Donald Trump has not been accused of paying for sex, but several supporters protesting outside of his trial on Monday wanted to make it clear that they have. It seems the crowds that come out to protest the persecution of the former president are getting smaller, and weirder

Today, however, the crowd had thinned to a handful of true believers and true characters – those who don’t leave their house without a giant flag, a bullhorn, and an offensive T-shirt they made themselves.

It’s not only that the crowds are getting smaller, it’s that they are getting significantly weirder.

Of the people willing to step up to a microphone outside the courthouse and defend Mr Trump for allegedly paying off a porn star to hide his alleged affair from prospective voters, two offered something of a wild defence: that they opposed the charges because they too had paid for sex on more than one occasion, and assumed most men had done the same.

It didn’t matter to them that Mr Trump is not being accused of paying for sex, but rather accused of having embarked on several extra-marital affairs and falsifying business records over payments made to hide those affairs from the voting public in 2016.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    179
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Well, let’s legalize prostitution. Regulate it, tax it, legitimize it.

    Conservatives: hell no, we can’t have that depravity and vice. We need to punish women for sex outside of marriage. Oh, yeah…and no abortions for them either. (Unless it’s my daughter or mistress)

    • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      It makes my head hurt how ridiculous conservatives are and how they spin things. They’re only making their lives harder. Imagine the amount of tax revenue that could be collected from legalizing prostitution.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        8 months ago

        It’s not a homogenous group. You’ve absolutely got libertarians on one end, wanting to dissolve the state and legalize a market for children as sexual commodities on one end. And then you’ve got the Holy Rollers on the order end, who think coffee and cigarettes need to be next on the chopping block.

        They formed an alliance of convenience to crush the labor movement. But now they are very awkward bedfellows.

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      8 months ago

      Oh yeah, and make it more difficult for those trapped in their situation to get out of it.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Gotta keep women in their place and under control, even if we say it’s the wrong place. It’s all about control and restricting their autonomy.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 months ago

      If we are going to make it illegal, we really need to flip the laws and make it illegal to hire one. This would give those in the business a legal way of asking for help.

  • crusa187@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    Chud Life Baby 😎

    Yes, let’s legalize and give protections to all the sex workers.

    Chuds: No, not like that!!

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    34
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    Isn’t that a crime in the US? Did these people just confess to crimes? But of course they’re “conservatives” so it’s OK.

    • Worx@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      8 months ago

      TBF, I wouldn’t want people to be persecuted just for saying out loud that they did a crime. Imagine if I went outside today and shouted, “My house doesn’t have a secondary fire escape and is therefore outside building regulations!”. Should I then be investigated for committing a crime, or should someone just tell me to shut up and stop shouting in the middle of the road?

        • Worx@lemmynsfw.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          8 months ago

          Haha definitely not relevant to me 😅

          I was just struggling to think of an example of a crime which wouldn’t warrant investigation. Flying Squid has a good example further down of confessing to a murder which had just happened, which would need to be investigated probably

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        I would say it depends on the type of crime and the amount of detail. If you say out loud, “I murdered John Smith last Tuesday” and John Smith had been murdered last Tuesday, I think you should probably get investigated for the murder of John Smith.

        If you say “I’ve had sex with a prostitute” but don’t go further than that in terms of any details, definitely not.

    • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Not a crime everywhere in the US, cat houses are still around in Nevada. I’m assuming the gentlemen making these statements frequented a couple cities in that state to come to this assumption.

      • irreticent@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        8 months ago

        Actually, prostitution is not legal in Clark County (where Las Vegas is). It is legal in the rest of Nevada, though. The sex workers that advertise in Vegas are based just outside of the county lines and travel into the city when called. The cops pretty much just look the other way so it seems legal there.

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    Just like Jesus from his pedestal… Let whoever amungst us hasn’t paid for sex throw the first felony.

  • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    Sex work is work. And if it’s work, there are customers.

    There’s probably a long list of reasons to criticize these Trump supporters, including not understanding what this case in particular is about, but being customers of sex work ain’t it.

    Demonizing customers of sex work maintains the taboo and hurts the movement to legitimize, legalize, regulate, and provide normal employment benefits to sex work.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      Conservatives love to hate on sex workers, particularly when they are migrants or POC or (God help us all) LGBT.

      Demonizing customers of sex work maintains the taboo and hurts the movemen

      The prevailing view of Republicans in this moment is that Stormy Daniels is trying to extort Trump for more money and using the NY Southern District as leverage.

      Far from demonizing customers, this view holds the client up as a victim and the sex worker as some kind of intrusive parasite who has failed to know her place.

      • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Totally agree with you. But this:

        this view holds the client up as a victim and the sex worker as some kind of intrusive parasite who has failed to know her place.

        Is because their golden god can do no wrong. That every law he broke was somehow not his fault, and clearly the fault of the accuser or corrupt prosecutors. They will shift the focus away from an argument they can’t win, campaign funds being used for non-campaign purposes, to anything they can get the base whipped up about.

