Underneath the gratuitous insults and self-righteous rhetoric, Antiseptic has made a serious point. And I don't buy MaryE's attempt to change the subject.

>>His question was, "Is non-consensual sex (rape) really the second worst crime next to murder? Why?" Now the question here is not really how the various crimes should be rated.<<

That's an assertion, MaryE, clearly intended as a distraction from the question itself, which is a real one.

Any attempt to rank crimes in terms of whether one is worse than another is always going to be fruitless, pointless, divisive and ultimately reflective of individual circumstances.

Even such non-violent crimes such as fraud, or slander, can screw up someone's life sufficiently for them to commit suicide, or for them to take vengeance on society with a little mass murder or two.

To say that one is "worse" than another is simply a generalization intended to push a particular point of view, and cannot be justified any other way.

Let's just agree that rape is a crime. It is particularly nasty. It can have serious longterm consequences for the victim. It should be "prosecuted with the full force of the law" etc. etc.

Ok?

Foxy,

'Because we live in a meaningful world...'
Hahaha. Oh foxy, so naive.

'look at the
reality you've constructed for yourself. It may not
be accurate.'
I'd say that there's no such thing as an accurate reality. Y'know I really enjoy the reality I construct for myself every day. As do all people. And you're in no position to judge other people's constructed realities when your own reality is self constructed as well Foxy.

Antiseptic,

Sometimes I think people just don't 'get' you. Now either that, or they find it offensive/impossible to talk logically on an emotive topic. Is it so hard for people to argue objectively from base premises? I think basically what all they're all saying is they want to close their eyes and shut their ears because it's just in bad taste to even question any accusation of rape, or question rape as the second worst crime. Ever. Either that or they are just happy to have someone to hate and tut tut, and any excuse will do.

Now given that I'm a psychopath (Or maybe sociopath now examinator has down/up graded me, although I'd say I'm nowhere near that interesting) but I wonder do they all really know this girl so well to feel what you're interesting in arguing is in such bad taste? Can they no possible separate themselves enough from a complete stranger they heard about in the news?

Maybe we should just never talk about rape, assume every claim true on any sensitive topic and go home in our happy blind state, no richer for examining any further.

You've explained your position 10 times, very clearly, I think it's time to give up.

'MaryE:"I believe rape should not be diminished."

Should it be exaggerated? '

That sir, deserves a round of applause! clap clap clap...

Oh,

Just a side note. I just thought I'd relate my thoughts, Twitter style.

It's occurred to me, apart from the above involving antiseptic, that a lot of the responses to posts seem to have no relation to the original post. I'm trying to work out whether...

a) The school system really is stuffed, and comprehension is a lost skill.

b) It's irrelevant what anyone says, people just like to talk. It's like being in a room of really enthusiastically conversing coke snorters.

c) The aim of OLO for some is to be seen as a superior intellect for self esteem purposes. To achieve this appearance of intellect, it's sometimes necessary to use indignation and misrepresentation, character assassination etc to camouflage a lack of intellect.

d) It's fun to deliberately misinterpret people for your own amusement, watching them bend themselves in knots trying to explain, while you further bend their explanations in knots. I love this one myself.

e) There is a reflex in many to yell things like 'think of the children' brought about by too much ACA watching.

f) Apart from intellect, the second currency in OLO is 'niceness'. If you cant appear really intelligent, and put the 'dumb' ones (those that refuse to pontificate in a pompous manner) in their place, you have to be really really nice, and then you can be superior to the 'neanderthals' with respect to manners rather than faux intellect.

g) Nobody is on my wavelength at all, and I'm really just wasting my time trying to make sense of these OLO beasts. I mean, can examinator really be that pompous? I cant imagine someone that tiresome in real life.

Antiseptic's taboo question has eventually created some high quality discussion. Thank-you Pericles, RObert, Exterminator and Houellebecq. Perhaps if he put more care into not offending others, people might focus more on answering his questions. Perhaps not.

H,
As I've said before we all have issues but that doesn't give us license to wallow in our emotional excrement(vulnerabilities) in public. This site is hardly a good venue for group therapy. It is beholden on all of us to deal with our issues privately and discuss topics here.
It takes no real smarts to play confrontational bombastic games.
Being "Agent provocative" gains nothing least of all understanding.

Just as a personal note perhaps you might benefit from polishing up on being less tautological in your attacks....By the way I don't really care if you see me as pompous why should I? You clearly missed my original point and are now on a revenge trail..... for a non existent slur.

Pompous in your mind is obviously just someone who doesn't agree skill less games, a reminder that you are as I just one of many.

examinator,

'This site is hardly a good venue for group therapy.'
I disagree. I'm doing wonders with Fraccy. Did you know she's starting to become more gender-blind in how she relates to posters!

'You clearly missed my original point and are now on a revenge trail..... for a non existent slur.'
Haha. You HAVE got a massive ego. That you think I would bother to take 'revenge' (for what pretel?). I love my psychopath tag if that's what you think I'd be seeking revenge to my dying day about. Truly! 'Revenge'? What a weird concept. I'm starting to learn what makes you tick here I think.

'Pompous in your mind is obviously just someone who doesn't agree skill less games, a reminder that you are as I just one of many.'

That sentence seriously defies parsing? I prescribe 'eats, shoots and leaves'. Now I'm no word-smith, but I defy anyone to make any sense of that sentence. Any takers?

Tell me, it's something I've long pondered about you. Do you write your posts, then get a thesaurus and change to longer words. That would explain A LOT I'm telling ya!

Perhaps you're an English Teacher

Or maybe you are a psychiatrist. 'emotional excrement' would be a strange phrase to use though in that case. Not much respect for your patients I presume.