A careful explanation of why alcohol is no excuse in Brock Turner case

There have been a number of excuses in the Brock Turner case. One of the the weakest was simply "alcohol."

Dan Turner, the father of the now-convicted rapist, argued in a letter that his son "is totally committed to educating other college-age students about the dangers of alcohol consumption." Turner himself blamed his sexual assault on "binge-drinking culture." Thankfully, the Internet is speaking out against this defense -- and clearly.

For Facebook user Matt Lang, alcohol doesn't make people rape, but it does "has this capacity to unlock what, deep down, we've always wanted to do." For Lang, that means "running naked in places I probably shouldn't, like through libraries or deserts (remember for next time: deserts = cactuses)."  It never means rape "because I was raised to know it's wrong. No amount of alcohol can depress that value."

Lang's post has since been shared more than 209,822 times. 

Below is the full post:

I've been drunk many times, even in the presence of promiscuous women who were also drunk, and I managed not to rape them, so I don't think drinking and promiscuity are the problems.

This here is the problem: some guys are entitled pricks, and they're entitled pricks because their fathers and coaches and friends taught them to be entitled pricks. Because they are entitled pricks, they think they can have whatever they want, and that their worth is defined by what they have and what they take.

Alcohol has this capacity to unlock what, deep down, we've always wanted to do. For me, that means, occasionally, running naked in places I probably shouldn't, like through libraries or deserts (remember for next time: deserts=cactuses). But even at my most intoxicated, I've never lost sight of the fact that rape is wrong, because I was raised to know it's wrong. No amount of alcohol can depress that value.

Brock Turner and his ilk were never taught that. They were taught that they can have what they want, when they want, including women. And that's called being a man. Brock Turner thought he was entitled to a little "action" any way he could get it, and he thought that long before he got drunk. The alcohol didn't introduce that thought, it unlocked it. That thought: "I can take whatever I want, including her", was planted and watered by a whole, rotten village.

It is right that we shame him, and his father, and the friend that came to his defense, and the judge, and every other entitled prick we meet.

Just as importantly, we need to love our boys, and teach them the dignity of the body, and how to live through disappointment and confusion, and how to navigate confusing feelings, and how to separate feelings from action, and how to communicate and listen. We need to redefine for them what it is to be a man, that their worth doesn't come from that which they have and take.