Robert Baratheon

That hasn't been my experience at all. I'd bet you a substantial sum of money that if we picked any mainstream aggregator porn site (youporn, xvideos, etc.), then the vast majority of videos on the main page would not involve any blatant violence or degradation. When I have visited such sites, most of the videos were just people have sex. That's the central feature and functionality of porn. It's a quick satisfaction of the sex drive that doesn't bring with it all of the complications of real-life sex. As long as viewers understand the difference between fantasy and real life, this isn't necessarily a problem.

The most consistently racist people I've met are progressives. They mostly engage in paternalist racism (affirmative action, etc.) and identity politics (inciting hatred between different racial groups for votes).

Nicky - As for spreading the pain to spur people to action, that seems kind of like banging one's head against the wall because it feels good when it stops. I'm not convinced psychology works that way - it seems instead that shared pain tends to have the opposite effect in practice, conditioning people to accept the pain as a price of admission to society or a fact of life. Hence the hazing in college fraternities - all members must go through it. One of the reasons why Social Security and Medicare are so entrenched is the old mantra "everyone pays in." Actually, I think when people see that one class is being unfairly targeted, that creates a much bigger social motivation to come to their aid. The victimization is much clearer.

The pertinent question isn't whether I would be "OK" with any given action or another. People say things I don't like all the time but I am not entitled to financial compensation for my hurt feelings. In the case of the banker, there are laws in place and contractual obligations that prevent him from leaking or selling my personal information. Interestingly, if a client were to actually confess to an attorney, the attorney might be required to recuse himself from the case rather than aid in a perjury.

If the coaches truly did use their official capacity to bully and inflict distress on the student, they should be fired and the school should compensate the victim. But note: the violation would have been forcing the information out of the student, not divulging the "secret" that she was gay. If not keeping a secret were the standard, it would open the door to all sorts of silliness in the schools and every student would soon find themselves a "victim" of some sleight or other. Please keep in mind that very little in these types of complaints tends to be factual, or at least without significant exaggeration by the plaintiff. The very activist and ideology-driven EEOC only pursues around 10% of the claims brought before it, and among the remaining cases, many more are dismissed. Settlements are a cost- and face-saving measure, not an admission of wrongdoing by the defendant.

I agree with the principles of softwarenerd's argument, but principle alone is not enough, unfortunately. The United States did not get to its sorry state overnight with one sweeping piece of rotten collectivist legislation. Progressives have remolded our society via the incrementalist approach, bill by bill, dollar by dollar, year after year for three generations. Since no "pure" pro-liberty bill could ever survive in today's social and political climate, I think it's better to take back territory where we can. Rights for some is better than rights for none.

Privacy is largely contextual and depends on how reasonable the expectation is in light of the surrounding circumstances. It isn't entirely clear from the article, but some of the cases might have been brought on the grounds of intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment, or bullying rather than on a straight-up privacy claim. The facts of this case seem pretty stupid, frankly, and I would have been rolling my eyes on that jury all week long. The damages are extremely speculative and stem from something that arguably shouldn't be a source of shame or embarrassment in the first place. Valuable advice to the teenager would be to grow a thicker skin, stop playing the victim, and own her identity. Since she is out dating people of the same sex, it's hard to call that a "secret" anymore. It's important to remember that just because the school settled doesn't mean the claim had any merit. Frivolous discrimination cases settle all the time for no reason other than the defendants don't want the negative publicity, it would cost more in legal fees to go to court, or both. It's notoriously difficult to defend Title VII racial discrimination claims in particular because of the special burden-shifting framework of the statute. Typically, whatever agency or school department is being sued will just give the plaintiff a 5-figure settlement to go away and stop bothering them.