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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023

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"He gave her an alcoholic beverage and she, knowing it was an alcoholic beverage, took it and drank it." Sure, yes. That's one way to tell the story.

That's about the only way to tell the story that doesn't lead to "Two similarly-situated peers had sex, and we can only tell which one raped the other by the sex of those involved".

Another way to tell it is: "At a party, a senior looking for a good time mixed something really strong with lots of sugar and fruit juice and gave it to a sheltered freshman, the daughter of strict immigrant parents. She, knowing it was an alcoholic beverage but too inexperienced to recognize its strength or predict its effects, took it and drank it. An hour later, her senses came into focus, and she realized she was on a bed with the senior on top of her and his hand in her underwear."

That framing leaves out a lot. Particularly, how was she behaving during that hour. Would she have appeared to all and sundry (including the senior) to have been a willing participant, or would she have clearly been a stumbling confused drunk? Because I'm only talking about the first scenario.

It also implies malign intent to the senior that I don't know was actually there. Did he mix a strong drink for this girl, knowing she couldn't tolerate it, intending to exploit that to get into her pants? Or did he just see an attractive girl and bring her a drink because, you know, that's a great way to introduce yourself.

When someone describes his actions as, "Dude got her drunk," you know what that means and you know it describes ungentlemanly, exploitative behavior that does in fact happen, out there in reality, under that sky there.

I do not "know what that means". I know what the person making that claim wants me to think, but I don't know if it's true.