The internet is, in all seriousness, a magical place. Thinking philosophically, the internet can be viewed as the collective unconscious of humanity. It is a "place" where all of our thoughts can be iterated and displayed at mass scale. It is not a complete collective, because there are at least several billion people who don't have a connection, but we can take an average result from the approximately 3 billion "users".
There is a lot of dark stuff on the web, no pun intended. It has given us an extreme version of free will. Any and all types of human behavior can be expressed at a near-anonymous level. Obviously there are entities watching and collecting data from the internet, and if you cause too much trouble your exact identity can be pinpointed with a breeze. However, for a vast majority the internet has opened up the gateway to free expression. This comes with a cost.
Pornography, gore sites, drug/human trafficking, these are only a few examples of the many negative avenues that the internet opens up to us. Within seconds, I can find and communicate with the most creepy, psychotic people. There are underground forums where rapists and murderers find each other and talk about their fetishes. There are millions of videos online of the most disgusting, violent interactions that humans can have with each other. You can watch a woman be raped and beheaded, a man being tortured alive, an orgy of a hundred people doing vile acts against nature. It is scary. And you know what I'm talking about.
But let us not underestimate the power that we posses here. There is yet still the other gates that have opened up to us. The entirety of human education achieved possible to this date is online. "Free" education is readily available, and I put that in quotes because while you can attain a masters level in mathematics from the internet, it will not be accredited. Many people in areas of the globe that never would have had access to information, are now being exposed. And this is changing the overall public attitude in these places, causing regime changes and rebellions. It has given rise to the free public sphere of ideas, where information can freely be transmitted instantaneously.
It has also brought together a lot of friends. The internet has fostered an environment where people who wish to help others can do so. There are sites that exist solely to provide a service that benefits people, things like Kickstarter and Gofundme. There is a plethora of online forum boards where like-minded individuals can find each other and work on projects, like github and stackexchange.
And dare I say it, even places like Phuks, where we all get together in this virtual warehouse and start stocking it with Broccoli and Cauliflower. I'm joking a bit, but in all seriousness this place is a prime example of good people who just want to stay informed and live a safe life. We are the ones that, through the course of several years, have bounced around from community to community. There is a high probability that we started at places like reddit, and saw through all the bullshit and made our way to other places. Eventually we found Phuks, and I honestly believe that the users we have here are the creme de la creme.
The point I'm trying to make, is that we need to realize where we are in the grand scheme of the internet.
We are the ones setting the standard for the "good" side. Once again, morality is subjective but you have to take a real stance at some point. Its like taking a limit in calculus, even though its infinitesimally small you just have to fucking settle with some number in order to complete the calculation.
I've only been on Phuks for maybe two weeks? And in that time I've laughed harder than I ever have before. I'm not exaggerating either, you all are some phunnyPhuks. I've also had a lot of great conversations with people here. I have even been physically helped by a user here, who responded to me out of his own goodwill and lent a hand. I didn't even ask for anything, I simply mentioned something in passing and he didn't even think twice to help out. That's some good shit right there, and I will always be grateful to this person. This is the true power of the internet.
So my fellow foxes I leave you with a wonderful vegetable medley, a symbol of our lasting friendship through the strife. May our memes stay as fresh as this glorious basket of raw goodness.
TLDR: We are the good side of the internet.
I'm not classifying porn in the same type as those other two, I meant for them to be taken as separate things. I'm definitely not a nofapper, but pornography is bad. There could have been something beautiful coming out of it, but I dare you to show me any mainstream porn site where the front page doesn't contain a cesspool of degeneracy.
Love making is beautiful, yes. But pornography is not that. All of the camera angles, the positions, the very direction of the film itself are intended for maximum mental stimulation from a male perspective. It is not designed with love in mind, it is designed to target the sexual centers of the brain immediately and for profit.
You won't agree with me, and that is OK, its the wonderful thing about this place. You are right in that pornography abuse is the same as any other type of addiction we can find ourselves in, but there is nothing in comparison when it comes to what extended pornographic addiction does to your dopamine production and your serotonin pathways.
The evolution of porn is one of continuing perversion. The more you watch of one type of porn, the less and less it affects you. Your brain begins to normalize the positive-feedback loop you put yourself in. We will start light, with simple PiV softcore scenes. For the first dozen or so faps, the dopamine rush you receive is amazing! You feel excited watching the scene, and you are able to fulfill yourself in a reasonable amount of time.
After a while you condition your brain to become used to this, and eventually you will not achieve the same level of excitement as you did before. This is known as the Novelty Effect. You need to go to the next "peak", therefore going down a path where you normalize more and more taboos. Next thing you know, the only things getting you off are hardcore BDSM scenes involving some really gross stuff.
Now, obviously this is not true for everybody. Perhaps you have controlled yourself and are able to simply enjoy a vintage "love making" scene thats soft and compassionate, like true sex should be. If that is the case, hats off to you. You are a different type of person and I respect your arguments.
But lets not fool anybody here. The majority of people cannot control their urges, they are very susceptible to psychological tricks, and a lot of people actually enjoy really grotesque things. I will always take the stance that I think pornography is bad.