All allegations matter, all victims deserve to be heard - unless I disagree with them, then you need to shut up.
So, r/t_d/ has been begging their users to anonymously slam a Democrat for quite a while. While I would also normally believe, I, too, find the circumstances and language of this accusation difficult to accept. I want to give the benefit of the doubt, but as we asked for with Kavanaugh, there should be an investigation here to at least see if it's possible Booker even ever met this guy.
The language overall is just really, really weird.
Stop putting words in my mouth, thanks. Others have also asked for either supporting information or an investigation. I am doubtful, but open to this being truthful. This person, thus far, has not put their name on the line nor made sworn statements. It also uses language similar to that of certain members of the alt-right who have been campaigning to get their members to issue false claims against Democrats. Thus, it is very important to neither dismiss this out of hand nor accept it as absolute truth without more substance. I certainly don't want him to shut up; quite the opposite.
I'm sorry, but Green Line's statement has, pretty much, become the
de facto Atlas Working Standard on this subject.
This is why the allegations of Dr. Ford stand out amazingly in comparison to other cases, even Roy Moore's. Dr. Ford passed a polygraph, had the subject documented in therapy progress notes, and made a statement under oath that was coherent. That is nowhere near enough for probable cause as to a crime, but it is at least EVIDENCE, and not a mere he-said-she-said matter.
The truth is that the bulk of #MeToo allegations ARE unreported "he-said-she-said" allegations with little or no proof to justify them, and, in cases where one can look at the stated victim's allegations and say, "Yeah, something must have happened to her/him of that nature." because they're "messed up" (PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder, etc.), that may indicate that they have been VICTIMS, but they may not be necessarily identifying the correct PERPETRATOR for reasons that have to do with pathology. Victimized people can often be pretty messed up themselves, and it is far from unheard of to have a victim name a different perpetrator to protect the actual perpetrator due to pretty serous intrapersonal issues stemming from trauma.
The only solution to this is to create a society where (A) victims are encouraged to report actual trauma, (B) victims will not be treated judgmentally when reporting trauma, but (C) with the understanding that prompt reporting of sexual assault is vital to justice being served. We don't shame people for being beaten or robbed, and we should not shame people for being raped or sexually assaulted in some other way, and making these changes as a society is far from impossible. But we don't investigate crimes that have been unreported for decades for which no forensic evidence exists, either, and for which there is no reasonable basis to believe that probable cause for an arrest or an indictment can ever come about.
The alternative is to believe alleged victims who name HPs as their victimizers and trash "victims" who name FFs as their victimizers. That's where we're heading, and heading fast. And think, for a minute, how easy it would be to make a #MeToo allegation out of whole cloth that could actually gain enough traction to ruin someone's career. There are all sorts of intelligence operatives, in and out of government, whose job had been to destabilize foreign governments and gain intelligence from extremely hostile areas. Some are still in government, and some are retired. How difficult would it be for such people to conjure up a story, even one with a victim coming forth, about Cory Booker or Roy Moore perpetrating a foul act ever so long ago? Is that really far-fetched, given what is at stake in our elections, and the amount of money both sides invest to determine the outcome of campaigns?
It is time we create a "Reporting Culture" when it comes to sexual assault. This can be done. What has been in the past is not acceptable, but the idea that we will go beyond believing alleged victims to punishing alleged perpetrators without any sort of legal due process is fast becoming the #MeToo legacy, and that is not acceptable, either. Report. Investigate. Hold Perpetrators Accountable. I suggest that this become not just the IDEAL, but the NORM for this issue.
