Classical Values :: If <a href="http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/000816.html">sex is political</a>, and if <a href="http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/000340.html">spam is sexual</a>, then spam is political!

If sex is political, and if spam is sexual, then spam is political!

Speaking of agents provocateur, is it fair to ask precisely who the spammers might be working for?

I've been thinking along completely paranoid crackpot conspiracy theory lines.

Consider the following (slightly sanitized) trackback spam I just received:

A new TrackBack ping has been sent to your weblog, on the entry XX (Xxx Xxxx).

IP Address: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
URL: http://www.male-cum-shots.nyet
Title: male cum shots
Weblog: male cum shots

Excerpt:
Check out the hottest male cum shots online today! Want quick access to gay porn online? Click the link and find out how! Curious how the other side lives? Hot <...

That one is quite typical, and there are innumerable varieties along similar lines. I don't have time to read most of them, as I consider them complete garbage -- to be deleted with MT-Blacklist sofware and then forgotten. But what happens is that each comment I delete with the software creates another entry in my permanent blacklist record, and the words themselves become blacklisted. For example, I have received many thousands of spam comments involving variations of "Texas Holdem Poker" to the point where if commenters try to use the words "Texas Holdem Poker" (or combinations thereof) in a comment, they'll get the following message:

Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:

Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content: Poker

Please correct the error in the form below, then press Post to post your comment.

You see?

Questionable content is what is being blocked here at Classical Values -- regardless of my ferociously uncompromising stance against censorship.

What this means, of course, is that politically motivated spammers could easily coax my spam blocking machinery into banning any discussion of things they'd rather not see discussed!

Consider the following points:

1. Most bloggers allow comments

2. Most bloggers get spammed constantly

3. Most bloggers have installed one varieity of content blocking software or another

So, if you think about it, I see no reason why one of those pro-censorship groups -- Citizens for Decency on the Internet or whatever they might be called -- couldn't simply utilize spam as a weapon of mass sex destruction.

Hell, it might eventually happen anyway, even without their help.

Who wouldn't be willing to give up a little "sexual liberty" in order to have a lot less spam?

All it takes is just saying "NO" to questionable content!

UPDATE (03/08/05): Believe it or not, blogger spamming software is being sold openly.