What’s Porn Got to Do With it?
Science Daily reports today that watching porn led two Thai fishermen to rape and murder and young British tourist:
Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Posit, 23, told the court on the first day of their trial that after watching pornographic films on their boat the evening of Jan. 1, they swam ashore and attacked the 21-year-old student on Lamai Beach on the island of Koh Samui as she spoke to her mother on a mobile phone.
The men said they hit Horton on the head and shoulders with a pole and took turns raping her while the other held her down. They then threw her into the sea, the BBC reported.
So, is porn at fault for this atrocity? Absolutely not. Just as the old expression goes “guns don’t kill people, people do”, porn isn’t the reason this girl was severely beaten and raped. The thing the newspaper neglects to mention is that people like this must either have some sort of serious mental deficiency to determine right from wrong or the same kind of violent rage as Marv from Sin City.
Besides, don’t forget that Thailand joined the war on porn… so this story is a perfect front for the Thai Prime Minister to validate his battle to eliminate all pornographic materials in Thailand.
I’m not saying we should stand up for the fishermen involved, but I am saying that we should not assume that it was the porn that drove them to such violence. To do so would not only be ridiculous, but also politically driven.