Look, it’s not as if there were a shortage of actual news for me to blog about today. For example, my friend Shaun McCutcheon won a landmark Supreme Court decision today, and there’s all kinds of commentary about McCutcheon v. FEC.
Here is a guy from Alabama who has bought me beers whose name is forever destined to be cited as a legal precedent and yet, I feel myself constrained merely to make brief notice of the decision, because the Internet is swarming with douchebags today.
I’m talking about you, Gregory Bernstein of Vanderbilt University.
Do I need some overprivileged college freshman to lecture me about “rape culture”? No, I most certainly do not. I’ll quote your ridiculous Huffington Post sermonette only briefly:
Rape culture is a culture in which we allow responsibility for sexual violence to be shifted from the rapist to the victim. Rape culture is a culture in which our first reaction upon learning about an alleged assault is to doubt victims, to ask what they were wearing, or what they were drinking. Rape culture is a culture in which myths and misconceptions about rape are allowed to be taught as truth.
Two words for you, Greg: Individual responsibility.
Cultures don’t rape people. Rapists rape people. What is objectionable about these endless “rape culture” lectures is that they represent an effort to demonize all men, to create a collective responsibility for crimes committed by individuals. Or, allegedly committed, as the circumstances in some cases are strongly disputed.
“Reasonable doubt” was all the rage after O.J. Simpson’s wife and her boyfriend got their throats cut, but let two drunk college kids get into an argument about whether she was sober enough to consent to sex last night, and anyone who mentions “reasonable doubt” is condemned as a slut-shaming, victim-blaming misogynist.
Stop preaching, Greg, as if we were ignorant fools in need of your enlightenment. Everybody is against rape, except rapists.
The problem, which is rampant on university campuses, is that there is a Hook-Up Culture, a Friends With Benefits Culture, and a Let’s Chug Vodka Until We’re Nearly Comatose Culture, all of which lead to situations in which “consent” is a he-said/she-said dispute, where evidence is ambiguous or non-existent, and where some people want us to disregard all due process protections for the accused.
But here, Greg, let me quote you briefly once more:
It’s time for individuals as well as colleges and universities to re-teach what it means to have consent. Consent is active, continuous, and given freely. Consent requires sobriety. Consent can be withdrawn. Consent to one sexual act is not consent to all sexual acts. “No” doesn’t mean “convince me.”
Restraining my urge to offer a sarcastic reply I’m sure I would regret, let me say this: You’re attempting to repeal human nature.
Such is the feminist “rape culture” project in its pure essence. As I’ve said before, the argument boils down to, “Shut up, because rape.”
All men must submit to feminist re-education, so angry lesbians can teach them to be as meek and harmless as geriatric eunuchs.
“Do I have your permission to get an erection, Amanda?”
Here’s some advice for college girls: If you are reasonably attractive and in the proximity of vigorous, manly, robust young fellows, be aware that such fellows are all savage sex-crazed animals who dream of passionately thrusting their rigid manhood deep inside you.
On the other hand, if the guys around you are pathetic Vanderbilt wimps like Greg Bernstein, you’re safe from all that.
Now, run along like a nice boy, Greg. We certainly wouldn’t want you to miss your next Women and Gender Studies class.
Unless your a young boy. Same goes for being around public school teachers.
OT-Stacy, are you aware of the student protesters in Taiwan taking over the Taiwanese parliament building in protest of the trade agreement with China? Your old former colleagues in the lame stream media seem determined to avoid any mention of it.
“Individual responsibility”
Thanks, this cannot be repeated enough.
The single most important lesson I have learned in life, was to take responsibility for my actions.
Why is Greg Bernstein raping the internet with his heteronormative stupidity?
I want Greg Bernstein to know…I would never have fucked him in college.
And I was HOT.
But don’t you realize you were a victim of the oppressive heteronormative patriarchy?
And you have no idea how awesome it was!
God I hate pussies like this guy. And yes, he’s a pussy.
This was the kind of guy I would have rejected because my instincts would have immediately told me: BETA MALE. DEFECTIVE. RETURN TO FACTORY.
Now, there are some women who like beta males. We called them “damaged goods” AKA “feminazis”. Very rarely, I would date one. You know, when I felt like curb-stomping somebody. Cause apparently these guys get off on that sort of thing. They like being dominated. Whatever.
Anyway, they aren’t attractive. Normal women don’t generally seek them out. They seek out the strongest, most viable mates. It’s genetics. It’s biology. It’s evolution. And the science on this has been settled.
“The SCIENCE is SETTLED!”
Who’s to blame?
When in complain mode, it is easy to find villains, not just individuals but whole classes of people, places and ideas.
