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From: robert@fear.UUCP (Robert Plamondon)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Porn and Rape: a social disease
Message-ID: <270@fear.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 13:07:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: fear.270
Posted: Thu Sep 26 13:07:41 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Oct-85 07:13:14 EDT
References: <10000008@orstcs.UUCP> <547@lasspvax.UUCP>
Organization: Weitek Corp. Sunnyvale Ca.
Lines: 35
Summary: The correlation fallacy strikes!

In article <547@lasspvax.UUCP>, cheryl@lasspvax.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart) writes:
> Sure, the sociological studies have only shown a high 
> statistical correlation between pornography and rape in neighborhood-
> by-neighborhood studies.  But, just as doctors have not PROVEN HOW 
> cigarrette smoking causes lung cancer, sociologists have not PROVEN HOW
> pornography causes rape.  So the porn-mongers have a cute, technical
> excuse to cover up the ill effect they have on society.

There's a hell of a difference between correlation and causality. For
example, there is a very strong correlation between the incidence of
death by drowning and sales of suntan oil -- when one goes up, the
other goes up. This doesn't mean that suntan oil causes drowning; it
means that boths suntan oil sales and swimming are related to the
same cause -- warm weather.

*IF* there is a genuine correlation between pornography consumption
and rape, a perfectly reasonable theory is that a person who rapes is
also likely to buy lots of pornography -- that his underlying mental
illness stimulates BOTH responses.

> The problem is that our whole society is based on prevarication,
> deep beaurocratic hypocrisy, advertizing hype, the profit motive,
> and oh, I forgot to mention outright lies.

Ah, yes, "The Universe is a gun, and it's pointed at MY HEAD" school
of social science.

> It's that Cheryl Stewart... She's BACK!!!!

"I tell ya, Sheriff, Cheryl's back -- and she brought her terminal
with her"
-- 

		Robert Plamondon
		{turtlevax, resonex, cae780}!weitek!robert


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