This is really true. There is a place for acknowledging the severe harm that rape does to kids. But you know, I have a lot of friends who were raped as kids and they're, you know, not as good as dead?

I think the attitude that you may as well be as good as dead once something bad enough happens to you actually contributes to a lot of the harm that people suffer later in life, like low self-esteem, self-harm, suicide attempts and drug abuse. It also contributes to really fucking crazy reactions against that attitude: at least one friend I have who was abused thinks that child abuse is actually not that bad at all and it gave him an interesting life, and he would be sad if child abuse actually stopped because then there wouldn't be any people like him anymore. That's pretty fucked up, but I can sort of see where he got that from. Sort of like how some people with, say, cerebral palsy complain that they wouldn't want a world without cerebral palsy and that attempts to prevent it are genocidal - it's a pretty natural reaction to a world that really does think that they'd rather die than be you.