You Cannot Legislate Morality

Saw on Twitter this morning, thanks to Larry, that there's some hullabaloo about someone's Kickstarter campaign. CNN article here.

Ok, caught up? Good.

Stop trying to wish offensive shit out of existence. 

It doesn't work and it just makes everyone more miserable.

Yes, it certainly sounds like this guy is a douchenozzle. Yes, I would pretty much like to kick him in the jimmy. But my desire does not mean that the book should be banned. Sure, there's possibly some bad advice in there. I'm not taking the quotes as all the information though, because out of context is a major factor.

But, ya know? He's got the right to give bad advice. And people have the right to take bad advice. Maybe he's advocating being more aggressive than is polite, which some men might take to an extreme.

However, in my opinion, a far more effective way to discourage such behavior is for women to stop acting like startled sheep when something they don't like happens and take steps to learn to defend themselves.

Society cannot protect you from being offended. The most effective defense against assault of any kind is self defense. Because, face it folks, you don't have a cop in your pocket. Your ability to defend yourself is always with you.

I don't give a rat's ass if you carry a gun, learn jujitsu, get a protection dog that is with you every second of every day, or invent a damn force field. Just take a pro active interest in your own bodily safety.

The fact that you're offended by something some jackass says in a book does not give you the right to silence them. The fact that he's advocating aggressive tactics with women would not be an issue if every single woman stepped down off the pedestal long enough to figure out that they have the power to defend themselves.

Because you know what? The guys who might take that advice a little too far because someone told them women like that kind of thing will stop if it is made absolutely clear to them that it is not acceptable right then when it happens.

The guys who wouldn't stop are called rapists and aren't raping because of a book, they're doing it because they're rapists. And it's even more important with them that as a woman you know how to defend yourself.

The facts of life are that you may not stop him. You might still get raped or otherwise assaulted. But you're going to make it very expensive for him. It might make him change his mind, if you can manage to rip off his ear or gouge out his eye, but at absolute rock bottom worst you're marking him to make him easy to identify after the fact.

That is the answer to guys like this dick. The world cannot be made perfectly safe, that's not how life works. Anyone who tells you differently is probably looking for votes. So quit crying, and do something about it with the only thing in this world that you can actually control: yourself.