Where Left Is Right / The Old Site

Within just about any "human interest" story propagated by the MSM, passed around and passed around among them like a crack pipe, lies a hard core of genuine human interest. Experiences lovely and dreadful are taking place around the world at any given moment and -- especially when the audience feels trapped by godawful jobs, family situations, national and global bad news, simple crushing ennui -- it's only natural to prefer the feelings accompanying, respectively, wish-fulfillment and "Thank God that's not happening to anyone I know!" shakes of the head.

So along comes the story of Natalee Holloway, reaching fever pitch just in time to fill the news gap tragically left by Michael Jackson's acquittal.

The story has everything, for the moment: a presumed victim, young, attractive, and American (and from a Red State) at that; an exotic location; possibly interracial sex; overtones of a Puritan fable about the dangers of fun... And the commentators, naturally, have come out of the proverbial woodwork. The lessons, they tell us, are clear and irrefutable -- variations on themes of not taking candy from strangers and "there's no place like home." Yet a depressing number of these commentators seem to dwell on a bizarre observation: "Young women need to remember what men are like in order not to provoke them into assault/rape/murder/complicity in disappearance in the first place!"

Ross, a new arrival to the cast over at The Talent Show, has noticed this, too. In a provocative post, [ROUGH LANGUAGE ALERT ON]"I Am Not My Cock,"[ROUGH LANGUAGE ALERT OFF] he takes to task, in particular, not the usual navel-gazers and thoughtful goatee-pullers among the Op-Ed contributors and other commentators, but the blogosphere -- weirdly, even its left wing. Here is, I think, the nub of his piece:

...I have never raped anyone. Shockingly, I also think this is a pretty normal state of affairs.

This isn't something I'm proud of. That's because I can't be proud of not raping people anymore than I can be proud of not shitting on myself whenever I laugh. Not being a rapist is the default fucking setting. Far as I know, most men have never raped anyone. I assume this means that rapists are a minority of men, and in a normal world you'd think that not being an evil, violent monster would make one more sympathetic to the victims of rape, who are also not evil violent monsters.

Hell, you'd think that most guys, who like me have never raped anyone would think to themselves "Hey, I don't go around assaulting people. I don't rape women. When a girl says no, or turns me down, I handle it like an adult. And now that I think about it, I think I'm kinda normal. I guess being able to not hurt and murder and rape is the norm. Why, that means rapists are fucking evil freaks. Golly gee willikers, who'd a thunk it!".

The point isn't that there are no dangers out there (wherever "there" is from your vantage point). The point is, expressly, that if Natalee Holloway (or anyone else) has indeed been the victim of a sexual assault, she is not guilty of provoking her attackers by her dress, her behavior, her mere presence at Carlos 'n' Charlie's club. The guilty party is whoever assaulted her. That person, or those persons, are the only ones who must be accountable to outrage -- even of the polite clucking-of-the-tongue variety.

Focus, people. Focus.