as a porn disorder, can we admit that this is not some conspiracy fueled by religious weirdos?
Conspiracies are when you do something illegal in secret. This is legal and they do it in the open.
"Porn addiction" is not about compulsive behavior or impulsive behavior. Those are valid clinical concepts for some people experiencing dysregulated behavior, but they are not porn addiction. As laid out in my red strings connecting news articles post above "addiction" has a very specific meaning and the agenda of Mormons and Christian Fascists relies heavily on transforming porn usage, often very normative porn usage, from a moral or religious issue to a medical issue. Making porn use a medical addiction allows them to extend their reach beyond indoctrinated adherents and out in to the secular world. It grants their religious a veneer of psuedo-scientific legitimacy, which in turn normalizes their weird beliefs in secular society.
Porn addiction does not exist. Real people invented and real people are pushing the concept for political reasons.
Here have a slew of articles about how self reported "porn addiction" is strongly correlated with christian sex brainworms
To understand the Christian sex addiction complex, a little history helps. Founded in 1977 by a longtime Alcoholics Anonymous member, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, or SLAA, was the first established sex addiction support group in the U.S.
I am not just making these things up. Call it proselytizing or, what's that word they use, witnessing or something? Idk. If you don't want to call it a conspiracy cal it preaching an article of faith.
The whole religious and political narrative around "porn addiction" does come almost entirely from Christian Fascists and Mormons, it is deeply tied to religious belief, and it absolutely is part of a political agenda to further religious infiltration of society and religious control.
That some minority of people are experiencing actual compulsive behavior is largely irrelevant to popular discussion and understanding of "porn addiction". Porn addiction is a specific cultural belief that pathologizes normals sexual behavior. The "compulsion" is regular, normal human sexuality and arousal. These are people who are indoctrinated to believe any interest in sex outside the specific confines of Christian Fascist marriage is a crime against god, and they are working very hard to instill that level of distorted belief across society.
And there is real money behind this. The groups pushing this shit receive a lot of cah from prominent Mormon and Christian Fascist donors.
And it's working. It's easy to see how prevalent this belief has become across the internet and how many young men have become convinced that they are hopeless addicts who have completely lost control of their lives and themselves, almost entirely due to religious brainworms or the secular projection of those brainworms.
Most of the bad shit that religious organizations do is not a conspiracy, ie a crime planned in secret. There's no law against spending tens of millions of dollars to convince vulnerable people they have an incurable sickness that can only be fixed by the intervention of a supernatural misogynist. There's no law against putting of pressure on psychologists to compromise their professional ethics and pretend that "porn addiction" is a real condition. There's no law against massive propaganda campaigns to distort public belief about normal sexual behavior.
And, again, this is a multi-front campaign. Demonization of sex work, lgbt+ people, no fault divorce, the christian fascist virginity cult, suppression of sex education, anti-abortion campaigns. All of these are part of a broad Christian Fascist, Mormon, and Catholic agenda to seize political power in keeping with their perverse and distorted beliefs about sexuality.
You can do all of these things loudly, legally, and publicly, and Mormons, Catholics, and Christian fascists do.
Also, "porn addiction" is just the latest form of this. Christians have been driving themselves to distress and disfunction over perfectly normal behavior ranging from music and dancing to something as simple as enjoying food for two millenia. Feeling fear, shame, and humiliation for enjoying any pleasure is a deeply, deeply rooted feature of Christianity and it's offshoots.
The more you drill down in to the religious and cultural origins of the "porn addiction" concept the more you will see that it is not new, but rather a re-branding of an ancient system of control and privation. They've updated their old screeds against enjoying food, sex, clothing, reading, dancing, enjoying anything but fanatical submission to the cult, by attaching these old distortions to a 21st century phenomena.
It was all bullshit in 70ad and it's still bullshit today.
I'm not sure who you are even preaching to anymore. I already agreed with you that it seems porn addiction isn't real.
I've changed my view based on the information you've given me. Porn addiction isn't real. Porn and sex impulsive and compulsive disorders ARE real. And that is harmful. Even your experts agree on this. Even you agree on this.
Get off your donkey. It's a windmill, not another knight.
![[CW: CSA] The use of "Porn addicted" is specifically employed to absolve him of any guilt and to transfer the guilt to the nebulous "porn" that got this brave hero addicted in the first place.](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/ba9ac7da-243a-43d9-a8b9-7237adbaa1b2.webp){kind=link}
Sure, so let me preface my response with the fact that I am an atheist and an official member of the Satanic Temple. I absolutely have no Christian agenda when coming at this. Additionally, you can look through my post history and see where I've spoken about my mother who, until I was well out of school age, was a sex worker. We are sex positive over in this house and far far far from prudish on these subjects. Hell, my mom and I are both avid fiction readers and the last novel she recommended me had multiple orgy and group sex scenes - gay, bi, and straight. When I say my household has always been sex-positive and open about this stuff, I mean it.
That said, I understand the resistance to the term "porn addiction". I'll concede that pornography isn't addictive in the traditional sense, like gambling or heroin. I have no problem being wrong there. I'll gladly accept that it doesn't play on the same kinds of neurological pathways as these other addictions. I don't know if it does or not, personally, but maybe we don't have any evidence for it and I can accept that.
