Wherever I wander I wonder whether I’ll ever find a place to call home…
There’s a difference between disagreeing with “No women ever lie” and saying “All women always lie.” You’re literally trying to deal in absolutes and attempting to smear anyone who won’t fall into one of those two extremes.
You don’t see that the common thread is that believing every accusation without question can lead to bad outcomes? Or are you deliberately ignoring that because it’s an uncomfortable truth that you don’t want to face?
If your idea of “rape apologia” is “not believing every uncorroborated accusation” then how would you like it if I accused you of rape? Probably suddenly “tHaT’s DiFfErEnT!!1!1!1!”
You’re right about this though: his reputation is irreversibly damaged. Whether the accusation is true or not. But you can’t see how that’s potentially a bad thing?
As a stickler for grammar myself, I find that to be a misnomer.
Real fascists won’t correct you on your grammar because they want you to be stupid.
In a court of law, the burden of proof is on the accuser. In the court of public opinion, the burden of proof is on the accused.
Elections are held in the court of public opinion. A stray allegation, whether or not there’s any truth to it, is enough to tank a political campaign (unless they’re a republican, of course, because their voters don’t care even if there’s proof).
Yet I can all but guarantee you this Platner case won’t go to a court of law, because everyone already knows there’s not enough evidence to prove a damn thing. The accuser knows this. Five years have gone by without her pressing charges. Why? If she had any evidence she would have done that immediately, right? If it really happened she could have gotten a forensics panel done and put someone away who would be a danger to women if allowed to walk free. But she didn’t do that, did she? So why should anybody believe her now, five years later, when it’s only a few short months to an election and the balance of the United States Senate is on the line, at a time when we’re already struggling as a nation with rampant and unchecked fascism, and atrocities beyond counting being committed with zero accountability, by the party that the accused was running against?
By the way, you know Susan Collins supports the Epstein class, right? You know that’s who’s gonna win now that Platner dropped out, right?
When allegations are totally uncorroborated, they aren’t taken that seriously.
That’s not true at all. And that’s not what people mean when they say “believe women.” That is an absolute and unconditional statement. There is zero wiggle room for “but what if it isn’t true?”
I’m not reading the rest of that. You’re deeply unserious. Go away
Go fuck yourself, dude. Enjoy getting Susan Collins elected. And when the republicans narrowly hang on to their senate majority as a result, don’t come crying to me about how no one’s doing enough to stop the fascists. Do you not realize how important this election was?
You’re like the people who couldn’t focus on anything other than how bad Kamala Harris would supposedly be in the lead-up to the 2024 election. And then when trump got elected, it was “Ohh it’s all the liberals’ fault! Why didn’t they stop the fascism?”
Well I’ll tell you why. It’s because people like you can’t learn to hold your damn noses and vote for an imperfect candidate if that’s what it’ll take to stop fascism.
“Always believe women no matter what”
That’s literally what people mean when they say “believe women.” If you don’t think so, try asking them if there’s any room for exceptions. The thread here shows what kind of answers you’ll get to that. Mostly dismissiveness and personal attacks, because they can’t grapple with the fact that sometimes, some women make false accusations and the resulting conclusion that that means we can’t always believe every allegation just because it was made by a woman.
Just because I’m a leftist doesn’t mean I have to conform to the more braindead takes we see in leftist spaces like “any man who’s been accused of sexual violence must be guilty because I said so” or how about this gem “black people can’t be racist”
Tax the rich, yeah. Fund healthcare and education, improve worker’s rights and promote unionization, create social programs that build community at the local level and lift people out of poverty, homelessness, addiction, or whatever else they might be struggling with, fund welfare for people who can’t support themselves due to disability, protect public lands, restore ecosystems, develop public transportation infrastructure, reduce fossil fuel reliance and transition to renewables, take whatever climate action you can, fund research and development (primarily through public universities, and for the public domain rather than corporate IP). These and so many others like them are the kinds of leftist policies that I unequivocally support.
But make me walk on eggshells for the rest of my life because the more minority status a person has the bigger pedestal we need to put them on, leaving me as a cishetero white man at the bottom of this new social hierarchy where I’m not even allowed to defend myself if someone claims I said or did something that I never did and never would? Fuck that, if that’s a requirement for being a leftist then I’ll go start my own political orientation called “leave me the fuck alone.”
I’m not comparing them as people, or even as the severity of their situations.
They’ve both been accused of rape without sufficient evidence. Emmett Till ended up being found innocent, after he was murdered by an angry mob. If that’s not a plain as day reason why the whole “always believe women no matter what” thing is dangerous, and you can’t see how that applies to this situation, then I’m not going to bother trying to reason with you.
Who’s Brock Allen Turner?
Edit: By the way, if you really think the left deserves to lose, then go ahead and vote for Susan Collins. And when you get a government full of literal fascists who enthusiastically support genocide and ethnic cleansings, while defending billionaires and proven sexual predators, then remember to console yourself with the fact that at least you “believed women” when it counted and refused to question whether or not an accusation was even credible.
