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Subject: 
Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 26 May 2000 18:48:59 GMT
Viewed: 
1073 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, James Simpson writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:

In part.  Yes.  I think it's important that everyone understands that.  I • think
the same thing about another touchy subject, rape victims.  Victims in all
sense own part of the responsibility for their situation.  To some degree
everyone who gets in an accident is _partially_ responsible for that • accident.


Chris

Ok..into the fray I plunge: You have a point regarding promiscuous (spelling?)
behavior, but I know someone who was raped when an intruder broke into her
house.  I'd hardly blame the victim in that case.

I would never, under any circumstances, blame the victim of a rape - or any
violent crime (it's not a violent crime if it was justified) - for the crime's
committal.  That's just not a viable or productive stance.  On the other hand,
I still assert that all rape victims share responsibility for the rape having
occurred.  In the case of your friend (and I have two friends who've been raped
too), did she do everything she could have done to assure her safety?  If not,
and I know that the answer is no, then she shares the responsibility because
she was wreckless.  At the extreme, she could have spent all her time and
discretionary income beefing up her home security and training in various
martial arts.  I don't advocate that as a healthy approach to life, all things
in moderation, but it would have been possible.  By extension, she could have
been somewhat more secure than she was, and it might have made the difference.

I wholeheartedly disagree
with your statement that, "victims in all sense own part of the responsibility
for their situation." That is a statement that I'd suggest needs some
moderating.

Gawd...if nothing else it's a terrible phrasing.  I was writing too quickly.
But if I revise it to "all victims of any kind of oppression, throughout
history, partially own their situation" then I'm willing to stand firmly by it.
I would, in fact, strengthen it by adding that people who are victims are
usually so because they perceive that as the easiest or cheapest course.

Anyway, I think
that our country collectively expects the government to suckle us - Americans
have become wards of the state.

Right, and that's my general point, even if you disagree with some of my
details.  (though you might want to reconsider, since I'm correct :-)

Chris

I do mostly agree with you - victims are rarely 100%, well...victims.  Often
some act of indiscretion or carelessness is a contributing factor, but...isn't
that just the nature of life?  I have a friend who just got 2 fingers ripped off
in a machine at his factory, through no real fault of his own.  Sure, he made
the decision to work there, etc., etc., but life is fraught with hazards.  I
just don't think that we can level judgment against someone who has failed to
remove 100% of risk from their life circumstances.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Personal Responsibility (was: Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?)
 
(...) Well, I do think that people are victims. I just also think that they bear responsibility for their situations. And I largely think that people are victims because they don't see to it that they won't be. (...) Yes. And as such, people need to (...) (24 years ago, 27-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
 
(...) think (...) accident. (...) I would never, under any circumstances, blame the victim of a rape - or any violent crime (it's not a violent crime if it was justified) - for the crime's committal. That's just not a viable or productive stance. On (...) (24 years ago, 26-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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