Life in Quadrant 4

A lot of people have written a lot of posts on the issue – on rape games, and eroge / 2D print ero in general – so I’m just going to ride the momentum here.

Rape is bad. No questions asked. Simulated rape with fictional, nonexistent characters in a controlled setting outside of the real world is a whole different issue. Based on the knowledge I have of the issue, most groups are saying that basically, these games cause people to rape people in real life. Really, really stupid, I know. To start off:

My first and foremost point: rape games do not unavoidably cause people to waltz out of their houses and rape people.

The big argument a lot of groups, lacking in proper research and knowledge – not to mention logic and common sense for that matter – is using is exactly the opposite. Frankly, it annoys the hell out of me. The problem behind the reasoning here is that it assumes a lot of things: 1, that the media (print and game) fully encourage rape; 2, that these people who otherwise would not rape people would because of playing such a game; 3, that the outcome (2) is unavoidable… And the list goes on. These groups are making rash, mostly illogical, and uninformed statements and decisions for any one or more of countless reasons. How can anyone possibly make such arguments with such implications unless he/she was, in fact, operating on emotion and not on logic?

It’s really tiring to argue about this sort of stuff since the two sides can never be fully objective in their standpoint. On one hand, you’ve got those lobbying for eroge/rape game/loli/whatever bans, which are generally composed of people fueled by emotion and instict to reject anything that seems remotely against their beliefs. On the other hand, you have those very people partaking of the said material saying that they don’t cause sex crimes. Given their stances, I highly doubt they can come to some sort of agreement anytime soon.

Another thing is that it’s really just about speculation and possibilities. No hard facts or numbers. For example, news flash: guy rapes girl, guy goes to prison. When they investigate his apartment, they find a stash of eroge and rape games, et cetera. Conclusion? He raped the girl because, and solely because of the erotica. Logical fallacy right there! Present this sort of reasoning to any logical person and you will probably get a scoff of disbelief. Of course, there is a possibility that the eroge and/or rape games pushed him to do it, but unless he admits it, there is zero solid evidence that it was the main factor in the crime. It is just assumed that he raped her because of the games. For all we know, the guy was just mentally unstable, or he was on drugs, or any one of a million other possibilities (which are more often the case than eroge and stuff).

And one more point: Because these are all fictional (not in real life!), no one is harmed. Thinking about raping someone and actually raping someone are on such different levels that putting the two together is, at the least, imbecilic.

If you’ll allow me to digress for a moment – morality is accepted to be completely subjective. i.e. what’s bad to some is acceptable for others, and so on. Standards and degrees differ, but generally speaking however, people are inclinated to do good and avoid doing bad. The law is what has been established to – at the very basest level – keep people from doing bad. Can’t really argue with that. However, what occurs in reality and what occurs in fiction are two separate things. Worlds and worlds, galaxies and galaxies apart. What these people are saying is that even if you rape a non-existent entity, you are committing a horrible, heinous crime. Sure, it may possibly push people to do it – I mean, some people just aren’t all that right in the head. However, the argument assumes that all people, regardless of mental, moral, or other conditions, will inadvertedly begin to commit rape at the slightest press of a button. That is just flawed, idiotic, senseless logic. As if they say that sane, logical people cannot distinguish reality from non-reality!

The groups are lobbying for bans, thinking that once these horrible, immoral, disgusting games portraying sex (oh no!) and rape (good grief!) are off the shelves and shoved away in the dark annals of humanity’s history, the sex crime rate will magically go down. Guess what: it won’t! This is not just some “jail-the-pusher-not-the-user” sort of thing. Under any normal circumstance, normal people do not go and commit rape because of a game or eromanga. Not everyone just goes and does that sort of disgusting shit. People who commit rape and other sex crimes are wrong in the head. No two ways about it.

What these guys think is that by censorship of anything and everything, we will all be “safer.” As Ben Franklin said – “People who sacrifice freedom for temporary security deserve neither.” And in fact, they aren’t even going to get their temporary security. They take away fictional creations and guess what, sick psychopath sex offenders still roam the streets. These people basically want to fucking screw us, and themselves over! And the children that these guys so lovingly want to protect aren’t going to be a single bit safer. GJ guys. *パチパチ*

And we will continue to be screwed over as long as we continue to let ourselves be tricked by them.

As the others say, Knowledge is power, Viva la resistance, etc.