Collective Shout claim it’s about harm reduction, but then push an agenda that functionally amounts to moral panic.
Their approach is identical in logic to the “GTA causes school shootings” hysteria: loud, pearl-clutching, and utterly unmoored from data.
If Collective Shout want to argue these games cause harm, then show us the harm. Not correlation. Not outrage. Not hypothetical downstream consequences. Show causation. Peer-reviewed. Reproducible.
Otherwise, they’re just moralizing bullies using the banking system as a cudgel.
On top of this, they might actually be harming their own cause. The catharsis hypothesis poses that sexual fantasy enactment might reduce risk of real world harm.
The logic is simple: suppressing a compulsion doesn’t eliminate it. It just bottles up until it explodes. Redirect it into a safe outlet, and it becomes manageable.
The only reason this research isn’t cited more often is because it’s politically radioactive. Nobody wants to admit that it’s better to let a gooners jerk off, than to escalate under repression.
The burden of proof SHOULD be on Collective Shout to provide a reasonable argument which supports their claim that censorship will reduce real world harm.
Current working theory in psychology: it doesn’t. Emerging theory suggests: they’re shooting themselves (and potential rape victims) in the foot.
The real solution to real-world harm involves empathy, autonomy and education.
Their decision to target the payment processors - not the developers, or itch.io, or steam, is some of the most cowardly and authoritarian things I’ve ever seen in the gaming space.
It’s economic coercion; a playbook used by religious bigots and authoritarians for decades. Financial censorship by proxy. IMO: they should fuck off.
Shoving that shit into the shadows doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it untraceable, unmoderated, and unaccountable.
If you care even remotely about preventing harm, you don’t force taboo communities off the grid. You keep them where they can be seen, tracked, and contained… preferably behind legal firewalls, age gates, and content filters.
If you push them into the dark web… then congratulations… you’ve just built a Petri dish for escalation, radicalization, and actual predation.
We have examples today of the real harm of this, like in Afghanistan. It’s interesting that western societies are overall less religious as ever, yet religion keeps getting shoved down our throats… and winning.
Collective Shout claim it’s about harm reduction, but then push an agenda that functionally amounts to moral panic.
Their approach is identical in logic to the “GTA causes school shootings” hysteria: loud, pearl-clutching, and utterly unmoored from data.
If Collective Shout want to argue these games cause harm, then show us the harm. Not correlation. Not outrage. Not hypothetical downstream consequences. Show causation. Peer-reviewed. Reproducible.
Otherwise, they’re just moralizing bullies using the banking system as a cudgel.
On top of this, they might actually be harming their own cause. The catharsis hypothesis poses that sexual fantasy enactment might reduce risk of real world harm.
The logic is simple: suppressing a compulsion doesn’t eliminate it. It just bottles up until it explodes. Redirect it into a safe outlet, and it becomes manageable.
The only reason this research isn’t cited more often is because it’s politically radioactive. Nobody wants to admit that it’s better to let a gooners jerk off, than to escalate under repression.
The burden of proof SHOULD be on Collective Shout to provide a reasonable argument which supports their claim that censorship will reduce real world harm.
Current working theory in psychology: it doesn’t. Emerging theory suggests: they’re shooting themselves (and potential rape victims) in the foot.
The real solution to real-world harm involves empathy, autonomy and education.
They are religious nutjobs, they don’t care about causation.
Furthermore…
Their decision to target the payment processors - not the developers, or itch.io, or steam, is some of the most cowardly and authoritarian things I’ve ever seen in the gaming space.
It’s economic coercion; a playbook used by religious bigots and authoritarians for decades. Financial censorship by proxy. IMO: they should fuck off.
Even Furthermore…
Wanna censor it? Good fucking idea /s
Shoving that shit into the shadows doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it untraceable, unmoderated, and unaccountable.
If you care even remotely about preventing harm, you don’t force taboo communities off the grid. You keep them where they can be seen, tracked, and contained… preferably behind legal firewalls, age gates, and content filters.
If you push them into the dark web… then congratulations… you’ve just built a Petri dish for escalation, radicalization, and actual predation.
We have examples today of the real harm of this, like in Afghanistan. It’s interesting that western societies are overall less religious as ever, yet religion keeps getting shoved down our throats… and winning.