There are some things that are said in the public forum that are offensive to people, and should not lead to the author being punished or being forced into a half-hearted apology to save their job. There are some things said that are truthfully mistakes and in the end, no one feels good about what was said. The author, begrudgingly or not, apologizes for what was said, and either serves a punishment laid out by the court of public opinion or is forgiven and moves on.
This however, is absolutely unforgivable. Not only because of who said it, but because of the ignorance AND the ideology behind why he said it. -
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57496599-503544/akin-apologizes-for-rape-comments-obama-says-rape-is-rape/
The quote being addressed is as follows - "It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare, If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down..."
You have got to be *$#@%!* kidding me.
Now you might think that this man just pulled some BS out of the air and blurted it out, in hopes of making people think he had some higher form of education on the matter. Wrong. What he did is worse. He confused this magical invented theory of the female body knowing the difference between rape and consensual sex with a very real psychological phenomena known as dissociation. Dissociation is common, its something all people experience. If you have ever felt yourself being in the 'zone' or 'locked in', that is dissociation. A layman's explanation would be that it is the brains way of shutting out background noise or outside interfering stimuli in times of strenuous concentration. However, this phenomena lies on a continuum, meaning that it does not just occur in one way.
Dissociation can be more extreme than how it is commonly experienced. In the case of a traumatic experience such as rape, the victim may (not all do, it is subject to their brains ability to do such things, which is another story for a psychology blog) 'black out' or snap into an alternate consciousness. It is a way of the brain protecting itself from such a traumatic and undermining experience. The theory goes on to say that this might result in the formation of an alternate identity, or personality, which harbors this memory and other memories associated with it, and builds a personality with these memories as its basis. Though this does not occur in all cases, it is believed to happen in some, resulting in a personality disorder of sorts (again, something for a psychology blog.)
You may ask how I know such things, or you may wonder whether such things might be true, or are they just some psychobabble that justifies peoples strange behaviors. Well, to be frank, I am living proof of this. I was raped at 15 by my stepfather in my sleep. I woke up momentarily, only to be knocked out again by some chemical on a rag. This memory I speak of to you is not mine, but it was the memory of another consciousness within me that was formulated by my mind in the time of distress to deal with and hide away this memory from me. After years of it sitting underneath the surface, playing hell with my psyche and outward personality, it came out through therapy. I now have to own this memory, and move on from the damage done by it. It is an every day process which will never be done. The trauma of that event cant be measured, and it cant be faked. It also cant be disposed of. I have begun to study in the field of human psychology in order to not only understand others and perhaps make a career for myself as a clinical psychologist, but to understand myself and how I work, what happened to me and what caused me to be this way. My study is as much a journey of self-exploration as it is education.
Why did I tell you this? Not for pity, but for context. This Sen. Akin (R-MI) did something worse than just make something up. He took something he heard in passing, and whether he purposely mislead the public with his statement, or was completely mistaken in how he heard it, presented it as fact and a basis for why abortion shouldnt be legal. He did NO research and irresponsibly passed his misinformation on to a radical public which will take his words and, despite the information existing in droves out there to the contrary, will work its way into public lore as fact. This, beyond the fact that a man who holds the position of US Senator and should be educated enough to know either that this fact he heard was rubbish or to just keep his mouth shut, should be grounds for his removal from public office, and banishment from holding any future public office.
Why, you might ask? Well, he has obviously shown just how deep he researches matters of such great importance before speaking about them to the public, never mind actually writing and voting on policy which enters into FEDERAL LAW. This 'gaffe' shows just how careless this man is in dealing with the well being of the public, and shows just how little he is concerned with the welfare of his constituents. It is absolutely deplorable, then, that this man will probably be forgiven for this accident, because so many people will rise up and say it was an "honest mistake" which anyone could have made. No, this is an indictment of his character which shows clearly that he is not at all fit to be a US Senator, and should be kept far away from public office. Whats worse is that the radical anti-abortionist's in his party will rally behind this man because of his stance which is in step with theirs. They will overlook the fact that this statement was made because he really doesnt care, nor does he care to know. All they care about is that he will raise his hand for that one fringe issue which they spend so much time railing on about.
And the machine will continue to chug along, spewing smoke, fire and hatred at every turn towards every man, woman and child. Its not about his being a Republican or Democrat (though really, this kind of inexcusable conduct comes primarily from the right), its about actually caring to do the work necessary in order to run a successful and prominent nation. The people behind the ballot boxes dont care, but that isnt the problem. The problem is that the people in front of the ballot boxes also dont care, and are investing as much attention into their nations working's as a college freshman would into a 5th grade math exam. They would figure that they know enough, answer all the questions, turn in the sheet, and wonder how they could have possibly failed such an easy test? Well, it must have been the questions fault. So they will wait until the next test, invest as much attention into it again, and the same results will occur.
Is this at all becoming scary to anyone else but me?
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