Larry Flynt, the longtime publisher of hardcore porn magazine Hustler, passed away last week at age 78. Leftists are eulogizing him as a defender of free speech for getting away with publishing a disgusting cartoon in 1983 about the late televangelist Larry Falwell. The U.S. Supreme Court declared in an 8-0 ruling that the cartoon was protected by the First Amendment since Falwell was a public figure and a reasonable person would realize it was a parody. A movie was made about it in 1996, “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” which was so well done that many people were inclined to think favorably about him.

 

But this was a small part of what he was about. Flynt’s main legacy was expanding pornography from the softcore porn popularized by Hugh Hefner in Playboy to the far more degrading, disgusting industry it has become today. 

 

Despite how raunchy porn has become, society tries to sugarcoat what’s happened to it, in part because there are so many people addicted to it today. A study cited in Psychology Today found that 94% of men had looked at porn within the last six months, with 82% of men admitting they viewed it regularly. Porn is so prevalent now that Flynt’s death didn’t even get that much attention, he’s just one of thousands peddling smut. 

 

But there are serious problems associated with porn because it is an addiction. Eventually it leads to an inability to concentrate and hold a job, erectile dysfunction and problems maintaining real life romantic relationships. A quarter of porn addicts in one survey reported negative effects on their jobs.

 

Porn has evolved into a common theme where men degrade women and the women act like they enjoy it. But as former porn stars and exposés about the industry have revealed, the women do not enjoy the rough treatment. This translates into complications for men and women in real relationships. The men are looking for an illusion; a perfect looking airbrushed woman who enjoys rough sex. Women are expected to put up with men’s symptoms of being porn addicts. And sometimes it’s the other way around, the woman is addicted to porn. The Family Research Council looked at multiple studies and concluded, “A case could be made that repeated viewing of pornography induces a mental illness in matters sexual.”

 

The explosion of pornography has led to the destruction of marriages and made it difficult to find partners who aren’t damaged by it. It’s difficult to cure the addiction, and addicts don’t feel like they need to since society tells them it’s acceptable. 

 

Addicts say they can’t get by without looking at porn, but porn hasn’t been around until recently; cavemen existed fine for thousands of years without it. Some defend it by saying it doesn’t victimize anyone, it only affects the person viewing it. But that ignores the women who are taken advantage of and damaged in the porn industry, the significant others and family of an addict, and the underage youth who come into contact with it. The effects of porn on children is far worse than on adults due to their developing brains.

 

Flynt, who described his political views as “progressively liberal,” couldn’t stand President Trump. He offered up to $1 million before the 2016 election to anyone who could provide video or audio recordings of Trump engaging in illegal or “sexually demeaning or derogatory” activity. During the impeachment proceedings of former president Bill Clinton, he offered $1 million for evidence of sexual scandals involving conservative or Republican politicians. That led to the resignation of incoming House Speaker Bob Livingston. 

 

Probably the only conservative he ever endorsed was Mark Sanford, who ran for Congress in 2013 after being caught having an extramarital affair. Flynt gushed, “His open embrace of his mistress in the name of love, breaking his sacred marriage vows, was an act of bravery that has drawn my support.”

 

Flynt left a trail of misery wherever he went. One of his daughters despised him. Tonya Flynt-Vega became a Christian and anti-pornography activist, writing about a book entitled Hustled, where she alleged that Flynt sexually abused her as a child. Married five times, Flynt’s fourth wife was dying of AIDs at age 33 when she drowned in their bathtub.   

 

Flynt’s death is a reason for mourning. For the mourning of what his legacy of porn has done to society.

 

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