Yes, we do have a clue. That is why we don't live in those places, dumbass.

"the local service industry has to pay more to get people to work, so prices go up even more" surely you jest, sir. The glorious left have given us their assurances that forcing an increase in pay will do absolutely nothing to prices as the two share no relationship whatsoever.

Generalizations that are based on sound averages are exactly that, generalizations. Is it sexist to point out that the average male, college basketball players plays a better game than the average female. No, it is the truth. And the same holds for golf and other sports as well. Some of the best women have played against the best men and don't hold up. I'm sure there are other sports where this doesn't hold up.

Pointing out "sound statistics" is not racist or sexist.

because jack-boots

Do you actually think that once the hash marks a file that the file is not actually viewed? i know people on /. can be considered, in general, as idiots but, really, this idiotic that it never once crossed your mind that the police, prosecutor, judge and jury might want a bit more evidence than "the corporation said it matched, maybe, but we never bothered to actually check what it was."

Sure there is. I am unfortunate enough to be acquainted with someone who was caught in possession of such images and he got a pretty lenient deal compared to the maximum penalty.

Except society has decided that it is not morally wrong to do that.

Well, I guess you have a fundamental disagreement with society in general. As in, society has decided that your right to speak your mind does not trump my right to not be lied about (as an example). Society has also agreed that it deems certain images to be so detrimental to society that free speech takes a backseat to them.

However, if you truly believe that free speech trumps all, you would have to be willing to accept that anyone could follow you around (in public spaces at least) telling everyone how many child porn images you have plastered on your walls and how many 8 year olds you have raped, slaughtered and eaten. You not not complain if someone repeatedly sent emails of all this to your employers. Remember, you said that free speech should reign above all so your only recourse would be to convince others that lies are being told about you. You cannot ask the courts or police to intervene to stop anything as that would be stifling free speech.

Is that a society you are willing to live in?

Well, they start with the guy with the image and ask about where it came from, etc. It is called investigation and it has to start somewhere.

"that are still considered wrong by (almost) everybody;"

except on /. where it seems that most (according to the comments on this post) are very tolerant of it. Kind of a sad statement about this place.

IOW, you don't have a problem with people knowing you are an idiot, you just don't want to be confronted about it and possibly have to admit that you are an idiot.

Not exactly how it went down in a case where I am unfortunate enough to know the possessor. That one happened almost exactly as you described it ought to happen.

Would that be the red scare where we knew who most of the offenders were because we were reading the Soviet embassy to Moscow traffic but couldn't make that fact public red scare?

How did we leap from not knowing what the pictures actually are to knowing society is done because the fact that the pictures were of the "kids taking a bath" variety?

You know, that following that logic to its end suggests that having any form of police, courts and even laws is a slippery slope we don't even want to contemplate.