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(8,170 posts)Flying Squirrel
(3,041 posts)"Drinking too much" is also true. Alcohol is a contributing factor in more than 50% of rapes, on both sides (men and women). Alcohol impairs judgment, causes women to make poor decisions they would not have made sober, and causes men to do the same thing. Simple fact. It's easy to look at rape from a black and white perspective, but the world is gray. Many rapists probably don`t even realize what they are - they're that sick. Now I know I'll get grief for this post, but I know what I know. If this country were to focus its energies more in the direction of alcohol education, treatment and early diagnosis of mental illness (alcoholism and other forms) then we'd see a reduction in the number of rapes in this country. Now that is what will get us the results we'd like to see - not a blanket demonization of sick people.
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)There was a Reddit thread a while back where people admitted to raping someone, and it wasn't alcohol that they used as an out: It was redefining rape to exclude whatever they'd done in the past. It's why I get extra-squicked out by politicians that insist it's only rape if Y condition is met: It just screams "I've done everything up to this point, and if rape is defined as anything below it then it means I'm a rapist.".
"Contributing factor" isn't the same thing as "cause" either, nor did you specify which side the alcohol was on. "Got drunk, passed out, and got raped" isn't a poor decision, other than on the part of the rapist.
lapislzi
(5,762 posts)If anything, alcohol is an aggravating factor. It causes disinhibition in both parties, and leads to poor impulse control.
In the case of a rape victim, alcohol often leads to bad judgment and impaired decision-making (not to mention full-on unconsciousness). None of these conditions are an excuse to rape someone, however.
If your decision-making and impulse control is so easily destroyed by the ingestion of alcohol, maybe, just maybe, you need to examine your core beliefs to determine why it's so easy for the brakes to come off.
I have been drunk plenty of times, and there are some lines that I could not, would not cross no matter how drunk I was. Making a pass at a co-worker comes to mind. Committing a violent act comes to mind.
Response to eridani (Original post)
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JoeyT
(6,785 posts)enough to make him blow his cover. You wouldn't think this would be a controversial statement anywhere, much less here.
Now that that one is PPRed he'll have to change to another.