2 ms·
I am more interested in widespread problems in society than one specific person. But having said that, regarding Cosby raping women, I can only go by what I rea
by EGreg 4y ago
I am more interested in widespread problems in society than one specific person. But having said that, regarding Cosby raping women, I can only go by what I read about the Cosby allegations and lawsuits on Wikipedia.
There is a lot said on both sides (eg several women sued Cosby for calling them liars in 2014). It seems the biggest actual clear admission of sexual assault was from a leaked deposition where he described how he would give Quaaludes in the 60s and 70s to women he met in clubs and subsequently slept with. I looked up the drug on Wikipedia:
Methaqualone became increasingly popular as a recreational drug and club drug in the late 1960s and 1970s, known variously as "ludes" or "disco biscuits"[citation needed] due to its widespread use during the popularity of disco in the 1970s, or "sopers" (also "soaps") in the United States and Canada, and "mandrakes" and "mandies" in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The substance was sold both as a free base and as a salt (hydrochloride). This use means the drug is controlled in most countries, and is so under Schedule II of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
So if this drug was “in widespread recreational use” in that period, I would imagine this was a widespread systemic problem, and not just limited to Cosby.
So once again, we as a society are distracted and made to think one specific guy is the problem, where actually the entire liberal society got permeated with this kind of stuff, fueled by the exact sort of profit seeking industry I am talking about: drug sales, in this case, rather than rap songs. I am not saying for the government to get involved and carry on a violent and useless drug war on the supply. I am talking about demand-side education like the “just say no to Drugs” by Nancy Reagan, but more importantly — individual attention and relationships with kids, teenagers and young adults, by their parents, teachers, coaches, clergy, whoever. Don’t let the kids slip through the cracks and become loners / outcasts. That is how they turn to these drugs and then this gets cynically exported by CAPITALIST MEDIA to all the others. I am not being hyperbolic, look:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/
Even today, how many times do we investigate allegations of rape on campus, and enact yes means yes and affirmative opt in policies, while doing precious little about the upstream culture of ALCOHOL FUELED PARTIES on campus? These teenagers are below legal drinking age — but besides that, the very idea that college is like an expensive year cruise for partying and experimentation, and coming of age, is behind many of the activities. The “girls gone wild” and “spring break” videos exploit this at the extremes, but we KNOW about the parties even today, yet we focus downstream only, and catch isolated cases.
Hookup culture and casual dating has replaced “going steady”, engagement and marriage. Out of wedlock births have skyrocketed. Divorce rates and opiates and antidepressants have skyrocketed. You can listen to any person, doesn’t have to be Cosby. But what Cosby has admitted to was widespread in society (drug use, alcohol etc) so shouldn’t we as a society look at the widespread problem, instead of patting ourselves on the back that we removed “all the rapists” from the pool?
It is like the gun debate … there are lots of guns in the country, most of the time the people shot and the people doing the shooting are drunk, but we as a society are hung up on individual cases after the fact or “a good guy with a gun an stop a bad guy with a gun”. We don’t connect the dots. The NHS was ordered to STOP doing research into guns and alcohol as an epidemiological or health issue.