Thank you.

Yeah, I’ve struggled a bit to process a really good friend of mine being raped years and years ago, and the “weird levels of guilt and self-doubt” is something I experienced in my own way, because I thought I got traumatized “more” than my friend did (though I know now that’s not how trauma really works) and thought that was selfish of me (which I know now was a silly thing to think), and sorting all of that stuff out was a big part of my own journey. And I guess watching my friend wrestle with that stupid “what is the right way to feel about what happened to me and how should I perform those feelings” aspect of trauma, and watching her have to deal with other people’s feelings about her feelings, and hearing her “joke” multiple times about how being murdered would have been less of an inconvenience for her is all a big part of what makes me feel like I do about what rape is and isn’t.

We both have the same desire here, but slightly different stances on where that line should be drawn and that’s ok.

Thank you a million times over for understanding.

This is a really important point and definitely not how I wanted that to be interpreted. I agree 1000% with all of this

People process things differently. Some will be more and some will be less traumatized by being raped.

Forcing a particular experience onto a victim, saying they must feel a certain way, is just so incredibly problematic. A victim can feel whatever they feel and process a crime against them however they want. And the way they do so doesn’t change whether a crime was committed against them.

I think forcing another person to go through that process, whatever process that might be for them, is the essential thing that makes it the crime that it is, but I definitely don’t mean to say that a survivor needs to have a specific experience. It’s the heinous nature of making someone a survivor and forcing them to go through that personal journey that sets it apart as a particular kind of harm to me.

Apologies my initial statement was clumsy here, and thank you for your reply because I really do think all the points you made are extremely important.

Yeah, this is actually a really good point I should edit into my post

Research has shown that getting traffic stopped by police is correlated with lower likelihood to vote (arc). I think it’s reasonable to infer that the heavy visibility of constant police actions against citizens has a huge chilling effect on democratic participation in Texas (and like every other red state in the south too).

Yeah, basically, if theft can be committed against a corporation or business entity (which I don’t think anyone would dispute) surely it can be committed against an estate (i.e. the legal representation of a deceased person for settling their will, which may or may not include next of kin, but the basic idea is still there)

The dead also can’t have their consent violated and feel that particular psychological trauma which I think is the real root of what makes rape such a particularly awful thing.

Fair enough, but when someone commits an arson not knowing someone’s in the building and that person dies it’s still murder, and it doesn’t seem right that defendant knowledge matters in one situation and not the other.

I’d say if the alleged conduct here is true it should be charged as attempted rape and punished the same as an actual rape, so this is kind of a semantic thing, but it’s something I feel pretty strongly about. I just think that it dilutes our understanding of what rape is and why it’s so horrible to call something rape when it doesn’t happen to a living creature.

I’m not saying one is worse or more traumatizing than another or trying to diminish the horrible thing that was allegedly inflicted on the deceased’s family and friends here, and I would be totally in favor of sexual assault of a corpse carrying the same penalties as rape. I just believe that it’s a disservice to rape victims to call sexual assault of a corpse rape. The particular harm that was inflicted here is different than the harm that’s inflicted when a living creature has their consent violated. It might just be a semantic distinction but words mean things and powerful words like “rape” should be defined very narrowly.

So, federal government goons can just crash in to your court proceedings and kidnap people, and if your state judges try to stop them from doing that you’ll punish them by removing the power to hear cases that was given to them by the voters of the state, and that is supposed to restore confidence in Wisconsin’s court system? Like, did they just not say it out loud all together like that before putting out this ruling or is the Wisconsin supreme court really this stupid?

I don’t think you can rape a corpse because the suffering of a living victim is an essential part of what makes rape rape.

I do think it should criminal to commit sexual acts with a corpse, but I don’t think we should call that crime rape.

