Clearly it is an outrage for payment processors to be dictating our purchases. This isn't really a question.

What is a question, is if the censored materials are truly societally or culturally damaging. We can speculate, but we don't know. Is smut bad? Does it encourage violence or oppression? Or does it serve as an outlet so people who otherwise would do them, do not? I don't know the answer, on either stance someone may have. But I know that anyone claiming to know the answer, is going off feeling, not fact. Going off their closed way of thinking, not knowing others ways of thinking. What about these same censored topics being used in a critically acclaimed novel or film? As as plot device, it raises a question of it being beneficial or harmful in the same ways. But what about them using it as more than a plot device, to bring to light real problems in the world we need to change. I certainly see this as beneficial. Or should we ban this too? And if so, should we ban therapist from helping people with this topic. If it sounds absurd that it would reach all these topics, think again. In the last decade, we've seen this censorship with holocaust denier movements in certain parts of Europe no longer being able to educate on the historic problems of fascism. This type of censorship and consideration for what is good to censor and what is bad lies in the domain of government. Not businesses. And especially not businesses with monopolistic degrees of power to bully everyone into their subjective vision. This is directly more abusive than the material being censored.

TAKE ACTION:
Call the number on your credit cards, or in your online account. It will most likely be to a bank, not the payment processor directly (unless it's PayPal). Be nice about it, but tell them you have a strong problem with the payment processor. That you would like them not to censor stores for what you can purchase. I didn't share that they were doing this to Steam and Itch. I told them I specifically did not want to share the stores, as the issue is that they are doing this to any stores at all. I did share that "Collective Shout" was taking credit for this. That I'm even on the same political side of the party as them, but that it doesn't mean my side can't overstep their bounds. If you are on the other side, that is fine. We need to be thinking about the problems, not separating ourselves unthinkingly by "sides". Considering issues individually. I'm just sharing what I did. I don't think it's important to share your side, or to share who the activist group was. The problem is with how the banks are answering to them.

DON'T BE A MARTYR:
We don't need to cancel our accounts, severely crippling our lives by canceling our payment services. Of course, feel free to. I did a bit of both, but only because that's what felt right to my situation personally. I canceled ones not important to me. I contacted ones that i wish to keep in my life. I had no major upheaval doing this. And certainly don't expect anyone to do major financial upheaval over this.

THANK YOU:
For anyone taking steps to call the source, and complain, thank you from deep within my soul. It doesn't matter if we agree on what's being censored, or if we align on other beliefs. I am truly grateful. Don't feel obligated to go beyond this. Keep it cool, keep it civil, but let them know why you find it a problem. Of course, don't even feel obligated to do this much. But I didn't do this at first, because I thought I could only call if I was going to cancel. And you don't need to cancel. They want to keep us as customers. We don't need to threaten. We just need to be civil and let them know when they're overstretched their boundaries. So for all who though it was worth their time to make a call or write a letter,
Thank You.