Rape Culture exists in America

I'd like to address 12 things you mentioned, starting from most central to this debate to least. I'll abbreviate or skip extraneous points if I need to save space. Let's start with addressing some assumptions. The criminal justice system (1) is not just the court trials, it includes the prisons and police. Wiki has a nice chart depiction. It has slacked on the dark blue step right after entry and before adjudication. (If it discriminates is a different debate.) One example of this slack is made clear by USA today's article (2). Failing to produce the evidence for trying a criminal is difficult when there are no laws requiring collected evidence be tested, let alone submitted. It may seem like common sense to us but sadly common sense isn't all that common. What we call common sense is actually a combination of hindsight bias and assumptions. Every day we act on long held assumptions unconsciously. Most of the time we're fine but sometimes our assumptions lead us to mistakes because we don't question them, we ASSUME them to be true. We trust our friends without thinking, we trust authority, and yes we even trust "strangers" because we assume they mean no harm. But the truth is your friend can give you some old food that makes you sick without meaning to, you can believe your parents will protect you from everything when they can't, and yes you can accept a ride from your teacher that ends horribly (do you really know your teacher?). We don't expect or desire these things to happen, so we don't prepare for them. Then when it happens to someone else we say that avoiding those things are "common sense" even though we would likely also rely on our similar assumptions in the moment, unconsciously. This is hindsight bias. We objectively realize the error when we have the results and aren't relying on our assumptions because the facts are given. Common sense is a myth. My religion teacher asked, "What does the holy cross and an electric chair have in common?" It's not hard to see why people make simple mistakes when we know our brains fill in what we don't know. These false memories and information help us form more assumptions to guide us. For example, my childhood friend thought a Yoo-hoo milk box would bounce on carpets and tested this in my house, he assumed incorrectly and it popped to my father's dismay. "What were you thinking?!" is a question we often ask others and ourselves. The answer is "I wasn't." He didn't consider the risks because he assumed it would work. We lack info and rely on assumptions. Is it any surprise that people make all kinds of mistakes? If rather than rushing to find answers, we instead stopped to consider questions, maybe we could give ourselves a chance to think clearly. My religion teacher answered, "they're both tools of execution. Sometimes we forget that this 'symbol of salvation' was used to torture criminals." We have nothing to lose from questioning what we think is true. If it's true, there's nothing to worry about and we are satisfied knowing we're right. If our assumption is false, we can find a truth to replace it. We have much to gain if we hold our beliefs to the fire and see what survives: a revelation that even a symbol of death can be one of hope and salvation. Look at the good happening because we questioned the systems we long had faith in (2). The article shows how we can update and grow when we step back to reevaluate what we know and think is true. As things keep changing, we must reevaluate what's true and what's not. "Rape is forced sex, it's as simple as that." Here's a good example of a simple assumption or conclusion that can misguide us. It's not the legal definition of rape (3) but it's not a terrible rule of thumb. However, it's inaccurate, vague and oversimplifies the concept. Meeting someone who describes it this way wouldn't set off alarms because it's "close 'nuff." We don't know if they think ONLY forced sex can be rape. You might not mean it that way, but that's how one quickly gets jailed for rape because s/he misunderstood. Now we sit mocking their lack of "common sense" or good judgement/morals. Even though we also jump to conclusions, make assumptions and over-simplify for convenience. Our understanding of the world is like a ship in the night and we pass others steering blindly. The only difference is who's more unlucky to hit an iceberg first, and then we can say we wouldn't hit something so obvious. "To expect that [it's] possible to eliminate rape [...] even mostly would be ridiculous." Here I thought Con was arguing that rape culture doesn't exist in America, by whatever criteria Con used. Now there is a sudden turn where it's here to stay? I can't understand what happened. Please explain clearly. "-ridiculous. It will never happen." I'm sure the Wright Brothers got that a lot. We thought the same when seeing Yuri Gagarin was in space. However, once we set our minds to it, 8 years after Russia hit space, we hit the moon. Even athletes understand that "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" (W. Gretzky). There is no penalty for trying and failing, just ask Edison. Giving up before you try is more worthy of ridicule "more ridiculous. A persistent flow of very little water can carve the highest mountains into the deepest canyon. So before saying "it will never happen," maybe we should TRY first. That's what those before us did, and I can't recall anyone who said "it can't be done" being mentioned kindly. "You'll sail off the earth," they said. "Slavery will never end," they said. Can you believe these guys, yucking it up while assuming things wouldn't change? What helpful advice from unfounded, untested assumptions: I'm so glad we ignored it! Instead of giving them cheese for all that wine, we put it into hamburg patties and made them truly American. I'm sure they complained that would ruin the taste. Before concluding, to briefly address some things Con mentioned: That we have government because "[we're] not all saints," I'd say there are no saints or sinners. There are just people, choices, actions and consequences. That's why I find it absurd people might even entertain the idea that one poor decision can amplify or lessen another person's poor decision. Honestly, how does deciding to go to a party affect deciding to rape someone who's half-awake or passed out? Someone is deciding to take an opportunity. "Most people would realize that [decision is] pretty stupid." Why going to a party becomes a poor decision depends on the ever-present risk of being assaulted is beyond me. Why going to the movies or school becomes a poor decision when a guy decides to bring a gun is beyond me. Why living in groups becomes a poor decision when there are 1,000 ways to be killed is beyond me. "-stupid, and [...] wouldn't [call] that 'victim blaming.'" How anyone could assume a victim somehow provoked another person's actions (and such assumption is wired into our language: "provocative dress") is beyond me and indicates that rape culture is very hard for us to notice when it's so pervasive, masked in our daily lives. What we believe is "normal" is an assumption we've accepted without question. Do we have "murder culture"? We certainly have a culture of violence which may lead to murder. If we can condone any violence or get pleasure from another's pain, then we are not far from people who go beyond "acceptable violence" and go to its logical extreme. People who can enjoy watching people in pain are not far from people who get pleasure from causing pain to people (see round 2, #3). Thank you for your courage to start a debate questioning our core assumptions. I'm glad we could argue in a way that challenges everyone who reads this. Let's teach everyone a lesson, that we're all human and that there's always room for doubt which will make us stronger. (1) http://www.dictionary.com... (2) http://a.msn.com... (3) http://www.dictionary.com...