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_
    link
    254
    edit-2
    7 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)

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      347 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.

      • BarqsHasBite
        link
        fedilink
        English
        227 months ago

        Let’s say it together: they don’t actually care about fiscal responsibility.

        • @aesthelete
          link
          12
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          It’s obvious that they don’t because they only ever work one variable (spending) of the fucking equation:

          spending - income = deficit

          Even if you stop all of your spending entirely, you’ll remain in debt forever if you never have any income, so it’s a losing way to fix the problem, but that won’t stop them or their idiot voters from insisting upon it.

      • @UnderpantsWeevil
        link
        47 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
      link
      English
      317 months ago

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

      • @RememberTheApollo_
        link
        23
        edit-2
        7 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.

        • HubertManne
          link
          fedilink
          77 months ago

          hey producing more slave class is important to. its not just about the women.

    • @TenderfootGungi
      link
      27 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.

        • @rasmus
          link
          37 months ago

          Well in Sweden it’s legal to sell but illegal to buy

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      -117 months ago

      I see this sentiment a lot from the uneducated crowd, but unfortunately human trafficking seems to increase whenever sex work is legalized so I cannot condone it.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        217 months ago

        Human trafficking is there, anyway. The victims tend to be afraid, because they’re forced to do otherwise illegal things, and therefore don’t want to come forward. So what often happens under legalization is that a whole bunch of victims suddenly come out, which is now recorded as an increase in human trafficking.

      • @RememberTheApollo_
        link
        6
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        “Uneducated”

        I think you need to do some reading, friend. Human trafficking is already a big problem. Legitimizing sex work and regulating it removes t some of the incentives to operate behind the scenes, just like legalizing pot, and frankly you get rid of the whole under-age thing because no government entity is going to allow that.

        S/he’s right.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          -17 months ago

          I wish it were true, but it’s really not. Human trafficking increases in both countries that legalize sex work and also countries where the humans are trafficked from. Tons of studies over many decades illustrate the cold hard truth.

          • @RememberTheApollo_
            link
            47 months ago

            Well, damn…you’re right. TIL.

            https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/

            The study’s findings include:

            Countries with legalized prostitution are associated with higher human trafficking inflows than countries where prostitution is prohibited. The scale effect of legalizing prostitution, i.e. expansion of the market, outweighs the substitution effect, where legal sex workers are favored over illegal workers. On average, countries with legalized prostitution report a greater incidence of human trafficking inflows.

            The effect of legal prostitution on human trafficking inflows is stronger in high-income countries than middle-income countries. Because trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation requires that clients in a potential destination country have sufficient purchasing power, domestic supply acts as a constraint.

            • BarqsHasBite
              link
              fedilink
              English
              8
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              The problem with these case studies are that they are small. If you don’t know what’s what and your pimp tells you it’s illegal and you can’t go to the police, you might believe them. If it’s widely and commonly known that it’s legal and that the police will actually help you, then that will change the results. That and if you throw the weight and resources of, oh let’s say, DEA marijuana enforcement against human trafficking, that will also change the results.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1347 months ago

    FFS he is not in trouble for paying for sex. He is in trouble for paying hush money using campaign funds. Good lord, conservatives are so brainwashed

        • @disguy_ovahea
          link
          187 months ago

          That’s a separate trial in Georgia. He also has the classified documents case tried in Florida.

          • @ickplant
            link
            87 months ago

            The Stormy Daniels case is also about election interference. He interfered in the election by paying to conceal critical information that may have changed voters’ minds.

            • @disguy_ovahea
              link
              37 months ago

              Where do you see that in the charges? I read through them all and didn’t see it.

              • @ickplant
                link
                57 months ago

                It’s not in the charges, it’s the nature of the case. This isn’t my opinion but that of legal expert from the podcast Legal Scrutiny. And they know their shit.

                • @disguy_ovahea
                  link
                  27 months ago

                  I could see conviction in this case being used as evidence in the election fraud trial, but he’s not being tried by a federal prosecutor. It’s a criminal trail brought up by the State of NY.

    • @NABDad
      link
      English
      267 months ago

      Just like Clinton wasn’t in trouble for the blowjob. He was in trouble for lying about it under oath. But everyone who talks about it now says he got impeached for a blowjob.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        20
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        It’s exactly why Republicans cried “purgery trap” when people wanted to have Trump testify as president. They knew what they did during the Clinton investigation and just assume Democrats would somehow “force” Trump to lie about something completely unrelated…

        The Clinton investigation was over real estate and somehow made it’s way over to blow jobs.

      • HubertManne
        link
        fedilink
        137 months ago

        Exactly. He got impeached for lying about questioning unrelated to the investigation on him after the actual subject of the investigation bore no fruit.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      -37 months ago

      I mean, this is right out of the liberal playbook. They’ve been screaming for 30 years that Clinton was impeached for a blowjob. He wasn’t. He was impeached for purjury, trying to cover up the blowjob. Same shit different party.

      • Echo Dot
        link
        fedilink
        157 months ago

        Most countries remove their moron politicians. The United States just allows them to remain president until the end of term.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      377 months ago

      I had the same reaction last week when a bunch of GOP reps starting speaking in tongues on the floor.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        127 months ago

        That made my physically ill when I read about it. That’s some serious theatrics and/or mental illness.

