this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
277 points (98.3% liked)

News

22012 readers
5772 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] _cerpin_taxt_ 41 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Yes, because we all know that prostitutes are never victims of human trafficking. Stupid clickbait.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Describing this guy as being "Arrested in Human Trafficking Sting" carries a different connotation than "Arrested in Prostitution Sting." While both are technically true, the former suggests that he was on the supply side and not the demand side. It's an unusual way to describe the events, given current language usage.

Maybe it is a better way to describe such an operation, because it clearly outlines sex workers as victims instead of criminals, and because (you're absolutely right) very many sex workers are being trafficked to one degree or another.

Still, trying to reduce demand with such a sting by punishing the customers of "the world's oldest profession" is an ill-conceived solution. There are more victims of human trafficking because sex work is illegal. Sex work being illegal makes it more dangerous for everyone involved, prevents sex workers and their clients from reporting crimes (whether those are property or violent crimes), transfers much more of the value of the work away from the worker and over to the "owner" (to put it in Marxist terms), limits sex worker access to healthcare (because they don't have employer subsidized insurance), reduces the tax base, and creates a sense of "higher crime" in places where these operations take place. For what? Because it's "icky"?

If you (not you, but the generic "you") really want to have an impact on human trafficking, as well as many other kinds of crime which are endemic to black markets, you should be in favor of legalizing sex work. Part of the reason marijuana is being widely legalized in the US and elsewhere is because in and of itself, it does not infringe on human or animal rights, and except for its being illegal, it does not present a public health or safety concern.

In short: If it's not hurting anyone, it mustn't be illegal. If it is illegal, it's still not hurting anyone. The black market that rises and the response to it do things which hurt people. More crime, real crime, requires more police. And more - as well as more military - tools and weapons to prosecute crime. Those tools and weapons, fear of them, and fear of the additional crime, are too often used against fully law-abiding people.

Sex work being illegal hurts everyone, including people who think its icky.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I 100% thought this meant he was controlling the trafficking, not just a customer.

Lots of "journalists" have decided it's acceptable to make subtle adjustments to their headlines to fit a narrative.

clevescene.com

Yeah, doesn't seem to reputable to me. And lying headlines like this means they probably never will be.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

No, the apologist who tried to diminish the corruption of the rightwing asshole is correct. You were calling out a piece of shit for being a hypocrite when we all already know that they're hypocrites. /s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

So are many nail salons. Are people getting their nails done, human traffickers?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

Lol wtf is this shitty kind of thinking? The waiter who served you at the restaurant you last ate could be a victim of human trafficking too.

If he knew they were trafficked, then sure, arrest him and charge him. Otherwise, he's no more guilty of anything immoral than you were eating at the last restaurant you went to