1/ Reading this piece was a total waste of time, except that it prompted me to try to check out something I've been curious about: are there, in fact, a substantial number of progressives who say that we should believe ALL women?
2/ My normal operating assumption is that there is not view so stupid that you can't find SOMEONE who holds it, so I assume that there are people who believe this one. But *lots* of them?
3/ I checked out the hashtag #BelieveAllWomen . It's almost entirely people on the right, being sarcastic. Random example:
4/ I saw a couple of tweets that seemed to be from people on the left, but for the most part they used this hashtag as part of a long list, including #BelieveSurviviors , #BelieveWomen , and more.
(I hate tweets that are just lists of hashtags. Grrr.)
(I hate tweets that are just lists of hashtags. Grrr.)
5/ This is the view most people on the left that I follow, or have read articles by, or know irl actually hold:
6/ The idea is: for ages, people who report sexual abuse have not had their claims taken seriously. This is wrong. We should listen to them, and evaluate them with the same attitude that we take towards, say, people who claim that they have been robbed.
7/ If someone claims to have been robbed, no one would think that we should start out being massively skeptical. "Can you prove you actually had any money to begin with? Do you have a history of giving money away? Were you drinking when this "robbery" occurred?"
8/ No: we hope that law enforcement will look, dispassionately, for evidence of the robbery, and try to figure out who did it.
Sometimes the person who claims to have been robbed will turn out to have lied. Sometimes not. But we do not BEGIN with skepticism.
Sometimes the person who claims to have been robbed will turn out to have lied. Sometimes not. But we do not BEGIN with skepticism.
9/ Same with sexual assault. Sometimes people fabricate accusations of sexual assault, but lots of sexual assault actually happens. If you don't BEGIN by doubting the accuser, you can figure out what's going on in the case at hand.
10/ This is what I take #BelieveWomen to mean: not "believe all women, no matter what", but "take what women say seriously, rather than just discounting it at the outset."
11/ This is not a rejection of fairness; it's an essential prerequisite for it.
/Fin.
/Fin.
