Blocked by Leftbook!

First world problem alert:  Trivial bitching ahead.  If you're having actual problems and aren't in the mood to hear it, skip this article.  

The other day I was scrolling my FB feed and came across this cutesy meme about sex traffi--er, I mean "sex work" on a Leftbook page I follow:  

The fantasy...

In an uncharacteristic move, I gave into the urge to make a dissenting comment sharing my views on the issue which went something like this:  "We should absolutely treat sex workers with dignity but I disagree with the statement "sex work is work" like any other job."  This set off an avalanche of pissy male comments insinuating I had a stick up my ass including one from an alleged ex-prostitute (also male) who said he didn't regret his time whoring after I said I was "sorry he went through that experience".  At no time was I sarcastic, facetious or otherwise rude.  He asked why I had a problem with sex work to which I replied with statistics on rape, murder, suicide, disease and other dangers of the sex industry and why I felt that promoting it was a negative for the leftist movement and that was that.  

Or so I thought. 

I went back to check later only to find that I couldn't see my comments or respond to the thread anymore as comments were turned off.  Weird!  Had I been so offensive (or effective?) in my argument they just decided to shut the thread down?  Nope.  As it turns out, I'd been blocked from commenting or following the page entirely as I found the next day.  This was my first time being blocked from a whole ass Facebook page, and one that I actually enjoyed/interacted with semi-regularly.  And over a comment that contained no slurs, insults, threats or inflammatory statements whatsoever.  Just a difference of opinion.  

On the one hand, I'm not surprised as the left has a serious problem with shutting down discussions and viewpoints they disagree with.  The whole "de-platforming" thing, which is an $1100 word for censorship.  On the other hand it's infuriating to see a bunch of white men on a supposedly Marxist, pro-Black page promoting sex work--a dangerous trade that supports itself on the backs of poor women and girls--silencing the opinions of women like me.  Women who aren't even saying anything hateful but simply quoting statistics!  How is any movement supposed to function without healthy dialogue and disagreement?  There's nothing democratic about that; it's a fucking dictatorship where power can't be challenged and uncomfortable truths aren't allowed to be voiced.

The reality.

To top it all off, the (all white male) comments disagreeing with and insulting me were left up while mine were removed.  The only reason I include the sex and race of the commenters is because it's relevant to the page itself, which deals in Black leftist & socialist issues while priding itself on its progressiveness.  I don't want to get too specific or give them attention, but yeah.  The more I think about it, the more it feels like an op.  I suspect a lot of these so-called "left" pages are.  We've got one billionaire on his way to being the world's first trillionaire and another attempting to colonize Mars while us lefties are down here treating sex work like a win.  Yet we wonder why we're not further along with basic shit like acquiring mandatory paid sick leave & universal healthcare?  

By all means, do what you have to do to survive but that doesn't mean we have to make those dangerous, demeaning things a central part of the movement.  We deserve better.  If you wouldn't flaunt slaving in a coalmine or spending 6 days a week shoveling shit in the sewer, why would you make prostitution a point of pride?  It's more hazardous than either of those professions, as is working in the porn industry.  I could quote statistics all day but facts seem to bore or irritate people so I'm done with that.  You have access to the same information as I do via search engines.  It should be common sense:  nobody dreams of being a sex worker when they grow up or teaches their kid to be one, yet here we are trying to normalize it.  Who benefits?

Have we gotten so used to existing in late stage capitalist hell that we're promoting things like selling humans as a legit profession?  Shouldn't we focus that energy and rage toward our oppressors instead of inward or at each other?  The elites are laughing at our peasant mindset while the next Jeffrey Epstein buys all the little girls he can recruit.  Don't make it easy for them, ffs.  (Unless you ARE one of those buyers of humans, which I suspect some of you who support sex work so vocally are.  Consuming porn counts as well.  Most of us have been guilty of that at times, myself included).  

In case I haven't made it clear, nothing I've said here equals "looking down on sex workers" or promoting their incarceration.  Quite the contrary.  I see them as victims of poverty and circumstance, usually a lifetime of abuse and trauma beyond anything I could conceive.  And I certainly don't think they belong in prison, filling our already-crowded cells for simply trying to survive and make money off their own bodies or worse, being forced to do so by a pimp.  It's the pimps and johns who belong in prison.  The people who buy and sell human beings like dogs for a few minutes of sick pleasure.  

This whole episode is just one more reason I'm politically homeless.  Both "sides" are full of narcissists and hypocrites with cult mindsets where heretics are banished for speaking out of turn.  There's no room for independent thought or questioning the party line.  The right considers women private property and the left considers us public property.  Left or right, we remain Under His Eye.