"Why Can't We Be More Like Europe?"

That's the perpetual progressive whine.  Here's a fascinating account of where Europe is headed from the March 8, 2013 U.K. Telegraph:

Controversy has erupted over next Tuesday's European Parliament resolution "on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU", meant to mark international women's day, after libertarian Swedish MEPs from the Pirate Party spotted the call for a ban in the small print.

While not legally binding, the vote could be the first step towards European legislation as the EU's assembly increasingly flexes its political muscle within Europe's institutions.

The proposal "calls on the EU and its member states to take concrete action on discrimination against women in advertising... [with] a ban on all forms of pornography in the media".

Kartika Liotard, a Dutch left-wing feminist MEP, is seeking "statutory measures to prevent any form of pornography in the media and in advertising and for a ban on advertising for pornographic products and sex tourism", including measures in the "digital field".

The MEPs are also demanding the establishment of state sex censors with "a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls".

I think the U.S. Supreme Court made a major mistake when it gutted obscenity laws in Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966), and only undid some of the damage with Miller v. California (1973).  But it is pretty clear that progressives in Europe are going to take us back to the days of censorship of obscenity, and their American counterparts should stop being so hostile to social conservatives because it appears that censorship really is a progressive value.