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Comment by ramzyo | Hacker News Reader

It’s so terribly sad that there are men who think this way.

I wonder if there's an analogous group of women that behave this way as well. The article didn't really dive into motivations, so I wonder how much of it is cultural and how much of it is related to general mental health. And if it is related to the latter, is it possibly a universal condition that also afflicts women as well, in such that it may not be sexual, but that small groups of women can have these predispositions to the worth, behavior, and attitudes towards men with little remorse for their ultimate actions against them.

You'll find that a lot of predators (serial killers, sexual predators) were abused as children. Poverty seems to be a factor, but that alone doesn't usually cause such a lack of remorse later in life. Something like extreme affluenza seems to cause it in some people, too. That's probably more about having control over someone else and being used to get your way, even being rewarded for it.

Wiki's got lots of information on the topic if you don't mind seeing how people can turn into animals.

The poverty thing could well be sampling bias, I'm sure rich folks have a much easier time avoiding convictions.

The root cause (whether nature or nurture) seems to be a lack of empathy.

Could you detect empathetic capabilities with fMRI? If deficient, would you mandate treatment? Besides therapy, is there a treatment?

There are scientists who claim psychopathy can be detected on brain scans. And since 1-4% of the population are estimated to be psychopaths (most of which end up in prison, and the rest works their way up in society), this could well be a very impactful avenue of further research.

>an analogous group of women that behave this way as well

Not by action perhaps, but by inaction certainly. Sadly, there exist women who deny this behaviour or engage in the victim blame. I say this as a woman, I've experienced women saying in private that another woman "deserved" it. It's not a simple issue but I believe it is related to cognitive dissonance and finding a way to justify the prejudice a person has experienced in her or his own life. The patriarchy affects us all.

And the women who think this way, too?

A male friend-of-a-friend was raped by a woman, when he was in his late teens (he was older than the age of consent) more than 20 years ago. He went to the police station to complain. Walked in, said to the officer behind the desk that he wanted to make a complaint, he'd been raped by a woman.

The cop held his hand up for a high five, and said "Score!"

He reiterated that he wanted to lay a complaint, and the cop seemed surprised that he would want to. Eventually, after trying a few more times the complainant just left without having his complaint taken.

Rape doesn't just involve physical force, it can also be just pressuring the unwilling into sex, or coercing them into a sexual situation they're unwilling to be in - for example, outdoors, anal or period sex. You can see how easily a female could apply emotional pressure to get what she wants when the male is unwilling. Have you ever heard a woman accuse a male of being homosexual simply because he didn't want to do something she did?

I have.

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