You apparently don’t understand what an absolute statement implies. “Believe women” as an unconditional statement is literally saying to never doubt them. And it’s enforced socially as well, as it’s basically taboo to say “Well hold on, slow down, let’s think about this and examine the evidence.”
In a court of law, the burden of proof is on the accuser. Not so in the court of public opinion.
Sure, Emmett Till is an extreme example. But it is an example. A counterexample, actually. And if you can’t look at that and think “Well maybe there’s a point here, maybe we shouldn’t just automatically believe every accusation is credible,” then I dont see the point in trying to reason with you any further.
I’m providing a counterexample to the absolute, unconditional imperative “believe women” (i.e. in every case).
You want to claim women never lie or make false allegations, so we should always believe them no matter what? Here’s an example of why we shouldn’t. And you want to dismiss that because it’s too severe?!?
Do you not realize that there are still multiple ways to slice that pie?
The whole point of gerrymandering is to split up opposition strongholds (typically blue areas in red states, i.e. cities) and attach them piecemeal to larger-by-area districts with lower population densities in order to water down their votes in redder districts.
That way instead of a city having one or two reps who are blue and can actually represent their constituencies, you have a bunch of tiny slivers of that city that are represented by the reps for the rural districts they’re attached to. It’s how republicans have disenfranchised urban voters for a long time. And yes, there’s a heavily racial subtext to this, since urban areas tend to be more non-white than rural areas. It’s how republicans disenfranchise non-white voters.
A computer program can still do the same thing. That doesn’t solve gerrymandering.
And who is supposed to deliver the note from the doctor to the employer? The sick person? What if they’re contagious?
If it were me, I’d cough all over the note before handing it directly to the bossman
If I wasn’t already desensitized to “neverending string of horrible revelations” by this point then I don’t know how I would still be staying informed about politics and current events. Vitriol is kind of endemic in our system, if you haven’t noticed.
I’ve heard tankies try to call Mamdani a fascist and a zionist. You think I haven’t grown callous towards anyone trying to smear leftist candidates?
Not so much that “he was just so strong” but that earlier attempts were just so transparent. This isn’t the first time they resorted to rape allegations. His first accuser was a republican with “political operative” listed as her occupation on online profiles…
Anyone starting to feel like “AIPAC” is being used in the same way as “Soros”?
Fuck no, AIPAC has a money trail, and if you think that’s just a baseless conspiracy theory like the Soros nonsense then you need to do a little bit of reading. AIPAC’s outsized influence in US politics is no secret, it’s egregious, and criticism of it should not be dismissed as “anti-semitism.” Stop pulling weight for them.
It’s not for lack of trying, as you so astutely pointed out.
“Believe women.” It’s what you said. It left very little wiggle-room. In fact, none. And now you try to wiggle your way out of it? Ad hominems won’t help you.
Do women ever lie or make false accusations? Is there even one single instance of that ever happening? It’s either a yes or a no. Did Emmett Till’s accuser falsely accuse him of rape?
Because the AIPAC-supported establishment Dems felt every bit as threatened by Platner as they would by Susan Collins, and would relish the opportunity to replace him while there’s still time…
“Conspiracy theories”?
A democratic socialist that establishment dems and magats alike hate and fear, who’s vocally critical of israel and has been relentlessly smeared since his campaign was launched, yet managed to remain popular because he was offering people what they really want (common sense, pro-worker, socialist policy). His pro-war, AIPAC-sponsored opponent drops out weeks before the primary because the writing is on the wall, it looks hopeful that Dems might reclaim a senate majority, and get a DSA member on the Senate besides, and then suddenly someone remembers this thing that *totally happened* to her 5 years ago, and it gets published in Politico, which is a well-known right wing zionist rag.
Oh but all of the “evidence” amounts to “trust me bro,” “yeah there were totally texts, I just happened to delete them,” and “look I talked to my therapist about it a couple weeks ago, see these emails?”
You say “women” as if they’re a monolith who never lie. That’s kinda anti-feminist, don’t you think? This isn’t “women.” It’s “a woman,” and you’d think a feminist would understand the difference. I guess Susan Collins could never lie either, right? Would you rather have her in the Senate than a progressive man? Is it misogynist to say “No more Susan Collins please.”?
I have no problem believing women with credible accusations, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is an obvious political hit piece. And the mentality that we should “believe women” absolutely 100% of the time in every case just makes it easier for the right-wing and centrist dems to do character assassination any time a candidate who’s too progressive starts getting popular. If you can’t see the unintended consequences of that then you lack foresight.
By the way, Emmett Till’s murderers believed a woman unconditionally. We see how that went…
The reductiveness of this comment is what’s disgusting. This isn’t about “rape doesn’t matter” or “we have to elect a white man,” this is about having a healthy dose of skepticism when uncorroborated claims suddenly pop up that could derail an attempt to change the balance of the senate.
The fact that so many people insist on viewing this as otherwise tells me there’s very little hope for stopping fascism.