Editor's note: With all this light and heat, doesn't this thread deserve at least one stinking gold star ?
Thank you.
F.
[Deleted] 11 years ago
Regardless if he is wrong or right (he's wrong) he still has the right to say what he thinks (freedom of speech)...... But as Bangladesh has mentioned him making this statement has brought a lot more attention to the subject and makes a lot more people aware of it which is a good thing.... Regardless of his intention there's a lot more media out there saying he's wrong so a big positive has come out of him being an ass....
Martin Luther King: "Fuck it, racism is bad. At least I know that. Shit, is that a lynching? Sucks to be that guy."
Lady Godiva: "Well... It's a bit nippy out, but I know my husband's taxes are bad. Time to give myself adulation for knowing something."
SP: "Rape is horrible, and it's a shame that there's a rape culture propagated in society. Good thing I know that. Too bad the rapists are the only ones talking about rape, and oh... look at all those impressionable youths. Pity."
[Deleted] 11 years ago
Look...I think you're misunderstanding me. I believe that rapists and rape culture and people who believe that rape isn't a big deal need to be educated. But that is not what I was originally posting about in this thread. I said that his opinion on the matter was meaningless, because he is so far removed from the problem, and also because he essentially claimed that sexual assault doesn't exist. Because of this his comments only served to cast doubt on a problem that everyone knows exists. Yes...we need to have a debate or discussion on why rape is bad, and how to change peoples views who don't think rape is bad, and how to prevent rape. But we don't need to have a debate on whether or not sexual assault and rape on college campuses exists.
PS...thanks for making a mockery out of a serious topic by posting a meaningless gif.
If everyone knows that rape is bad, then why is it committed as frequently as it is? Because there's a shit ton of people that have a... fluid or misinformed understanding of the world. A ton of men and women and boys and girls out there that don't realize that their actions do have effects and consequences beyond their immediate pleasure.
You can't seek to end rape by ignoring rape and what causes rape. There's misinformation and there's ignorance out there that needs to be addressed.
Yes, the people in this thread agree that rape is bad. But we're, presumably, not rapists. And if there is a rapist, then they've read this thread and seen people questioning their beliefs. You can't stop a belief system by telling people that already don't follow that path to not follow that path.
And how did George Will's comments cast doubt about sexual assault? There is no one coming out agreeing with him. Literally everyone is saying "that dude is wrong. Sexual assault is a serious thing."
You're the one that wants to seclude him and his kind, so that they can champion their own beliefs in their own little circles and create generations of misinformed individuals who embrace sexual assault because they consider it trivial. You want to ignore them, and turn a blind eye to them. And by doing so, no one can oppose them. Because no one is allowed to address that George Will and people of similar opinions are wrong.
Yes, George Will will perhaps always think that. But his opinions need to be exposed and illuminated, so that potential rapists, and the children of the world, understand that rape and assault are wrong. George Will will be dead in a few years, but not confronting and destroying his opinions in the eyes of the public will allow his opinions to persist beyond him.
You won't talk to them, but that won't stop them from talking to others. That's not solving anything. That's not stopping rape. That's turning rape and sexual assault into an ill exposed black hole that sucks in and perverts people that otherwise wouldn't be vulnerable to such ideas, if they had been shown that those ideas were wrong.
George Will's opinion matters specifically because he is wrong.
Your initial post in this thread said that he shouldn't be allowed to talk about assaults in college because he's an old privileged white male. Who should be having the discussion then? That old privileged white male made a comment, and now the internet is full of discussion about how he is wrong, about how rape is a problem. People are reading and learning that rape is wrong, and thus not to rape. Both through deduction from reaction and through the discussions resulting from that privileged old white male saying those things. If no one that you think matters, or deserves to have opinions on this, read that privileged old white male's words, then this discussion wouldn't be happening. His comments were a catalyst.
You can't solve something if you don't address it as a problem.
How do you propose to end rape and sexual assault without actually addressing rape and sexual assault as problems?
"Don't rape." Well, there's a shit ton of people out there, uneducated, unguided, uninformed, and unformed who are going to ask "why?" Your response is "Don't rape." It's meaningless, and does nothing to change anything.
[Deleted] 11 years ago
You haven't read a fucking thing I've said. I've said time and time and time again, my response is not "don't rape" My response is we don't need a debate to tell us rape is bad, we need a debate on WHY its bad and how to stop it.
[Deleted] 11 years ago
The biggest problem is the rise in the party and binge drinking attitude in society and university's over the last few decades.... People getting that drunk they don't care about actions or concequences... Or getting that drunk they put themselfs in danger which if they were sober they wouldn't dream of doing....