For example, one might blame firearms, or their easy availability in some cultures, for many “needless” deaths. Opponents of this pov say that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Thus, the argument might be said to rage between two extremes, assigning 0 or 100% responsibility to the background enabling climate, culture, or what have you, while the truth, so to speak, might lie somewhere in the middle.
In the case of guns, the outcome of complete non-regulation would be so serious, given human tendencies, that a nod is given to restricting availability at least minimally. Thus the sensible arguments deal with how much to regulate them.
Similarly, sex has been “regulated” for centuries via oppressive moral systems, which have been in many ways disastrous, but not entirely. Completely unregulated sex would have to include rape and pedophilia and more than a few unwanted babies. The solution? A sensible middle way with plenty of education, freedom, birth control, respect and so on.
How about other such blaming-vs-enabling debates?
Capitalism: If one wanted to get moralistic, one could say that capitalism, by elevating greed to the status of lofty, praiseworthy
principle, has caused untold misery. And otoh one could say that unfettered socialism has done the same. Actually, the problem with both is people, and the extent to which both are unfettered. Checks and balances (systemic limits) and informed citizen vigilance would make all the difference.
A thousand and one other areas where “systems” and individuals intersect to produce “unfortunate” results might be elucidated. All can be profitably approached with the same or similar tools: a climate of freedom tempered with common sense and responsibility, the latter including some systemic checks against the worst excesses (abuses and exploitation) plus an encouragement of vigilance.
Etc etc.
BTW, you’re a beta-male.
In fact, I’d rather have sex with a comic book nerd who still lives with his mother. At least he’d be able to give me the rundown on the new Guardians of the Galaxy film.
Of course there are places where the “rape culture” does exist.
But we won’t hear about them from the liberals and feminists becuase that culture exists wherever Muslims dominate society. And goodness knows we can’t expose any truth about them.
Gosh. I lost count of all the unproven assertions of fact in those eight paragraphs . . .
Argle bargle.
Wow, you counted? I stopped reading after “Anamika”.
Well said!
OT-Another shooting at Ft. Hood. Sorry, it’s up the road from me.
This has to be one of the best (well balanced) comments that I have read at The Other McCain in the recent past.
Hats off to you, Anamika!
Muscles. Why does a male dog lick its dick? Because it can.
Brawn-based patriarchy has been getting obsolete — very slowly 🙂 — for centuries. It certainly has its roots in biology. But like the fertility/birth control area, we are coming to see that biological determinism, if followed either blindly or out of “surrender to nature,” will lead to more suffering. And there *are* other forces, which might also be termed natural, which might balance brawn. For instance it has been demonstrated that giving women education and access to birth control leads to fewer births. DUH!
This form of self-determination has been denied until very recently. The forces trying to prevent that self-determination are retrograde and fading but still run lots of institutions and try to dictate ideology. To me, ideology opposed to self-determination for others has less a biological basis than a weight of tradition, which is just a particular manifestation of the collective unconscious.
You know what’s funny about being one of those fuddy duddy types that don’t hop in the sack at every opportunity and tend to avoid places those types of people frequent? They have pretty much a zero percent chance of ever being in a situation where their side of the story could ever come into doubt. Some girl starts screaming rape and pointing at a fairly buttoned down guy who keeps his pants in the on and zipped position, there’s a good chance he can prove he was nowhere near where she said he was when she was raped. And then we come to find out he either wouldn’t take her on a date or she was the sexual aggressor and he didn’t want any part of it. Same goes the opposite direction.
And before the resident IP hopping troll tells me to pull my head out of my ass again, I’d like to point out that I find it to be rather liberating to not have that type of situation ever even having a chance of hanging over my head (among many other situations I’ll never have the displeasure of dealing with). It really is quite nice to have fewer complications in life.
Just walk into a bar, show your boobs, point to some ad random guy and shout that he raped you, then see what happens….
Do I have your permission to get an erection, Amanda?
Not yet, Stacy! Control… Controoooooollll…
zzzzzzzz….
“Biological determinism”? As in, men and women are physically different?
Feminism (closely aligned with Marxism) demands that roles be changed such that species propagation becomes politically incorrect.
Blindly following your ideology leads to death, decay, and destruction. See: Europe (average birth rate below the 2.0 “ZPG” level) and the former USSR (Russia *might* be pulling themselves out of their own ZPG nose dive) as examples.
Unfortunately it seems inevitable to me that, should we last so long, we will lurch from one bad approach to another, with “correction” to a more sensible and fair treatment for all coming only in the long-term.
“Do I have your permission to get an erection, Anamika?”
FTFY, Stacy.