        But my complaint isn’t even about that. My problem is that this article demonizes these Trump supporters for one wrong reason. That characterizing customers of sex work as weirdos for admitting it, regardless of their presidential candidate of choice, hurts the effort to legitimize sex work. There’s a lot of fish in the barrel of criticism for this group, no need for the author and OP to support a conservative anti-sex work narrative at the same time.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          Is because their golden god can do no wrong.

          I think its a more broad understanding of sex workers as disposable playthings.

          My problem is that this article demonizes these Trump supporters for one wrong reason. That characterizing customers of sex work as weirdos for admitting it, regardless of their presidential candidate of choice, hurts the effort to legitimize sex work.

          There’s a general generic insult in modern media that boils down to “you’re fat and ugly and nobody wants to fuck you”. And the anti-Trumpers latch on to people visiting sex workers as an opportunity to hurl out this age-old insult. If this was an article about a movie star or popular musician admitting to patroning sex workers, I doubt the criticisms would match.

    • Emerald@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      If conservatives really don’t like sex work because it is exploitative, they should want capitalism eradicated. It kinda shows the real reason they actually don’t like sex work.

      • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Conservatives don’t like sex work because it ruins the “wife will submit to her husband” power dynamic around sex they were taught is the norm.

        Sex work being illegal, and as a result inherently ripe for exploitation, is the feature not a bug to conservatives.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    8 months ago

    I’m not so sure that the author wasn’t taken in by a Yes Men style prank. Because honestly, that sounds like satire and the satire wasn’t coming from the author of the article.

  • capem@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    33
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    To be fair, even if you’re not going for a prostitute, men are still paying for sex in the end.

    Buying dinner, gifts, paying for events, etc. All of that is what makes men more attractive in the eyes of females.

    South Park did a good episode on it.

    Edit: Seems like a lot of people have a problem with hard truths here, and that’s understandable.

    But really, no need for the personal insults.

            • ripcord@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              8 months ago

              It’s really not.

              I mean, it’s two things, really. I’m sorry to hear that “females” in your life are all that shallow. I mean, not going to say that many people don’t like being treated or etc, but I never really dated women who cared about that stuff much, personally. But second, treating dating so transactionally is, well, a shame.

          • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            Buddy, you call women “females”. That alone is a gigantic red flag that you don’t respect women. Nobody that respects women talks like that. Women certainly notice shit like that when they’re considering whether or not a man is worth their time and energy.

            As for your insistence that I prove you wrong, let’s just say that I have no doubt that you’re telling the truth when you say that women won’t sleep with you organically. Everything else is just an extremely toxic expression of opinion that doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously by anyone who knows better.

            You might want to self-reflect on the way you feel about women and consider why so many people here aren’t seeing things the way you do. Nothing about what you said rings true to me, because I’ve always treated women like they are human beings who exist for reasons other than fulfilling my sexual desires. That mentality has gotten me a lot farther than your attitude seems to have gotten you.

            • capem@startrek.website
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              Nobody that respects women talks like that.

              Wrong, but ok.

              let’s just say that I have no doubt that you’re telling the truth when you say that women won’t sleep with you organically.

              I never said that. You must not be able to comprehend English like the other guy who claimed I said it was “required.”

              I specifically said: “Buying dinner, gifts, paying for events, etc. All of that is what makes men more attractive in the eyes of females” which is true.

              You’re arguing against what I’m not saying and getting mad at me for it, lol.

              You might want to self-reflect on the way you feel about women and consider why so many people here aren’t seeing things the way you do.

              Well: you and the other guy are showing me you can’t read well, the snowball effect is very prevalent on these forums, and many of you people just ignore facts you don’t like or pretend they don’t make sense.

              Are you familiar with argumentum ad populum? You should come across it when you go to college.

              • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                8 months ago

                I specifically said: “Buying dinner, gifts, paying for events, etc. All of that is what makes men more attractive in the eyes of females” which is true.

                That might true for you if “Buying dinner, gifts, paying for events, etc.” is the bulk of what you can offer a woman you are interested in. The fact that you use derogatory language to make this point leads credibility to that theory in relation to you.

                Are you familiar with argumentum ad populum? You should come across it when you go to college.

                Good lord, just shut up. Your entire point here is just an anecdotal fallacy in that you think your personal experiences with women constitute a universal truth about women. What I’m telling you isn’t that my point of view is right because people agree with me - I’m telling you that if you smell shit everywhere you go, to check your shoes.

                • capem@startrek.website
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  8 months ago

                  and many of you people just ignore facts you don’t like or pretend they don’t make sense.

                  Thanks for proving my point.

                  Medium “articles” are just blogs, by the way.

                  I’m telling you that if you smell shit everywhere you go, to check your shoes.

                  Or maybe grow up and see things for what they really are. Money runs the world, sweetie.

                  You’re just trying to attack me personally because I’m saying things you do not like. It’s better to be ignorant than to accept hard truths, in your mind.