  • Erasmus
    link
    English
    587 months ago

    Ah yes - the party of the Christian church isn’t it? 😂

    • @UnderpantsWeevil
      link
      37 months ago

      Nonsense. In Christ’s church you don’t pay for sex. You just molest an alter boy, as God intended.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    527 months ago

    Chud Life Baby 😎

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

    Chuds: No, not like that!!

  • Diplomjodler
    link
    447 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      377 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?

      • @TrickDacy
        link
        247 months ago

        Oddly specific, weird example

          • @TrickDacy
            link
            27 months ago

            Haha yeah you’d expect an example to be something somewhat close to a thing that people would actually say.

        • @Tyfud
          link
          87 months ago

          Home ownership be like

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          57 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
        link
        187 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.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          57 months ago

          This was the plot of an episode of Boston Legal. I wouldn’t assume it would actually hold up in court. In the story a professor of sex studies had paid a prostitute to answer some interview questions for a study, and he “got carried away”. But he was filming it, so they argued that he was actually making a pornographic film, which is protected speech.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        47 months ago

        IIRC, the person who owns the production company can’t be the one getting it on. Even that’s probably not enforced much.

    • @dogslayeggs
      link
      117 months ago

      Not everywhere. Prostitution is legal in Nevada (just not within the city limits of Vegas).

    • @snekerpimp
      link
      11
      edit-2
      7 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.

      • Flying Squid
        link
        67 months ago

        If you’re rich, they let you do it.

      • @irreticent
        link
        137 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
    link
    English
    327 months ago

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

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      177 months ago

      Actually Jesus said “Let whoever among us who hasn’t falsified business records throw the first felony.”

      The paying for sex was a mistranslation.

      • @dogslayeggs
        link
        67 months ago

        It’s an easy mistranslation to make, especially when you had a large group of scholars reading hundreds of accounts of stuff that happened hundreds of years earlier written in several different languages and deciding which stories were “real” and worth putting in one book. Then a thousand years later you had another group of people translating THAT.

        I’m surprised there aren’t more stories about Jesus falsifying his business records after trying to cover up a sex scandal.

  • @n0m4n
    link
    297 months ago

    Melania pays and pays and pays…

    • @ripcord
      link
      47 months ago

      Like, she is paying some dude on the side and you’re implying she does it all the time, or…?

      • @n0m4n
        link
        127 months ago

        She is married to Donald. Every day of her life, she pays.

  • @Daft_ish
    link
    237 months ago

    Ok but like we know you already have the incel vote on lock down.

  • @tootoughtoremember
    link
    197 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
      link
      107 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
        link
        7
        edit-2
        7 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
          link
          17 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
      link
      4
      edit-2
      7 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
        link
        7
        edit-2
        7 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      27 months ago

      yeah. I’m not opposed to giving them the wall, but I’m a little opposed to slut shaming them.

      • @tootoughtoremember
        link
        27 months ago

        Only in Nevada, in the form of brothels. And they only operate in a handful of counties.

      • @chiliedogg
        link
        07 months ago

        But it’s also about “weirdos” who admit to paying for sex.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    157 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.

    • @minorcoma
      link
      447 months ago

      Reality has become indistinguishable from satire.

      • Flying Squid
        link
        57 months ago

        I agree, but I think there are hints here and there.

        For example-

        “What do you think I do in Thailand, just sit in a chair?” he asked, incredulously. “That’s what we do as men, you know?”

        Thailand isn’t really famous for it’s ciswomen prostitutes…

        • @deranger
          link
          167 months ago

          Thailand isn’t really famous for it’s ciswomen prostitutes…

          Uhh, what? Yes it is.

            • @deranger
              link
              20
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              That doesn’t refute my point. Thailand has ladyboys, sure, but there are easily 10x the number of female sex workers. It’s one of the most well known cis sex tourism destinations.

              • Flying Squid
                link
                -37 months ago

                I think you’re confused. I’m not talking about the reality, I’m talking about why I think this is a hint that it’s satire.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  87 months ago

                  But they’re saying why it shouldn’t be taken as satire, because in reality that is a place you go to for ciswomen too.

                  I’ve rotted my brain enough in the past trying to figure out what Trump reality is by watching Fox news that I can’t be bothered to rot it anymore, but I’d bet that fox or Newsmax is twisting this as “Trump unfairly being brought to court for paying for sex” which is why these jokers are out there arguing that “we all do it.” Kind of like the “locker room talk” from his first election that supposedly all guys do… :/

            • @ripcord
              link
              37 months ago

              They’re famous for that too.

  • @Sam_Bass
    link
    117 months ago

    That statement alone tells you all you need to know about his people

  • @p5yk0t1km1r4ge
    link
    77 months ago

    I read this in Jordan Kleppers voice. Man, you can’t make this shit up, it just writes itself lmao

  • snownyte
    link
    fedilink
    37 months ago

    They’re mad that they had to pay for sex because they expect to get their wee-wees wet for free.