Damian M. Schloming ideas and information

Naomi Wolf on rape: "...ours is increasingly an age of geopolitics by blackmail."

This website is to allow me to present intelligibly my thoughts and insights on various social, political, historical and even scientific issues I've been studying in the past two years. 

Some of which I have background knowledge of due to having been involved with and interested in various political movements many years ago. 

My political viewpoint leans towards libertarian, except that I am not completely happy with the way some of them think. Libertarians want limited government and civil liberties. As a matter of principle, that is excellent. But then libertarians seem to suffer from this ingrained bias of Western Culture that you can somehow intellectually decide that government "should be" a certain way and then the perfect society can then be achieved by some legislative body sitting down and crafting some written rule decreeing that that is how society is to be from now on.

 

Actually, I think government and the larger society it is embedded in is more like some kind of living beast that you can train or that can morph in one direction or another, but it can't be so easily manipulated or changed as we think. Written rules don't have the exact effect they literally intend, but instead enforcement of the rules and all sorts of other considerations regarding government bureaucracies results in all sorts of ripple effects or unintended consequences. As a result, the most free society does not necessarily result from the one with the nicest and most free sounding written constitution or constitutional rights guaranteeing liberty. A very good example of this issue is the liberal Warren Court expanding all sorts of fifth amendment procedural and technical criminal protections for defendants. Liberals saying they want to do this might be arguing this is to help the poor. The opposite is the truth. This is to help defense attorneys, and why is that a bad thing? Because criminal procedures and technicalities of the liberal Warren Court only resulted in defendants having protection IF they could hire an expensive enough attorney to do a good enough job PRESSING them. Public defenders are part of the corrupt court system, they deliberately do a bad job so as to make sure well heeled defendants find it worth their while to pay extra. Huge sentences ALSO give well heeled defendants more incentive to pay extra. Thus, defense attorneys representing rich criminal defendants have a vested interest in maintaining the strict sentencing policies responsible for Mass Incarceration. Furthermore, there was a law school bubble which burst, and now law schools are doing poorly because lawyers are not finding it worth their while to spend so much money on a law degree. Fact of the matter is, those liberal Warren Court protections indirectly increased legal fees for defense attorneys, thereby contributing to the upward pressure on college tuition and law school tuition, simply because the amount of money attorneys could make from a law degree made it more worthwhile. 

It also is true that the regulatory state increased in many other ways, increasing demand for attorneys in other spheres besides the criminal justice system. But I am going to talk about the criminal justice system here for now to use it as an example.

This is just one example showing how a policy that, examined in the most superficial way you think it's designed to help criminal defendants overall in the long run has the exact opposite effect. Because these protections are ones that only can be accessed by those with the money to pay for top dollar attorneys. And, it isn't always necessarily related to the facts of the case. The attorney usually has an incestuous relationship with everyone else in the court system, so much so that basically if you pay the right attorney enough money, you will get off because he is friends with all the judges and prosecutors, and parole officers, etc.

And for me to say that could lead to others thinking it is rather awful to have a court system so incestuously corrupt. Except, these are all nice people who know each other and court systems have ALWAYS been like this, more or less. And they always will be this way. Government is incapable of being perfect. Understanding its inherent imperfections such as this are necessary when it comes to avoiding passing laws which interact with such a culture in a way to produce very bad outcomes.

 

After all, we have always had government and, for some reason, it would appear if we always have had it, that is because we need it. The inner workings of government are so awful, you discover after you observe it, it can easily lead many to think we should just abolish it. But, given that that is impossible, the best alternative is to understand it as inherently flawed, and realistically think of how to make things "the least bad."

This is what I have thought for a long time, yet only recently have I stumbled across some law professors who subscribe to a movement called "legal realism." It turns out they think exactly the way I do, and see the same flaws in our society (or in the thinking of popular culture which leads to wrong-headed policies in our legal system) that I see.

Oddly enough, they seem to describe themselves as leftists yet they are not the kind of ordinary mainstream leftist most people would understand to be "of the left." Which is strange because I never would have thought of myself as a liberal -- but not a conservative either. But maybe this is because of certain strands of liberalism I have been exposed to which are quite awful. 

In any case, why categorize oneself? As I study and learn more about society, I like to share various insights and not limit myself to any one "box" or "category" that I pigeonhole myself into.

THIS IS A BIT UNUSUAL BECAUSE THEY ARE USUALLY QUITE SUPPORTIVE OF ME ON THAT PAGE. 

 

 shared See Act Stop's post.

January 13 at 6:58pm · 

End Rape on Campus knows best: the police have a mixed track record on sexual assault. We must follow the lead of survivors.

 

See Act StopLike Page

January 13 at 2:13pm · 

We agree with Andrea Pino. Bernie Sanders should listen to survivors and change his position: http://buff.ly/1PXFkC9?

 

Bernie Sanders Doesn't Understand Campus Sexual Assault

He's not making friends among sexual assault survivors.

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM|BY TYLER KINGKADE

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Damian Schloming Maybe some rapes should be handled by the police and maybe some should be handled by colleges, and maybe it depends on what kind of rape or how bad it is -- problem is if you have corporate sponsoring of rape, where rape and sexual harassment is part of certain mob stuff that goes on at the behest of corporations, who donate money to colleges AND sponsor serial rapists on campus. If and when something like that goes on -- obviously police need to be overseeing things in some way. I really think whether the police should handle it or the college should handle it depends on individual circumstances. I'm not sure all rapes are created equal. I think some are spontaneous and occur in the heat of the moment, others are pre-meditated and can be part of larger schemes involving the mob -- with healthcare corporations obviously very intent on using rape and issues revolving around rape for blackmail so they can engage in interesting types of coercion and use it as a tool as part of a larger crime or series of crimes against an individual. More research needs to be done on rape and more truths need to be uncovered -- there's tons of stuff people don't talk about, I know -- in order to figure out what should be done. damian-schloming.squarespace.com

Like · Reply · January 13 at 7:26pm

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Leigh Christine What would constitute a 'bad enough' rape for a campus to have to handle? The police? Just wondering, because I wasn't aware there was a grading scale for how bad a rape could or should be.

