itch.io

Clinton was also big on censorship in the 90s, as seen in her attack on rap music of the era. Left wing politicians were no fan of violent video games at that time, or GTA when it first started to make waves, etc, etc.

It is undeniable that right wing politicians and activists have long hated sexual freedom, and sexual expression. But look at that porn ID map I posted again. Yes, right wing states lead the charge, but California's up on the board too, along with a number of moderate states. What I'm trying to get across is that the left is no longer the safe haven for free expression that it used to be. The two sides may not be identically bad on this issue, but the difference is rapidly diminishing.

"What we are seeing is a rise in authoritarianism (worldwide) and, in the US at least, one party has gone all in on authoritarianism while the other just dabbles in it." I don't mean this as a personal attack, but it's naive to believe this, and it's exactly that naivety that I was trying to address in my post. Both sides seek power, for powers sake. Both sides will, and have abused that power once they get it. Both sides like to accuse each other of authoritarianism, and both are right. The DEGREE to which they are right mostly tends to come down to who happens to be in power at the moment.

But let's bring this back to the practical again. Imagine I had to defend this game, or any of the explicit content on Itch, to a right wing politician, and a left wing one. Would I have a slightly easier time on the left? Sure. Enough to matter? No. They'd take one look and have a laundry list of reasons it needed to be de-platformed RIGHT NOW. The only reason we're still able to enjoy the level of freedom we do on the Internet, sexual or otherwise, is that the things we love haven't cropped up on a politician's radar as a juicy target for self-promotion. And that's steadily changing.

Remember when Apple said they were "protecting" their users by banning explicit content? Or the time they destroyed Tumblr by temporarily pulling its app over explicit content, leading to panic and hasty censorship? Or the time they called the explicit content on Itch "Unspeakable"? Consider Apple: its leadership, workforce, typical customers and fans. Would you characterize them as "right wing"?

If one guy's gonna shoot you in the head, and another in the gut, is that different? Yes. But you die either way. That's why I'm treating it as equivalent. The difference, in my domain of making horny games on the internet, isn't enough to matter. If the left wing is ascendant, keeps the presidency, sweeps congress, gets a majority on the court, is that going to help protect me, or you, or anyone who enjoys this stuff? No. Because they need to get re-elected, and the way to do that is to whip up moral panic among "normies" by showing them something scary on the fringes and promising to destroy it. All you have to do is look at the left's reaction to Rapelay to see exactly how this would play out in real time. The right didn't even blink at that game, it was never on their radar. But the left, both in media and politics absolutely laid into it, transforming what was an obscure minor fetish game into an enduring internet bogeyman. In the end:

"These actions culminated in the restriction of the sale and production of RapeLay by the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), an independent Japanese ratings organization for adult games, making it impossible to purchase the game even in Japan."

It's entirely reasonable to have issues with that game, even I think it may have gone a bit far in some places. But the fact remains that it was entirely fictional, and  entirely legal to produce and sell under Japanese law. And it was utterly, ruthlessly destroyed by the left.

I'm sure we disagree on many things, but I hope I can get at least this across: we're a bunch of weirdos here. Weirdos have to look out for each other. So please take it to heart when I say that if you have any interests, any hobbies, any thoughts or feelings or inclinations outside the absolute mainstream, politicians and activists are not your friend. Not on the right, and not on the left. They will skin you alive as soon as it's expedient to do so. 

So for those reasons, in my humble view, yes, it's an "equal" dichotomy.