That’s a smart buying strategy, but unless you’re actually pulling out the antennas these subscription services use it won’t be an effective security strategy

Yep, unless you get down to the level of pulling antennas off of circuit boards, but you’ll probably have to be careful that that doesn’t set off some sort of anti tampering system that shuts the whole car down

e; Also, doing these kinds of modifications are definitely going to violate your car warranty and maybe void your car insurance

Also also, any time you’re messing around with electrical components there’s a non-zero chance of electrocution or starting a fire, so in good conscience I can’t say this is a realistically safe option that people should pursue (like, I wouldn’t stop anyone from doing it, but I’m not encouraging it, just trying to highlight how completely fucked the situation is for consumers in the United States)

Can, probably yes, will, probably no

That comment you’re replying to might not be a “I don’t care about the pain and suffering of old people” so much as a “I don’t like it when evil media companies exploit the pain and suffering of famous old people for click bait headlines,” which I don’t really agree with (talking about problems is how problems get fixed imo and bad elder care is a problem), but it’s a take in good company (arc)

If I had a nickel for every poll that came out on April 25 2025 showing this same basic pattern I’d have three nickels, which isn’t a lot but it is weird that we have a fascist president

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/abc-news-washington-post-ipsos-april-2025 (arc)

https://apnorc.org/projects/immigration-remains-one-of-trumps-strongest-issues/ (arc)

That tracks with polls I’ve seen showing low approval rates for the media

Doughty’s sharp criticism of the Trump administration is particularly notable because he issued a series of major decisions in favor of Trump and his allies in recent years, most notably backing conservatives in legal challenges to the Biden administration’s efforts to rein in what it claimed was misinformation on social media platforms about vaccines and certain politically charged topics.

Indeed, some conservatives considered Doughty so likely to be in their camp that they filed lawsuits in his judicial division in order to have a strong chance the cases would be assigned to him.

Even as Doughty made clear that he was disturbed by the government’s actions, in his order Friday the judge seemed to tip his hat to the president, adopting the term “Gulf of America” for the body of water traditionally known as the Gulf of Mexico.

100% fucking coward energy

Born and raised in a rural area of it where redneck assholes bullied me for being a neurodiverse little weirdo, but my parents were super supportive and let me keep to myself (well, after their well meaning efforts to push me into a few extra curriculars went badly for everyone) and just spend hours and hours at my local library where I read every history and sci fi book I could get my hands on. The librarians noticed and recommended more books, showed me how to request things from big city libraries that had way better collections, and let me know that some libraries even carried cassettes, which let me get into punk and folk and alternative music that really opened my eyes to what the world could be outside of my small little town.

So, yeah, anytime I manage to say something cogent or insightful or funny or good in whatever way thank librarians authors musicians and parents who support and protect their kids (even when those kids embarrass them in front of the neighbors by, like, driving the station wagon into the hedges because I was distracted thinking about what a Joe Strummer character would do in the Star Wars expanded universe).

I don’t think it was a single presidential election that did this, the Republican party has been working towards this at least since they ran Goldwater on an anti-civil rights and anti-new deal platform in 1964. Democracy is a pain in the ass for bigots and oligarchs, so the Republican party united them in opposition against it and now their very long game is paying off. Nixon being pardoned for Watergate, Reagan getting zero blame for Iran Contra, the Supreme Court stealing the 2000 election, Bush lying about WMDs to start a bullshit war to win reelection, McConnell refusing to accept Obama’s judicial nominees - all of these attacks on anything that would hold them accountable for their theft of public resources and violence against marginalized people brought us to this point. Trump is just the worst symptom of a disease that’s been festering for decades.

The US federal government just abducted a member of the Wisconsin judiciary who was duly elected by their voters under the normal process that state has used for decades. If we didn’t have this whole Constitution thing binding us together (which, like, do we still have that thing?) everyone would call that an act of war.

Yeah, I mean among other things once ICE kidnapped this guy there was no way she was going to be able to finish holding a proper trial on the charges that actually brought him there, so she just took a series of fully legal steps (i.e. she’s allowed to access that private hallway and grant other people access to it) to protect the judicial process of her trial same as any judge should want to do.

I think in light of this development it’s now perfectly reasonable for judges to just instantly order the arrest of any ICE agents that show up to their court rooms on a charge of attempted justice obstruction. Put them in a jail cell and make them defend their actions and intentions before they do that to you, nothing less is going to be sufficient for protecting the orderly process of trials from ICE’s obstruction.