• Randelung@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    See, I’m no fan of Bitcoin. It’s pure speculation and hardly serves a purpose while burning down a rainforest for every transaction. Also the ledger makes things traceable, so it’s also a worse concept than cash.

    This, however, is a good example of why the concept exists. We need a financial tool outside of the control of banks.

    (Yada yada Ethereum and proof of stake.)

    • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      It’s also why American global hegemony is bad; they all tend to move in lock step with each other. If there were a few more European and Asian payment providers out there we’d be a bit more diversity of policy and true consumer choice.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    Society has never been able to keep NSFW content out of the hands of viewers / end users, and have tried multiple times. Singles (a The Sims -like with actual sex – if kinda clinical; it was a German game) was pressured off shelves in Target, Gamestop and Electronics Boutique. It came back with underwear stapled on, which was quickly hacked off.

    This is how we ended up with official / unofficial patches that re-unlock all the naked bits in games like Huniepop, Nude keys, nude codes and nude patches became the convention which ushered video games into the same perversity level of cinema. (We’ve already had countless fan-made nude patches for non-romantic games).

    And of course they’re going too far, pressuring distribution services to cut LGBT+ content whether it’s porn or not. Before they were emboldened by Trump, there was already pressure to de-list specific themes (an incomplete list: rape/NC; fictional child sex abuse/child experimentation; incest; and depending on the assessment, furry content within a certain threshold.¹ ). Anyhow we know the white Christian nationalist movement (from which the Heritage Society’s Project 2025 and the Seven Mountain Mandate come) is looking to criminalize porn and make it difficult to access.

    1: This is still weird to me, enough to geek out about it here. Furry hate gets strangely specific. It breaks down like this:

    • Those who disapprove of all furry content that is adult-themed (contrast the 1983 movie Rock and Rule vs. 1973 Disney’s Robin Hood ) this group probably only exists because there’s a significant fanbase for furry porn / erotica.
    • Of those that remain, those who disapprove of furry content featuring explicit sex (e.g. “Omaha” the Cat Dancer first published in 1976, by Reed Waller and Kate Worley.)
    • Of those that remain, those who disapprove of furry content that is exclusively erotic (I can’t find the specific ones I’ve read, which isn’t many.)
    • Of those that remain, those who disapprove of erotic furry content that features species-accurate genitals, which is the threshold VISA was in, and is too spicy for some lemmings. I don’t fully understand why this is a subcategory.

    The thing is most porn games and most LGBT+ centric games are labors of love, first, and a revenue source second. They will get made and get out, more so, when entire demographics and communities are stripped of a voice or of acknowledgement. It also puts less spicy porn in the same category as unethically spicy porn (e.g. CSAM). If the public has to use the same methods as terrorists and child predators to get their fix, it makes those groups less illegitimate. In for a lamb, in for a sheep.

    Anyhow useful websites are here:

    • kartoffelsaft@programming.dev
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      3 days ago

      Of those that remain, those who disapprove of erotic furry content that features species-accurate genitals, which is the threshold VISA was in, and is too spicy for some lemmings. I don’t fully understand why this is a subcategory.

      This one actually makes the second most sense to me out of the ones listed (first being explicit sex of course). To a lot of people who aren’t furries, at least in the horny sense, the emphasis put on making the genitals resemble those of real animals is a clear connection to bestiality. In order to care, you have to know, and to know you have to spend a lot of time looking at animal dicks (or spend time with people who do).

      To make my point, ask yourself how you feel about other fetishes / kinks with similar properties. For example, consider ABDL. It’s a fetish that uses fairly direct references to being way too young for sex despite being adults, much like the animal dicks directly invoking, well, sucking animal dick despite not being an animals. There are tons of people who see that and immediately think it’s for pedos. Though, weirdly enough, many those same people don’t have nearly that much of an issue with various more mild but more realized forms of neoteny in porn (the industry’s obssession with 18-19yo girls springs to mind).

      For what it’s worth I’m not really in that group (consentual adults yada yada), but I did have that gut reaction when I first encountered it.

