While making this post:
I started really thinking about the current state of affairs in the US, and it has me feeling pretty hopeless. I also started thinking about other related things, which got me angry. I'm not intending to debate or anything, but just vent out my frustrations in the only space I feel I can when it comes to these topics.
I'm really worried about the future of this industry. I know there's also been a lot of doomsayers in the industry over the years, but over this past year my fears have grown exponentially. I'm terrified of what will happen if we have a Republican super majority after this election. So many Republican politicians have gone to the extremes of conservatism. We've seen more attacks than ever on not just the adult industry, but the rights of women. There's conservatives who want to ban porn and imprison anyone who makes adult content. No nuance, nothing. It's crazy to me that this is the supposed party of "small government". And it's not just porn they want to ban. Total abortion bans with NO exceptions. Same sex marriage bans. They even want to ban certain words and books that go against their conservative ideals. It's terrifying to think that the country where people fled to to get away from dictatorship rule might become just that. I've read bits of Project 2025, and it's horrifying. Granted, the only thing that makes me feel a little better is that I do doubt that Trump, if elected, will enact a lot of those things. Call him what you will, but he's not exactly conservative. However, he has also shown that he has no morals and no qualms about going back on his formerly stated ideals to appease his Republican/conservative voter base.
I'm also not confident in the Democratic party either. I watched the debate. Putting aside my opinions on that, after the debate I kept the channel on and listened to some of the analysis commentary they were doing with different political commentators/politicians. The former mayor of New Orleans, my hometown, came on. New Orleans loves electing shitty politicians, and Mitch Landrieu is no exception. My disdain for that man runs deep. I actually didn't know this until very recently, but he is the senior advisor for infrastructure coordination. I was legitimately shocked to hear that. New Orleans has the absolute worst infrastructure of any city I've ever been to. There's streets that are legitimately undriveable because of how bad they are. You can't drive a block anywhere in the city without hitting a pothole. And here's the kicker, while he was still the acting mayor of New Orleans there was a huge damn sinkhole on an extremely popular street downtown. Not a tiny pothole. The street literally caved in. Oh, and the city floods everytime there's a hard rain because they refuse to do anything about the drainage systems. That's enough reason to resent him, but wait, there's more. During his term, there was extensive raids on French Quarter strip clubs. They were trying to pass mandates that would have shut down almost all the strip clubs in the city, which would have put many strippers/sex workers out of a job. During the raids (which they claimed was to stop sex trafficking, sound familiar?), dancers were physically assaulted and harassed by police officers conducting the raids. In the end, they found no evidence of sex trafficking in any of the clubs. The only reason why the strip clubs bans didn't go through was because the dancers of the city got together and successfully lobbied/fought against it and won. But, this was all under Democratic leadership. And it just shows, Democrats don't care about sex workers just as much as Republicans don't care about sex workers. They're just not as vocal about it.
It just sometimes feels like we get attacks from all sides, and it's hard not to feel desolate. It's more than sad, it's heartbreaking. It's enraging. The same people who privately use our services are the same ones who publicly demonize us.
Anyway, sorry for the huge ass rant. I'm just feeling some sort of way about this, or really, I've been feeling like this on an off for awhile now, and needed to get it out and I can't do that with anyone in my personal life because they just don't get it. Or choose not to get it.