When North Dakota native Jess Roscoe posted a BuzzFeed article to her Facebook page, I doubt she was expecting this type of response. Her home state’s Libertarian candidate for Insurance Commissioner, Nick Bata, decided to make an ass of himself in the comments.
‘Rape Culture Is A Myth’ Says Hopeful Insurance Commissioner
Ms. Roscoe posted a Buzzfeed piece about consent, and the very first comment was from Nick Bata. Commenting from his personal account, not his official Insurance Commissioner campaign account, Bata wrote:
The floodgates were opened. Roscoe’s public post received a deluge of comments, many of them from Bata digging himself an ever-deeper hole. After another commenter showed him an example of how rapists are treated by news organizations, in that rapists have been described as “promising students” or other ways in which excuses are made for their behavior, Baka replied with:
Two hours later, the gloves came off:
Though the other commenters on the thread attempted to show Bata the error of his ways, he responded like a petulant child.
‘I Stand By Everything’
A local television station reached out to Bata for comment, and he stood by his post. He, of course, claims it was a joke, a lighthearted quip on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
When asked whether or not jokes about rape were appropriate, Bata responded with:
“It’s a free society, nobody makes these decisions. If you can’t handle someone’s free speech, that’s your problem not mine.”
As for Ms. Roscoe, on whose Facebook wall this entire exchange took place, she said:
“Even if it’s a play on Donald Trump and his campaign slogan, it doesn’t make that remark acceptable or constructive to any conversation. As a woman, those comments are troubling, and I think that it’s a snapshot at the sorts of comments and beliefs that are said on a daily basis that a lot of people don’t think they’re contributing to something so negative.”
Ms. Roscoe is exactly right, of course. The very fact that Bata thinks a “joke” like that is no big deal is an example of rape culture. His very remarks prove that what he says doesn’t exist most assuredly DOES exist.
You can watch the video of Baka’s interview with WDAY-TV here.
Featured Image via the Nick Bata for North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Facebook page
