The Endless Loop Of Bad Faith: The Texas GOP’s Broken Playbook
How performative politics keep Texas stuck in a cycle of failure.
Today, the Texas Legislature held a joint committee (Texas Senate and House members) to study the effects of media on minors. The discussions were specifically about social media and the sexual exploitation of minors. This topic is critical, even though some committee members struggled to discuss regulations and free speech. Let’s get into it.
The members of this joint committee were:
Senator Bryan Hughes (R-SD01)
Representative Jared Patterson (R-HD106)
Representative Lacey Hull (R-HD138)
Representative Ann Johnson (D-HD134)
Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-SD18)
Senator Jose Menendez (D-SD26)
Senator Angela Paxton (R-SD08)
Representative Shelby Slawson (R-HD59)
Several bills were discussed during this hearing, which Republicans will try to push in the upcoming session related to protecting minors from sexual exploitation on the internet. Those bills include:
Banning the use of social media for anyone under the age of 18 in Texas.
Prohibit possession of cell phones for children on school campuses.
Regulation of Internet data.
Banning social media for teenagers?
Jared Patterson has already introduced HB186. While none of the other legislators specifically discussed supporting this ban, we must watch it because the implications will be far-reaching.
The courts in America have consistently ruled that the government cannot overly restrict young people’s access to public forums. Social media is a public forum. Here are some specific cases:
The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that minors can not be prohibited from the First Amendment. It’s important to note that Patterson’s bill, the Reader Act, was passed at the last session. This Act banned certain books in Texas schools. However, federal courts blocked it and deemed it unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Jared Patterson’s solution to protecting minors from sexual exploitation is taking away their constitutional rights, which is an awful solution and will always get overturned in court.
Listen to Patterson’s opening statement as he rails against social media companies:
Is Elon Musk the problem?
During this four-hour committee hearing, the invited witnesses testifying repeatedly pointed to Twitter and Elon Musk as significant sources for minors to access pornography on the internet. Like here:
And here:
And they spoke about how harmful unmoderated content is expected to get after Trump is sworn in:
The witness speaking in the first and last video (of the three above) is Dr. Robert Epstein, Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavior Research and Technology.
While several witnesses talked about Twitter specifically, the Republicans didn’t even acknowledge Twitter of Elon Musk. Angela Paxton’s remarks during the hearing were particularly striking. As Dr. Epstein described the ways corporations exploit vulnerable young people for profit, Paxton appeared to wrestle with the darker side of capitalism. (Which was one of the most bizarre moments of the hearing.)
She acknowledged that, yes, we live in a capitalistic society. But she argued that there is a line: some profits are inherently evil, especially when they come at the expense of children’s well-being. 🤔
But here’s the question Paxton conveniently sidesteps: Why only Big Tech profits raise her alarm?
If she was so concerned about greed preying on vulnerable children, where’s the outrage over industries that actually put our kids in harm’s way? Like the healthcare industry that makes life-saving treatments inaccessible for millions of families? What about for-profit prisons that disproportionately ensnare poor and minority youth, funneling them into cycles of trauma for shareholder gain? And let’s not forget the gun industry, which rakes in billions while school shootings turn classrooms into war zones.
Some of my leftist friends would say, “She’s so close to getting the point.”
The broader reality is that unchecked greed permeates every corner of American life, including the Texas Senate, where most Republicans are bought to serve the highest bidder. Social media is an easy scapegoat.
Angela Paxton is a very performative person, though. Case in point:
Once again, this proves Reactionary Conservatives are the worst at governing. Here’s why:
Texas reported a teen birth rate of 20.4 births per 1,000 females aged 15–19, higher than the national average of 13.6 for the same age group. Texas has a notable percentage of repeat teen births, indicating that some teenagers experience more than one pregnancy before age 20.
The HIV infection rate among Texas adolescents is higher than the national average, with 8 cases per 100,000 in Texas compared to 5.7 per 100,000 nationally. Texas ranks 15th-highest for gonorrhea, 17th-highest for syphilis, and 21st-highest for chlamydia among teens aged 15–19 compared to other states.
More than 1 in 7 female and 1 in 16 male Texas high school students reported experiencing sexual violence during the previous 12 months.
Banning social media won’t solve these problems. It’s a distraction from the real issue. Texas Republicans refuse to provide comprehensive sex education to equip teens with the knowledge they need to navigate both their online and offline lives safely.
Instead of addressing the root causes of sexual exploitation, Reactionary Conservatives cling to performative “solutions” that do nothing but restrict constitutional rights.