  • Rose56@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Wait till you learn that only fans models have people reply for them or bots! Loooool

  • Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Couldn’t people just by steam cards with cash, load load it to their accounts and then make their porn purchases? What’s to stop other retailers from selling gift cards that can be purchased with cash to use on the pornographic stuff being sold? Edit: I just learned this issue stems from the major CC companies refusing to let companies like steam use their platform to process payments if they kept NSFW games up. My question still stands, what’s keeping steam or the player base from telling these companies to f-off and switch to a cash based gift card method?

    • seralth@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Gift cards only function because of payment processors basically.

      If visa and MasterCard decide they won’t support steam means you also can’t buy steam gift cards with your debit card suddenly it requires cash.

      Stores will get pressured to no longer stock those giftcard or also lose visa/MasterCard support. This has been threatened before and has caused gift cards to be removed from major grocery stores in the us in the past.

      You CANT avoid this even swapping to crypto has the same problem. At some point you HAVE to deal with the payment processors.

      Even just getting your crypto back out into cash can quickly become problematic for a business.

      We the people have options and ways around it sure, but businesses really don’t.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      and then make their porn purchases

      The issue goes far beyond “porn games on Steam”. These same groups tried to ben other games with no sex at all, but “disturbing” themes (to them). They failed, because, big game, big pushback. But their agenda is not “no porn”, it’s “no anything we dislike”. They’re just starting with the thing they hoped would get little to no pushback for now.

      • razzazzika@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Its really odd, cause you’d think they’d just want to make money no matter where it comes from.

        • glitchdx@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          the only thing worth more than money to these kinds of people is making other people suffer.

  • SleepyPie@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Okay, devils advocate time.

    What is the correct way to ban rape and anime CSAM games from Steam?

    Because I don’t buy “freedom” and “none of my business” as reasonable moral positions.

    I think it’s justified to want to prevent people from normalizing extreme content publicly.

    I think one of the greatest moral failings of modern society is the obsession with allowing companies, rich folk, and the deranged to build systems and communities of harm because society should always be neutral for some reason.

    I do agree that payment systems shouldn’t be the ultimate arbiters of what’s permissible, and general sexual content is a normal part of what it means to be human. But we should have limits.

    This conversation is completely dominated by people focusing on the “censorship.” As if we don’t justifiably ban snuff or actual films of these sorts of activities.

    Please think of the children? Yes, and think of the women these sorts of norms harm. Sometimes you really should care.

    This conversation is always completely without nuance, as if all censorship is objectively wrong. Sex games should be legal, unless they are absurdly harmful. And yes, I realize that line is sometimes hard to draw, but we absolutely should find it.

    Failing to have a reasonable way to remove something you find genuinely immoral, and defaulting to this “trick” I think is a respectable action for someone who is trying to be ethical to take, even if I don’t completely agree with all her views.

    • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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      4 days ago

      What is the correct way to ban rape and anime CSAM games from Steam?

      I think the first step is defining terms and being transparent about your intent. Like, everybody’s on board with banning pedoshit until you find out the organization is targeting transfolk and covering for real pedophiles. I have run into people who think all anime is CSAM, I have run into people who think all sex is rape. There’s enough kooks out there, you can’t just take a political org like Collective Shout at face value.

      You’d probably have to go game-by-game and point out that the game has certain elements, provide evidence that those elements are actually dangerous, then start a petition for Steam et al to remove individual titles.

    • Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      No matter the argument for or against allowing a game, the role of deciding this should not fall to a payment processor basically holding a game platform hostage.

      • SleepyPie@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I mean isn’t this the gaming concept of scrub mentality? If I believe a specific moral act outweighs a minor dishonourable act, then shouldn’t I still do that act?

        Say I know someone is being beaten in a locked room. It is an important government room, and only key holders elected by the community should enter.

        I think it’s justifiable to kick down the door and stop the beating, because beating people up is against my morals so much more than ensuring proper procedure.

        But when if someone does that, and everyone endlessly gripes about how “passerbys should not have authority to enter the special room” instead of “well at least I’m glad someone isn’t being beaten up anymore”, then I have to wonder if most people are fine with beatings?

