Nature, nurture, and brains programming themselves

Can a rapist be taught not to rape? Sarah Hoyt tackles the subject in one of the longest paragraphs I have read in a while:

And because some of the idiots read this blog, no, I’m not saying rape is natural to all males. That is the other side’s #yesallmen crazy ass contention. I’m just saying that rape is a “natural” thing, preceding from the fact humans are partly animals, or if you prefer, built on an animal framework. The fact that most males DON’T rape, and would be rendered impotent at the IDEA of raping is a mark of how far we’ve come. Most males don’t even need to be taught not to rape, though of course, if you teach your little boy not to hurt others, you’re teaching them not to rape. But you can’t teach the men who are inclined to rape NOT to rape, anymore than you can teach a leftist not to spout tripe. For the slow of understanding or those who don’t live in the real world, or any academics reading this blog (but I repeat myself): We’re not all made alike. Humans are not widgets generated by a computer program. We’re creatures of flesh, blood and yes upbringing. In some of us something goes wrong. Whether the flesh, the blood, or the upbringing, who knows? It’s been debated for years. However, some humans will grow up to want to hurt others. If they’re not of a twisted enough nature to become Marxist-believing intellectuals, who seek ways to hurt others through laws, perverse theories and generally corrupting the mental space of humanity in order to gain power, they might choose the more direct and physical method of murder, robbery and rape. You could say they partly do this in the serene belief that the aforementioned Marxist-believing intellectuals will excuse him and lay their vile deeds at the feet of “capitalism” and traditional culture. Me? I think that this is too harsh on the Marx-believing intellectuals. Sometimes rapists and murderers and robbers simply do things because they want to, and would still do them even if the culture didn’t tell them that their crimes are societies fault and even if the aforementioned intellectuals had as much trouble telling a criminal from a victim as telling their arses from a hole in the ground.

But see, despite all the fights about nature and nurture, in the end, no one knows why anyone turns out the way he or she does. Oh, we can make guesses about early trauma and influential events. But that big computer between our ears, after a while programs itself. All the influence and education in the world can’t make someone into this or that. You can’t program kids (or adults) as if they were computers. Brave New World was not an Utopia and A Clockwork Orange is not an instruction manual.

No, if you really have a need to be out after dark in areas that aren’t quite safe (and no area is perfectly safe. Ever.) you make sure you’re armed or otherwise protected (I have at least one friend more lethal with her hands and feet than most people with a gun. Which doesn’t mean she doesn’t also carry a gun where allowed) you go armed. And you know how to defend yourself. Which is what adult human beings do to teach rapists not to rape (it’s a well known fact the recidivist rate of dead rapists is 0%.) For all other human beings, there is feminism. Which won’t keep them safe, but lets them feel really warm in the unearned superiority of their world view.

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