And how exactly do they plan to enforce a ban on social media for teens? Require age verification for every account? Force every teenager to show ID to get online?
Republicans did that last year with PornHub and other pornographic sites. Ultimately, these pornographic sites refused to ID people looking at their content and banned the sites entirely in Texas.
Can you imagine? With the world we live in, all it takes is our fundamentalist SCOTUS to overturn Lawrence v. Texas, which prohibited states from enforcing sodomy laws. Then, every Christian Nationalist in government will subpoena pornography companies for lists of every user that viewed gay porn. That’s how you get to a scenario where Ken Paxton is throwing people in jail for being gay.
Taking away teens’ access to social media does nothing to address the underlying issues.
If teens are being exploited online, the solution isn’t to ban the platform. Instead, it’s to empower them with the tools to protect themselves and recognize dangerous situations. And that starts with education.
Over 80% of Texas school districts either teach abstinence-only sex education or do not offer any sex education. Comprehensive sex education goes beyond the birds and the bees. It teaches teens about boundaries, consent, healthy relationships, and online safety.
At this point, we have decades of research that proves sexual education:
But Republicans will never allow comprehensive sexual education in schools because it challenges their entire framework of control. Comprehensive sex education gives teens autonomy, knowledge, and the confidence to make informed decisions about their own bodies. And that terrifies a party that thrives on restricting rights.
As long as Reactionary Conservatives control our government, we’ll continue to go in an endless loopy-loop. They’re shocked about teens and sex. They pass unconstitutional measures to stop teens from having sex. The unconstitutional measures get thrown out of court. Nothing gets solved. Rinse and repeat.
Even Senator Kolkhorst struggled with the loopy-loop of Republican governing.
She started her line of questioning regarding moderating social media and her opinion that “Conservatives get suppressed, which tramples on free speech.”
The Center for Business and Human Rights has published extensive research refuting the claim of anti-conservative bias online. It points out that no systematic studies support the accusation.
In the past, social media users were moderated and penalized for repeated uses of hate speech, threats, and spreading misinformation. That’s what they call censorship. They want moderation to be removed so that they can easily spread hate and misinformation. And that’s what we’ve seen on Twitter for the last two years.
White Supremacy and disinformation have exploded on Twitter, but in turn, so has porn and various methods of exploitation.
Either Republicans want free speech absolutism, or they do not. They have to choose.
And until they do, we’ll keep going around in circles with no solutions and the problems mounting.
Were there any sensible people on the committee today?
Ann Johnson and Jose Menendez were the only Democrats. You can watch Representative Johnson’s questioning here (23 minutes):
But otherwise, many members have had their public morality issues, making them the absolute worst people to discuss morality issues. Three of the Republican House members have had extramarital affairs, and one of the Republican Senators participated in her husband’s crimes and cover-up. But somehow, these people have the moral authority to protect children from sexual exploitation? Do you buy it?
Banning social media for teenagers won’t stop exploitation.
It won’t lower teen pregnancy rates, prevent STIs, or teach kids how to navigate the digital world safely. What it will do is reinforce the GOP’s obsession with control, censoring young people instead of empowering them. Meanwhile, they ignore the predators in other industries, like the healthcare corporations pricing families out of survival, the gun lobby that makes schools targets, and the prison system profiting off trauma.
This committee wasn’t about protecting kids. It was about consolidating power through fear. And the hypocrisy of these so-called moral authorities, many of whom have their own scandals, is staggering. Texans deserve better than politicians who legislate from their pulpits while ignoring their own sins.
Until lawmakers get serious about real solutions (like education, mental health support, and protecting vulnerable communities), we’ll stay trapped in this endless loopy-loop of bad faith hearings, unconstitutional laws, and mounting crises.
January 14: The 89th Legislative Session begins.
March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.
June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.
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When my daughter was in 8th grade the curriculum for the class at church was "Our Whole Life". Part of it included sex education. She didn't tell us much about it; she did tell us that they learned how to use condoms by practicing on bananas. It was a co-ed class and of course there were nervous giggles. When she was a sophomore in high school, a friend told her that she jumped up and down after having sex to prevent getting pregnant. Because my daughter had been empowered with correct information, she was able to tell her friend what was what (including showing the friend how to use a condom). Sex education is so important. Teaching abstinence, or not teaching at all, hurts our young people instead of empowering them.
🏆 Thank you for all the hard work. This was outstanding! 💪