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Do you have sympathy for other irresponsible victims? If an party-hard sorority girl is flirty and into drinking and then gets raped, no sympathies? Honestly, i

Do you have sympathy for other irresponsible victims? If an party-hard sorority girl is flirty and into drinking and then gets raped, no sympathies? Honestly, it's harder to have sympathies in such cases, but we should still work to find it and to focus on criticizing the actual abusers who took advantage of the irresponsible victim.

Glyptodon 8y ago
I really think you're stretching. One of America's diseases right now is the entitlement of those who think they that they're obligated comfortable success if they check the right boxes without ever stopping to think or do the math. And when they dig a hole, I do not feel sorry for them. (And I don't think it's remotely like rape.) If her article was about how she was stupid, and how somebody could avoid making the same mistakes, and how she'd learned, I might be sympathetic. But it's not. I fail to see how making bad, but clearly demarcated, decisions, is remotely like rape. (So on some level, yes, I don't see her as a victim.) (And yes, I do have a chip on my shoulder because I could see this kind of thing coming and so turned down the University of Chicago to go to a state school for less than half the money - my best guess is I'd have graduated with something over $120k in debt had I accepted, from the state school I graduated with almost zero.)
- quadrangle 8y ago
  It's perfectly fair to criticize her article, criticize her decisions, emphasize the responsibility that people take in watching out for their own long-term best interest… But when financial institutions are making massive profits off of other people's irresponsible decisions, you can't ethically just say that's fine. The ethical way to deal with irresponsible people is to teach them to be responsible, not to exploit them. As long as powerful interests are profiting off of irresponsible people, those interests will actively seek to encourage continued irresponsibility…

Glyptodon 8y ago

I really think you're stretching. One of America's diseases right now is the entitlement of those who think they that they're obligated comfortable success if they check the right boxes without ever stopping to think or do the math. And when they dig a hole, I do not feel sorry for them. (And I don't think it's remotely like rape.) If her article was about how she was stupid, and how somebody could avoid making the same mistakes, and how she'd learned, I might be sympathetic. But it's not. I fail to see how making bad, but clearly demarcated, decisions, is remotely like rape. (So on some level, yes, I don't see her as a victim.) (And yes, I do have a chip on my shoulder because I could see this kind of thing coming and so turned down the University of Chicago to go to a state school for less than half the money - my best guess is I'd have graduated with something over $120k in debt had I accepted, from the state school I graduated with almost zero.)

quadrangle 8y ago
It's perfectly fair to criticize her article, criticize her decisions, emphasize the responsibility that people take in watching out for their own long-term best interest… But when financial institutions are making massive profits off of other people's irresponsible decisions, you can't ethically just say that's fine. The ethical way to deal with irresponsible people is to teach them to be responsible, not to exploit them. As long as powerful interests are profiting off of irresponsible people, those interests will actively seek to encourage continued irresponsibility…