Well, I did mean that, but also if a person has part of their mind blocked off due to addiction or extreme attachment to some kind of vice, the lack of rational thinking doesn’t just stay in that compartment. Moral blindness affects a person’s whole consciousness.
That is exactly why someone who is immoral in their “personal” life will be immoral in their public life. So politicians or anyone in some kind of public position who is immoral in their personal life is not trustworthy as a public servant.
I don’t mean they have to be a living saint, but following basic moral standards is vital. Using pornography is immoral as it is little different from using prostitutes, but in a sense, even worse, as there is not another real live person invovled, just the eyes, the hand and the sex organ.
Plus the women in the porn business suffer terribly, so there is that side too.
I think there are differing degrees of addiction and/or moral blindness but I agree that people who are immoral in their private lives are more likely to be immoral in their public lives, too. Character does matter.
There’s another aspect to this discussion that always surprises me. It seems too many people hold political opinions on moral matters that they don’t even challenge from time to time. I usually try to at least consider differing viewpoints.
Libertarians strike me as especially rigid in their thinking. A libertarian would likely say government has no business regulating porn, pot, or much of anything else at all. That’s incredibly naive in my opinion, because some things have in impact on society that extends beyond the individual.
If we lived in a society where porn was very pervasive (some might argue we are already there), it would likely have all sorts of negative impacts, like divorce, the spread of disease, etc. I just don’t see how someone can turn a blind eye to that. So to me, it’s about how much government is necessary, because governments are created for very real and good reasons. Too many libertarians come across as complete social anarchists to me.