That doesn't mean that there can't be sexual pathologies or pathologies surrounding porn. Or that behavior surrounding porn and sex can't be detrimental to the individual. Or that the acts depicted in porn aren't harmful to the perception of sex in the consumer which might affect these pathologies and compulsions. There are well defined compulsive and pathological disorders described by extremely knowledgeable and experienced professionals in the mental health profession. Even the professional you linked talks about this. As I read it he is against calling it an "addiction". Fine. He's the expert, I'll accept his preference to call it a "sex/porn impulsive/compulsive disorder".
So now that we can all agree that there is a such thing as a porn disorder, can we admit that this is not some conspiracy fueled by religious weirdos?
Conspiracies are when you do something illegal in secret. This is legal and they do it in the open.
"Porn addiction" is not about compulsive behavior or impulsive behavior. Those are valid clinical concepts for some people experiencing dysregulated behavior, but they are not porn addiction. As laid out in my red strings connecting news articles post above "addiction" has a very specific meaning and the agenda of Mormons and Christian Fascists relies heavily on transforming porn usage, often very normative porn usage, from a moral or religious issue to a medical issue. Making porn use a medical addiction allows them to extend their reach beyond indoctrinated adherents and out in to the secular world. It grants their religious a veneer of psuedo-scientific legitimacy, which in turn normalizes their weird beliefs in secular society.
Porn addiction does not exist. Real people invented and real people are pushing the concept for political reasons.
Here have a slew of articles about how self reported "porn addiction" is strongly correlated with christian sex brainworms
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/02/religious-moral-porn-addiction
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/202008/religious-people-report-more-porn-addiction
Cw: for this article - sa, violence against sexworkers, christian fascism, discussion of 2021 shooting of Asian women in Atlanta spas
https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/03/sex-addiction-fact-check-atlanta-shooting-history.html
https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2021/03/22/sex_addiction_isnt_actually_an_addiction__its_tied_to_religion_769223.html
I am not just making these things up. Call it proselytizing or, what's that word they use, witnessing or something? Idk. If you don't want to call it a conspiracy cal it preaching an article of faith.
The whole religious and political narrative around "porn addiction" does come almost entirely from Christian Fascists and Mormons, it is deeply tied to religious belief, and it absolutely is part of a political agenda to further religious infiltration of society and religious control.
That some minority of people are experiencing actual compulsive behavior is largely irrelevant to popular discussion and understanding of "porn addiction". Porn addiction is a specific cultural belief that pathologizes normals sexual behavior. The "compulsion" is regular, normal human sexuality and arousal. These are people who are indoctrinated to believe any interest in sex outside the specific confines of Christian Fascist marriage is a crime against god, and they are working very hard to instill that level of distorted belief across society.
And there is real money behind this. The groups pushing this shit receive a lot of cah from prominent Mormon and Christian Fascist donors.
And it's working. It's easy to see how prevalent this belief has become across the internet and how many young men have become convinced that they are hopeless addicts who have completely lost control of their lives and themselves, almost entirely due to religious brainworms or the secular projection of those brainworms.
Most of the bad shit that religious organizations do is not a conspiracy, ie a crime planned in secret. There's no law against spending tens of millions of dollars to convince vulnerable people they have an incurable sickness that can only be fixed by the intervention of a supernatural misogynist. There's no law against putting of pressure on psychologists to compromise their professional ethics and pretend that "porn addiction" is a real condition. There's no law against massive propaganda campaigns to distort public belief about normal sexual behavior.
And, again, this is a multi-front campaign. Demonization of sex work, lgbt+ people, no fault divorce, the christian fascist virginity cult, suppression of sex education, anti-abortion campaigns. All of these are part of a broad Christian Fascist, Mormon, and Catholic agenda to seize political power in keeping with their perverse and distorted beliefs about sexuality.
You can do all of these things loudly, legally, and publicly, and Mormons, Catholics, and Christian fascists do.
Also, "porn addiction" is just the latest form of this. Christians have been driving themselves to distress and disfunction over perfectly normal behavior ranging from music and dancing to something as simple as enjoying food for two millenia. Feeling fear, shame, and humiliation for enjoying any pleasure is a deeply, deeply rooted feature of Christianity and it's offshoots.
The more you drill down in to the religious and cultural origins of the "porn addiction" concept the more you will see that it is not new, but rather a re-branding of an ancient system of control and privation. They've updated their old screeds against enjoying food, sex, clothing, reading, dancing, enjoying anything but fanatical submission to the cult, by attaching these old distortions to a 21st century phenomena.
It was all bullshit in 70ad and it's still bullshit today.
I'm not sure who you are even preaching to anymore. I already agreed with you that it seems porn addiction isn't real.
I've changed my view based on the information you've given me. Porn addiction isn't real. Porn and sex impulsive and compulsive disorders ARE real. And that is harmful. Even your experts agree on this. Even you agree on this.
Get off your donkey. It's a windmill, not another knight.