Rapists Explain Themselves on Reddit, and We Should Listen
Rapists and would-be rapists are opening up about "the other
side of the story" — theirs — on a massive Reddit thread about
the motivations behind sexual assault. The conversations range
from exasperating to disturbing, and the whole of it may make
you want to roll your eyes in disgust. But you shouldn't dismiss
the thread as mere rape apologia. There's plenty of that, sure,
but there's also a lot more to it.  Yesterday, a Redditor
solicited stories of sexual assault from assailants. "Reddit's
had a few threads about sexual assault victims, but are there
any redditors from the other side of the story?" he asked. "What
were your motivations? Do you regret it?"  Given the
disturbingly high amount of men's rights activists and rape
apologist Redditors — a recent Reddit thread counted the many,
many ways the site is "anti-women" — it's easy to see why some
would be skeptical about the possibility for productive
discussion. "In other words: Yeah, yeah, en