on Aziz Ansari: Grace and grace; sex as physical vs. so-much-more; words vs. mind-reading; and "protect the white women"

Matt Walsh sounds correct to me...a strong article on a tough topic. Any thoughts/debate/questions?

-Nice observation on the politics of this: "Ironically, conservatives are always accused of wanting to criminalize promiscuity but liberals have actually done it."

-On sex as sin in society and more than the material/physical, see also: U of L's sex scandal and the NCAA's tacit recognition that sex is (much) more than an "improper benefit" of a certain material value.

Here's the author's punchline for those struggling here (or in other realms): "Moral courage is required to resist pressure and temptation. It is no one's fault but your own if you lack it. Our godless society has long been engaged in this campaign to alleviate feelings of guilt, not by discouraging the actions that provoke them, but by making the person who feels them into a victim. You’ll notice that we have a “disease” or a “condition” to explain just about every vice...So, as cowards, we retreat back under the shelter of deflected blame...Anything but personal responsibility. Anything but shame. Anything but guilt. Anything but sin. And nothing gets better. And we never feel better. But, we tell ourselves, at least it’s not our fault."

How many things go back to Genesis 3 and our beliefs about Genesis 1-2?! The great Good News is that (free) forgiveness and freedom are available for those who will acknowledge and repent. Ironically, the woman anonymously refers to herself as "grace"-- and that's the key to the story, for those with eyes to see and eats to hear. #EmbraceTheGrace

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Wow...there's a bunch of stuff on this story: I've never heard of him or this episode. Maybe I should pay more attention to "the news" (i.e., this crap)? Nah...

Here's Ben Shapiro on the connection to "mansplaining" and the equivalent view that men should be much better at reading minds. Ironically, women are known for talking and explaining things in (often grim) detail. But in this context, the words apparently fail them. (Bari Weiss also pursues the mind-reading angle in the NYT.)

Here's Sonny Bunch on how this could harm (or even "derail") the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Among other things, he focuses on Grace's red/white wine comment-- and what it says about her and the editorial process of the publisher.

A more sympathetic view from Megan Garber in The Atlantic on the "paradox"... 

And from Caitlin Flanagan, also in The Atlantic, including a nice reference to this episode as "revenge porn" (one wonders if she went home and enjoyed a nice glass of milk-- a la "Get Out") and a scathing final paragraph on it being ok for white women to go after dark-skinned men. What a weird place we've come to-- when the white woman attacked by the dark, bad man becomes a liberal trope. (How do we know she's white? Because she took pictures and posted them in the original story.) 


Erick Erickson notes that contemporary culture has been taking us this direction for decades. But what looks like freedom here ends up in various forms of slavery. No surprise from a biblical worldview, but a shocker to the worldly wise.