passive_fist comments on The Art of Lawfare and Litigation strategy - Less Wrong

-4 Post author: Clarity 17 December 2015 02:34PM

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Comment author: passive_fist 18 December 2015 06:34:34AM 4 points [-]

I was shocked by what appeared to be gross violations of cultural norms around the blaming of victims.

What? How is it a violation of 'cultural norms' to say that smoking or other factors contribute to cancer?

Comment author: Val 19 December 2015 10:25:05AM *  3 points [-]

This windmill fight against blaming the victims seems to go out of hand. I agree that sometimes we have to take care not to blame the victim, but let's just not fall to the other extreme.

The topic where this comes up the most often is rape, so let's take an example about rape:

  • When a woman is raped and the reaction of someone is that she deserved it, why didn't she take better care, or that it could only have happened if she also wanted it... now that's a clear case of blaming the victim, and we should fight against it.

  • On the other hand, when someone honestly gives an advice about how to reduce the risks of being raped, for example, avoiding a notoriously bad area of town during the night when alone, or that in an area there is a "secret" dress code how prostitutes show potential customers who they are and we should tell young women not to accidentally dress like that... now when people are offended and try to censor this information by claiming that it's blaming the victims, it starts to get ridiculous.

Comment author: ChristianKl 18 December 2015 10:14:04AM 1 point [-]

What? How is it a violation of 'cultural norms' to say that smoking or other factors contribute to cancer?

I think his point is that the people who smoke get blamed instead of the companies who produce tabacco getting blamed.

Comment author: Lumifer 18 December 2015 03:58:45PM 2 points [-]

I think his point is that the people who smoke get blamed

As they rightly should.