Sunday, March 23, 2014

Rape Culture Quote of the Day

“If a woman has (the right to abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”-Lawrence Lockman

h/t

Lawrence Lockman is a state representative in Maine. You can read more about him at this attack piece at a Bangor Daily News blog: Maine Rep. Lawrence Lockman’s decades-long history of extremism

Of course, to "liberals", anything anti-government, anti-tax or remotely "libertarian" is extremist, so you can pretty much dismiss a great deal of what the "liberal" who wrote the piece said. However, Lockman's sexist, anti-liberty views on women is a perfect example of why I generally hate conservatives or right-wingers motivated by loony religious beliefs.

You'll notice, I hope, that I said generally. There certainly are many much more reasonable conservative/libertarian types out there with views I disagree with on issues such as abortion or Christianity, but there are many more that just get me angry, and it's not limited to abortion or similar positions, but also things like the tendency of conservatives to get mad if you criticize "law" enforcement or the military (the distinction between the two is becoming increasing blurred) too much, as most of them still worship cops and troops as heroes.

So, let's examine Lockman's hateful comment in more detail. He of course takes the illogical anti-abortion position that abortion is murder. He is being deliberately provocative in order to make his point about abortion being the murder of a human being and then compares it to the crime of the rapist. Most people would rank rape second to murder in order of seriousness in a list of criminal acts. Rape victims have to live with the trauma they experienced for the rest of their lives. Most women who are raped need some kind of therapy to get their lives back and feel normal again. But most also will never completely recover from the experience of being sexually violated. Rape can be so soul destroying that some rape victims even commit suicide. And yet this asshole is comparing the ending of a pregnancy and abortion of a non-conscious potential human with murder and actually making the argument that abortion (because, you see, it is murder) is a worse crime than rape! Think about that for a few minutes and then I'm going to tell you a true story.

I personally know someone who was raped. The perpetrator was someone she knew. He kept calling himself her "boyfriend" when he was only, she thought, her friend. He became so obsessed with her that he stole her cell phone and began contacting all her male friends with text messages saying to never contact her again. Then he started stalking her, following her everywhere she went. She would get in her car to go somewhere and she'd see him following in his car in her rear view mirror. She finally went to court and got a restraining order against him.

A few months later he raped her, not just once, but many times over a period of days. She got pregnant as a result. He was eventually arrested, tried and convicted. His sentence? Eight years in prison. EIGHT! That was eight years ago and she still has not recovered. She's soon, hopefully, to go into a program of therapy again to deal with what she calls the worst experience of her life (and this from a woman who spent months in a hospital recovering from a terrible car accident and saw her father die a slow painful death from cancer when he was only 53). As she told me when I first found out what had happened: "I was raped and I haven't been the same".

And she wasn't. She was not the same happy, cheerful person I had known. She still isn't, all these years later. And, yes, she had an abortion. She ended the pregnancy imposed on her by the piece of filth rapist that ruined her life.

Now, if you're Lawrence Lockman, you view her as a worse criminal than her rapist. But it's worse than that, because if rape is SECOND to murder in serious criminal acts, then ALL anti-abortion individuals (I won't even acknowledge the nonsense that you are "pro-life") must logically take the position that her choice to abort was a worse offense than his sexual violence, because, after all, no one died from his crimes.

4 comments:

  1. "However, Lockman's sexist, anti-liberty views on women is a perfect example of why I generally hate conservatives or right-wingers motivated by loony religious beliefs."

    Are you stupid? No, you're not stupid.

    Are you ignorant? I don't see how that can be the case, as you know the quote and its context.

    The only other option is that you're intellectually dishonest -- you "don't understand" what he said because you don't want to follow the logic ... therefore, you misrepresent to whole incident.

    The man is not advocating rape -- and you *know* that he is not. As you well know, he is performing a reductio ad absurdum on the "logic" of the pro-abortionists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never said he was advocating rape, please point out to me exactly where I said he was. Please read my post again, from the beginning. If, as is obvious from the evil statement of Lockman, "pro-lifers" believe abortion is murder and murder is worse than rape, then the logic of the anti-abortion position is as I stated.

      Thank for the comment, Ilion, but as for "intellectual dishonesty, I don't think you know the meaning of it.

      Delete
    2. "he is performing a reductio ad absurdum on the "logic" of the pro-abortionists."

      Apparently you do not understnad what a reductio ad absurdum is, or somehow have confused it with "being absolutely fucking insane."

      Delete
  2. Abortion is a murder, rape is a crime, it is both very terrifying to do. A lot of rape cases and a lot of woman pregnant because of this crime I believe abortion is not a solution to the problem, I know its hard to understand but its not because you have suffered because of rape and you want to to take away the right of a child to be born. Let us remember that everything has a purpose in life. Just want to share this because this application is just amazing they are a big help in times of emergency and they are anti bullying and child and woman abuse, it will keep you feel secure when you walk alone in the streets or travel alone.Just click the link and you're good to go it saves life http://safekidzone.com/?a_aid=53289bdd639f0

    ReplyDelete

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