        Terrible analogy, non-equivalent etc, but do you see what I’m saying. Because I agree with you that card companies shouldn’t set the terms of what’s acceptable - I mentioned it in my first post.

        Using the card company to stop the distribution of tape material is a cheap tactic, but if preventing harm is winning, then saying it’s never justified is scrub mentality, as if beating someone by spamming hadoken doesn’t count.

        Patch the game later if it’s so unfair, this is the only way to get it removed right now. The deck is stacked against activists - usually the only effective options they have are disruptive and outside the system.

        • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 days ago

          I think it would be different if the provocateurs in question weren’t, like, religious zealots or whatever. I have little confidence their aim is to move the needle in a direction I’d like it to go.

          I’ve argued with plenty of do-nothing dip shits about Just Stop Oil who are concerned solely with getting to work on time and, apparently, the plexiglass in front of famous paintings. But the difference is, Just Stop Oil is a cause I can get behind. I’m not worried that supporting them would also lead to mandatory chastity cages, you know?

          I mean, I will admit the first steam list I saw, I thought “This seems bad. Can’t imagine missing any of these titles, though.”

          [edit] I actually forgot to mention this: The “right way” to do, like, CSAM counter-terrorism on the level of whatever is happening now will virtually always incense a bunch of libertarians—it’s not really avoidable.

          • SleepyPie@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            That’s just about how I feel.

            Although I do wish we could take action on obviously terrible media without fearing slippery slopes to mandatory chastity cages.

            I have to assume there are many non-zealot feminists who exist and are happy to see this gone. But all I see online is grumbling- it’s disturbing

            • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              4 days ago

              To be clear, I’m talking about leadership. It’d be a bit like celebrating J.K. Rowling for her advocacy against spousal abuse, meanwhile, she’s still dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into nazi anti-trans groups. More of a broken clock situation than a slippery slope.

    • sundaymidnight@ani.social
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      4 days ago

      If these childs (when they grow adults) live in a horrible country without freedom… maybe it is better dont protect them

  • MissJinx@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Just read about brazilian PIX system and I am baffled. Their gov bypassed payment companies all together and trump is really angry about it Lol. Epic

  • don@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    If you can find his bones, I’ll ask them, but you should know that doing so says a lot more about you than it does me.

  • Beacon@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    To the people who are pushing this:

    Do you want everyone to start using crypto where all transactions are not controllable by you at all? Because this is how you get people to do that.

    • Zetta@mander.xyz
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      4 days ago

      That’s the best case outcome no matter what, that’s what crypto should be, not some brain rot hype scam fest. Also for private transactions, that’s why Monero Is the only good crypto, its actually private and secure.

      • Zetta@mander.xyz
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        4 days ago

        It already does deliver on that promise, crypto is used extensively online for drug orders. You may think that’s bad, but it shows how well it works for secure and restriction less transactions.

        • seralth@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Crypto is great for peer 2 peer money transfers. But when you have a legal big business you end up still having to deal with the big payment processors to do anything of substance with that crypto.

          So for illegal and underground stuff it’s great.

          For big businesses that need to stay above board and legal. It becomes a dead end.

        • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          That’s the whole thing. Crypto was supposed to be a currency system by using a block chain as a ledger.

          Ethereum is kind of what crypto was thought up to be. A semi stable coin, that serves as decentralized currency.

          In some ways it’s brilliant; no institution that can watch what you buy, limit you or take their cut. But then again, it’s rife with illegal transactions and some really impactful theoretical attacks, especially against the ledger. It’s a blessing and a curse.

  • Booboofinger@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Funny part is that one of Jesus’s favorite disciplines was a prostitute. I don’t think Jesus was has as prudish as his followers are.

    • NABDad@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I get that it was a typo, and you meant to say “disciples”, but I like it better this way.

      Like Jesus was studying for a career in sex work.

      • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        I think the disciples are disciplined by the cult guru. And we know how many of those guru end up with megaorgies maybe they didn’t write all of it down

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 days ago

      Jesus always said the ones that needed him the most were the crooked ones. He say Magdalena and though “I can fix her”