Sorry guys, I do think this is a case of "The most terrible person you know just made a great point", re: NYTimes timing of oppo research releases. Having serious accusations of rape in his past isn't just an ethical black mark among a whole closet of other black marks we've already decided to look past, it could also mean he gets charged with rape while in office. And if it's actually credible, you know for sure that they'll indict him. Even ignoring the simple fact that we shouldn't have rapists in government, Platner's goose is completely cooked at this point in terms of the large pile of personal issues. Who knows, maybe he doesn't drop out and Maine votes him in anyway and he ends up being a fantastic rep while in office. But he also still has time to swap with another equally-progressive candidate. A true leftist coalition has all types of people in it, but a true leftist coalition also needs to be honest with itself about sexual violence. We've racked up so many Ws this summer, I think we can bare one L if it means keeping a hard stance against sexual violence. This is for better or worse the exact sort of thing a democratic process is meant to filter for.
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Historically, the Democrats actually care about the scandals of their own. Al Franken was solid as a US Senator, and yet when allegations came out of sexual harassment, he was pressured to step down, even when he expressed remorse.
As came out during the #MeToo movement regarding the predatory patterns of Harvey Weinstein, most women are not given regard when they report sexual assault or sexual harassment, and with the rise of the internet and social media (which allowed for the dialogue to spread faster and more widely) we now are seeing the glimmers of sexual predator culture being taken seriously.
What is terrifying to me is the Trump effect, the power of cult think, of propaganda and of religious conditioning is such that men on the right side have been getting away with predatory behavior for decades (the early ones that got caught were television evangelists, and despite their scandals they just had to pretend to show remorse and wait a while.)
We expected the same religious groups that condemned Clinton for his scandal with Lewinsky (a consensual affair between adults, according to Lewinsky) would also condemn Trump for his 2005 Access Hollywood hot mic comment, and yet 80% of white Evangelical Christians voted for Trump. Nearly that many Catholics voted for him as well.
Since then, we've seen US officials not even trying to hide their corruption, short of actually producing the Epstein files. And despite that we know that Trump and several political and ultra-wealthy figures are implicated in them, the Republican base doesn't care.
That's the power of cult methods and propaganda, and until we figure out a way to inoculate the public from those schemes, it's going to factor largely in how human society organizes from now on.
And in the meantime, the conditions will stay in place in which predation prevails. Not just the sexual violence of men upon women, but also the deceptive and predatory practices of corporations on their ~~consumers~~ customer base. See TERMS OF SERVICE and END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, especially how they are applied to products that are directed at children.
Is this a loophole in law?
Like, you can publicly accuse someone of sexual assault without filing a police report...
But then what? That person could respond with slander...but now instead of the state having to prove he did do it, he has to prove that he didn't?
How do you prove you didn't do something?
I really don't like the precedent this is setting...
The problem is sexual assault is not taken seriously by law enforcement, nor has it in recorded history. And this is a problem not unique to the United States.
In fact most municipal counties have an immense backlog of unprocessed rape kits. So most SA, by far, goes unreported, most reported SA goes uninvestigated, and most investigations don't lead to encryptions.
This is why Epstein could proceed with his predatory ring and expect to get away with it.
I believe her style movements in response to SA are not new, and tragically a recurring theme. Sometimes the public cares about SA allegations or sexual harassment patterns, and sometimes it's very meh.
There are emails between the accuser and her therapist that corroborate the incident. This isn't a case where she is retroactively changing her story.
Show me the emails.
It smells like bullshit to me too. I dont live anywhere near Maine to have personal experience about it, but reading mainstream media stuff about the "terrible things platner has done" feels a lot like reading a study paid for by an oil company about how climate change isnt really that bad. The incentives of the sources are far too conflicted for me to put much stock in what they say
You forgot to mention how it's antisemitic to point out Politico and NYT are both very pro Israel and are the ones coordinating the timing of these releases, not for any journalistic reasons, but to apply the most pressure possible to make a progressive who's vocally against genocide to drop out of a Senate race he's basically guaranteed to win...
What’s with all the chuds going all in for abu ghraib totenkopf mercenary guy?
Not even like "we don't have enough info yet" but rather "this is a list of all ways the accuser wasn't a perfect victim. She is a liar and like many women is lying to ruin a man's life"
Also, in the narrative, he was apparently black out drunk, so he conveniently has no recollection and cannot defend himself.
Like seriously, what are you supposed to do if this happens to you? Someone you used to date comes out of the woodwork and accuses you of rape, in a form you wouldn't even remember.
How are you supposed to react to such a thing? How would you react if someone showed up at your work, accusing you of rape, demanding you be fired without trial?
If you're black out drunk enough that this is a legitimate risk, there is already an underlying problem.
You're right that this will boil down to a he said/she said, but it's concerning this is the best candidate Maine could come up with just based on the facts that he can't refute.