Like · Reply · 5 · January 13 at 7:31pm

 

Jodi Drechsler Porter I totally agree with you Leigh...there is no sliding scale on rapes or the degree of reactions that a victim will have.

Like · Reply · 1 · January 13 at 7:43pm

 

Caroline Carlson Damien what you are saying is true of murder as well. Some murders happen in the heat of the moment and some are premeditated but at the end of the day the person is equally dead.

Like · Reply · January 13 at 7:54pm

 

Nancy Gagne Walton I guess you are with those Tea Baggers when they talk about "forcible" as opposed to "regular" rape. Rape is rape!

Like · Reply · 1 · January 13 at 8:34pm

 

Nancy Gagne Walton The colleges and universities cannot put campus rapists in prison--only police and prosecutors can do that. That being said, it is within the purvue of those institutions to suspend the perpetrators until they have been tried in a court of law.

Like · Reply · 1 · January 13 at 8:34pm

 

Damian Schloming Well I'm not a woman so I wouldn't know how it is with women, but with men, not all rapes are the same or equally severe. Maybe I say so because the types of crimes committed against me were on the exceptionally severe side. And, also, it was more like years of abuse and so many different types of abuse and instances of abuse I've lost count. Isn't it worse when it's a way of life and something you have no choice but to become used to? There was a time when I thought rape was nothing, totally trivial, minor, because there were so many other much worse things I was worrying about. There is a big difference between it being a one time incident which is an exception to the rule, than to live a life where it is the rule, all the time, and you get so used to it, you stop even thinking of it as abnormal.

Like · Reply · January 13 at 11:04pm · Edited

 

Emilia Tylenda Rape is ALWAYS bad

Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 3:45am

 

Leigh Christine Damian, anytime a person is raped they are traumatized for life. Again, there is no scale for 'rape severity' and how every individual handles their own trauma is as individualized as they are. I wouldn't think you would have the right to tell anyone their trauma is less severe because they were 'only' raped once instead of it being a systemic part of their life. What if they were raped a 'handful' of times? Is that more valid? A dozen? Twice? Where's your cutoff for what is considered a 'bad enough' trauma?

Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:27pm

 

Damian Schloming Why are you attacking me? Because I dared to talk about the mafia? Because I am "coming forward" or disclosing abuse I've suffered from which is -- which goes so far beyond typical rape that for awhile I thought of typical rape (which has happened to me) as so trivial as to be nearly insignificant? I ought to mention the abuse I suffered from was perpetrated at Harvard, by and on behalf of Wall Street Criminal corporations. I think THAT is what you should be concerned about.

Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:36pm

 

Damian Schloming This article would tend to support the belief that women may have a harder time recovering from rape trauma, hence the assertion that a victim is "traumatized for life." But, if I'm not a woman, it's not my job to speak of anything outside my own experience, and it's not your job to silence me or shut me up regarding my own experiences. What would you say to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, I wonder? Similar attacks at what they think of what they were put through compared to typical rape? Meanwhile, there is something self-serving about the assertion that trauma can never be recovered from -- when the whole entire medical industrial complex is very heavily profit driven, and some of the biggest profits are derived from healthcare companies erroneously attempting to raise revenues by declaring increasing numbers of individuals with mental health needs that cannot be recovered from and that require increasingly expensive and profitable treatment. Maybe it's more possible to recover from trauma than conventional wisdom is willing to acknowledge -- maybe profit motives have resulted in things being set up so a lot of people work very hard to do all that can to THWART anyone in their efforts to recover from trauma?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/01/12/why_women_are_more_depressed_than_men_stress_hormones_and_discrimination.html

Like · Reply · 16 hrs · Edited

 

Damian Schloming Another thing, if you are attacking me for coming forward as having been a victim of years of brutal wall street crimes sponsored by corporations who donated money to Harvard, that only tends to support suspicions I have already had that part of the rape movement is corrupt, corporate funded, and designed to help corporations engage in blackmail and other crime -- and is hostile to real victims in all situations where acknowledging such victimhood is not helpful to corporate profits. damian-schloming.squarespace.com

Homepage and introduction to the website issues

This website is to allow me to present intelligibly my thoughts and insights on various social, political, historical and even scientific issues I've been studying in the past two years. 

DAMIAN-SCHLOMING.SQUARESPACE.COM

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Caroline Carlson No we are attacking you because you are using language which suggests some rapes should be considered worse than others. Sounds like the republicans statements about " legitimate rape" it's offensive. Don't dare say you've suffered more than the " typical rape". Your comments are misogynistic and way off topic.

Like · Reply · 48 mins

 

Caroline Carlson Damien you also can't speak for all male survivors and to say so is laughable.

Like · Reply · 46 mins

 

Damian Schloming You're being ridiculous.

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Damian Schloming You want me to cover up some of the things that go on with the mafia -- which are FAR WORSE and FAR MORE SOCIOPATHIC than the "typical rape" that's ever publicized. They COVER UP the worst instances of abuse that are out there, particularly on college campuses, lest it be too devastating to institutional reputations, the end result being, victims get dismissed and thrown out if the crime is too brutal.

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