A man heard another man say that, “a woman in a bar shows me her ankle and then complained when I got so aroused that I insisted she have sex with me right away.” and then he kept it in his mind as the perfect example of being emotionally invested in something and feeling the need to follow through.
It’s nuts.
(no pun intended).
[…] My cousin Fatty that would be, he loved food, and hated sharing. So, when someone decided they could steal Fatty’s sandwich, peanut butter and jelly, with extra strawberry preserves, well, it did not end well for them. I am reminded of that episode because over at The Other McCain, Stacy McCain has opened up a can, a six-pack of whoop ass on a ”master debater” at Vanderbilt University. […]
Nuts, like you.
That doesn’t mean Homo Sapiens should commit suicide as a species.
Where there is life, there is hope.
And a bunch of effin’ commies trying to stamp out both.
“Who’s to blame?”
Who is to blame for what? What issue is it you believe you are addressing with that gobbledy gook?
Can you be specific?
What is your native language?
The more vocal the male in promoting feminist ideals and bitching points, the more likely the male will become a sadist, taking his sex from whatever woman is around at the time. And the feminists will protect him through any allegation until fundraising is impacted. So I would say this dude is a beta male. I’d put a tracker on him and enjoy women to record all interactions.
I’m less and less surprised at the people who will respond to a blog by RSM as if there isn’t a body of work which supplies context for his remarks. There’s a consistency to Stacy’s positions not found on the left. Where was Greg’s concern for sobriety and consent during the Kaitlyn Hunt saga. And how does Greg feel about Belle Knox? Does he believe her ‘Barely Legal’ porn escapades take place in a vacuum? RSM has made it clear that he believes this filth poisons our culture and perhaps contributes to the bad behavior of men towards women. Greg’s rhetoric is the same tired anti – male feminist bullshit that’s been repeated so many times I’m beginning to suspect I’m trapped in a temporal distortion.
Miriam Weeks may have had her reasons for passing on that Vandy scholarship.
It’s up the road a bit from me too. How hot are you now?
Please……as if biology is the single determining factor for why people are attracted to one another? Sorry, but human beings are far more complex than gorillas, and other primates, and the single most important determining factor in attraction is psychology, not biology. The biological determinant is why young girls often pick bad boys who are actually the worst mates, and appeal to them only on the most base level.
No, as in women pick men based solely on biological drives. Relationships are driven first and foremost by psychology and that ineffable thing called “chemistry”, not a need to be protected by hunters from a competing tribe, or what man might help her sire the most offspring. This is the 21st century, not 5000 BC.
“Commies”! More retrograde mentality, which seems to be the norm around here. And before you start frothing, I think the “rape culture” meme is bullshit, and like McCain’s series on nut job feminists. If you think all liberal men are like Gregory Bernstein, you are wrong. Some of us have libertarian/anarchist bents and loathe lockstep leftism, and social justice horseshit.
Psychology *is* biology. I think that our silly “alpha” “beta” tags are stupid and generally wrong because people think that “beta” means any guy who isn’t a bombastic jerk. There are quiet and unassuming manly-men out there aplenty, and… psychology is biology. A woman attracted to a steadfast and humble man isn’t attracted to a “beta”, she’s attracted to stability and character *for the purpose of successfully transmitting her genes to the future.* Some of the insecure BS that gets (wrongly) labeled “alpha” does not indicate biological desirability.
Biology doesn’t point you at the “bad boy”… stupidity does that.
Heaven for me would be to find myself trapped in a tempura chicken distortion.
[…] Internet Douchebag Patrol. I have to respectfully disagree with Robert Stacy McCain. Delaware does seems to have a […]
Well-said.
Bob, you peasant. It’s prawn tempura or nothing! 🙂
Awe…look at the beta-male trying to convince chicks to have sex with him.
How adorable.
Steadfast and humble are qualities associated with strength. Betas are, by nature, weaker. Females of all species look for the best and strongest mates. THAT is biology. You don’t have to like the words. Call it whatever you want. But the truth doesn’t change.
Yes, I know about liberals who are decent people. This includes some of my friends.
That’s why I specified “commies”.
I bet McCain could tell you.
We were discussing “biological determinism”, not “biological drives”.
The former is a matter of ideology (a/k/a “lifestyle”), while the latter is what provides for the survival of species and self.
Big difference. So pay attention, there’s a test tomorrow.
Speaking from experience again, Anamika?
Either as a beta male or feminist, I mean.
Precisely. The men they rail against, the men they’re most likely to openly accuse of wanting to rape them, are the ones who would prefer to die than commit rape.
But the ones who go on and on about “uncovered meat”? Can’t say boo to them.