It seems to me- looking at the political discussions on this website, that we are all trapped in thinking in binary terms where our side is the good one and the other side is the bad guys. I suggest we do something constructive about that and try and break out of it. If you feel like it- post the thought or belief that would get you in hot water with your chosen political tribe.

I'll go first.

I'm on the left, always have been, will be. Love unions and labour rights and welfare systems for poor people, support reservations and hate sexism, homophobia and racism and all of that stuff.

Heretical thought: I dont think sex work is work. I think people should be free to pursue it in an ideal world. I think women who do it should not be further stigmatised, and we should create systems that let people leave sex work if they want to. But I also dont think most women in prostitution in the real world are doing that because they think its empowering, and I dont think most of them have realistic choices. Theyre very poor, theyre often trafficked, or groomed, theyre often dependant on drugs and suffer extreme violence both with customers and pimps. I also think that legalising prostitution leads to bad societal effects downstream- boys dont learn to form healthy relationships with women, girls wont learn to value themselves for other than their bodies. I think it leads to a lot of violent crime that wouldnt happen without it. So I dont necessarily think blanket legalisation is the answer. I think maybe we follow a model where we criminalise sex buying and pimping, and temporarily allow the women to continue but with a planned way to allow these women an exit from prostitution. I cannot say this in feminist circles or liberal circles.

Thats my heretical opinion- what is yours? Do you see an issue where you think " yeah my political party/ tribe is probably getting that wrong?" Do you have issues where you just dont know what the answer is and dont care?

Okay, I am an undergraduate law student in the UK (Indian citizen there), so this might seem a bit out-of-the-blue, but might still have some relevance, considering how many Indians (including law students/lawyers) want to work there for a while, at least. So without further ado, my heretical thought: despite benefitting from it myself, I think net migration to the UK is far too high, and needs to go down. The current number is 685000, and that's just crazy! Some of those immigrating are, from my personal experience, not-so-high-quality folks, either intellectually/academically, or personally, meaning this level of immigration is giving us a bad name overseas. At the same time, the current (UK) government's measures to cut immigration are not striking the balance between having it at sustainable levels while still maintaining this place as an attractive country for bright people, but instead tilting the balance towards making the UK unattractive.

Yeah. I met many people from India and China during my LLM year that I thought didnt deserve to be at an Ivy. Theyd embarass themselves by plagiarising and professors would then think that this is how all asians are so theyd have a dim view of international students. We need to do more to improve things at home, in education and employment, than trying to export the problem.

It seems to me if the left believes in secularism it should believe in secularism even when the oppressive forces are islamist theocracies around the world. It shocks me how happily left wing folks, people who call themselves feminists, will turn a blind eye to whats happening to women in islamic countries.

that is an argument, but I generally think "people are going to abuse and traffick women anyway so lets legalise it" doesnt solve the problem either. It renames the problem, but it doesnt solve it. Not if you care about the women. if your concern is easy access for men to abuse women and girls- thats a problem solved by legalisation. if your concern is well being for women- at least if youre able to jail pimps and punters and communicate to young people that this is not an acceptable way to treat women- we might make some progress.

In any case this wasnt written to solicit an argument about prostitution per se, it was written to encourage people to say sincerely held beliefs that are taboo within their political tribe.

We curiously didnt say that slavery was going to happen anyway so lets not bother abolishing it- why make the black market blacker. There is still modern slavery, but emancipation and anti slavery legislation did solve that problem in some measure.

The free market argument presupposes that there is an ethical way to do the prohibited act. There might be an ethical way to dispense drugs- pharmacies and drug regulation, and an ethical way to dispense alcohol- bars and alcohol licenses. But I dont think there is an ethical way to sell human beings. And that is the product being sold under prostitution- its the human being.

Especially when demand will always far outweigh supply. very very few women would happily sell their bodies when they have the option to do literally anything else. Very few women would consent to putting their lives and bodies at risk if they were not being trafficked, drugged, or experiencing financial destitution. There will always be more sex buyers than sellers, and in that market you will have every incentive to abuse and force and traffick people to sell. Legalisation doesn't, for me, come with any kind of meaningful regulation when the market is so skewed.

If it is legal and then a woman is trafficked and forced into this, then she can go to the lawful authorities. Currently they cannot because of this very reason. This is a proven fact. Read a little about the real stakeholders in an issue before deeming yourself as an expert offering solutions.

sorry what? if its legal theres no forced prostitution because you can complain about it? This is honestly such a bad take I wonder if youve read anything about it at all. Please read on the nordic model, read some julie bindel, read some studies on how legalisation in places like amsterdam have played out- spoiler alert- it increases trafficking, it increases violence toward these women, it decreases their access to the law.

Consider that smart well informed people might disagree with you because theyve read things you havent.

You did bother to read my post? I clearly want a nordic model where pimping and sex buyers are criminals, not the women. And the women are offered services to get out of the profession. Explain how the nordic model prevents access to justice system for trafficked women? Have you read studies where the nordic model has been proven to work and not blanket legalisation? Youre telling me to read a little and you didnt bother reading a comment? get over yourself.

odd to call this a "heretical opinion" when it is literally the compromise ( prostitution legal, pimping and public soliciting banned ) which is currently the status quo, and is a very big divisive issue among feminist thought overall, but I get where you're coming from

Its a heretical opinion among feminists. Im whats called a "sex work exclusionary radical feminist" in these circles. Even though I dont exclude prostitutes from my feminism and even though i dont identify with important tenets of radical feminism. I think polarisation on all sides make common sense middle ground opinions quite heretical these days.