Yes, exactly. I mean, SPE had its flaws, but at least in the popular imagination it is considered a devastating statement on the ordinary human capacity for evil, not proof that bullies beat up on nerds.
Two ways they could redeem the trivializing of the experiment: one is a more explicit connection to fraternity life. (Although that is more in line with Milgram.) The other, someone on TWoP hypothesized, is that the rapist is someone who participated in the experiment in the past-- I mean, it makes no sense, but at least it would acknowledge that an experiment like that would have consequences.
Bob Bob is finishing up his dissertation on how rational people become evil, and so he's got lots of these types of experiments/examples to hand. When Samm Levine said he was going to help the guard with his homework, he looked at me with amazement and said something like, "now they're making him into the concentration camp prisoners who helped the guards?!" I thought that might be a stretch, but if they really meant to suggest that, it's pretty fucked up.
Lamb's comments in the dorm room struck me as very false. It's one thing for him to question Veronica, his nemesis and the daughter of his rival, but to question students at a nearby private university? Not too likely.
I seem to recall he was nothing but professional to Parker and was only being an ass outside of her earshot or when talking to Veronica. Which I can totally see Lamb doing. He puts on a good show for the public, which is why he keeps getting elected.
bon bon - hasn't there been some hint that the rapist might be Wallace and Piz's C.A.? Who has been involved in that experiment in the past AND is also somehow connected to that program that gives people rides home when they're out late.
I think the R.A. is a red herring-- he came in too early and is too fake. I suspect the criminology T.A.
Is the RA the one with the biscotti?
I don't think the VM experiment was ever supposed to duplicate the Stanford experiment, so much as recall/suggest it, so I just don't have a problem with it. The kids weren't arrested off the street. They weren't deloused and chained. The scenario was different (they were more like P.O.W.'s), and it was only scheduled for two days in the first place.
"now they're making him into the concentration camp prisoners who helped the guards?!" I thought that might be a stretch, but if they really meant to suggest that, it's pretty fucked up.
I took Horshack's Stockholm syndrome as foreshadowing for whatever it is we eventually find out about the rape culture at Hearst. That may have been because I was looking very (too?) hard for a parallel between the prison thing and its aftermath and Veronica suspecting that the sorority women were complicit somehow, in the rapes.
I can't quite let that go, even though her investigation didn't connect at least this particular sorority to the rapes.
Yes, the creepy pube-head with the tea and biscotti.
Who is Fern?
The Safe Ride Home driver who also kneed Dick in the balls last week. I'm getting this really awful feeling that, whether there is a separate rapist or not, the Take Back the Night ladies are faking some of what's going on in order to inflame tension and help their crusade against the Greek system.
Is the RA the one with the biscotti?
Yes. Moe.
