Thread by @mshannabrooks

Heyyyyyyy one more thing re: Seattle's mayor and powerful men who abuse people...

I don't want to hear that you "can't believe it" or "didn't see it coming."

If you think you can spot an abuser in your life, you're wrong.

Statistically—mathematically-speaking—you know someone who has been abused and you know someone's abuser.

Stating that a person has done some good in the world does not negate their abuses. Touting their qualities doesn't, either.

You note a person's work—though in Murray's case most of his legacy was built by other people, but I digress—without discrediting survivors.

A person can be good at their job, likable, charming, etc, and still be an abuser. In fact, many abusers are all of those things.

There is no type. There is no personality trait you might look for.

How do know know if someone is an abuser?

YOU LISTEN. TO. SURVIVORS.

The reason powerful men don't "seem" like abusers is because we (collectively) have spent decades reconstructing what abusers "seem like."

It is not accidental that when a powerful man is accused, one of the first reactions is disbelief. You've been conditioned not to believe it

The criminal justice system itself is not built for survivors. A fraction of abusers are ever held legally accountable. Most are not.

Which means we literally do not know what abusers look like, who they are, or where to find them.

So we don't believe it when we see it.

There are myriad factors ensuring that, collectively, powerful men do not see any form of punishment for abuse. Your disbelief is one.

Giving "the benefit of the doubt" is another; statistically, you have no reason to believe someone who's been accused multiple times.

False accusations are so, so much less common than abusers who never see punishment. The Occam's Razor answer is: They probably did it.

The idea that abuse allegations are used as a weapon to discredit powerful men is the direct result of a system designed to protect power.

If you believe that multiple people are conspiring to bring someone down using allegations of sexual assault from decades ago...

...you have 0 understanding of assault, justice, or survivors.
That's not how it works—that's how you've been socialized to think it works.

In the last few weeks I've spoken with multiple abuse survivors, as well as attorneys, in reporting a story and I can assure you:

No one wants to go through this. There are more effective ways to bring down a powerful man. In fact, abuse allegations are a terrible way.

....as evidenced by the fact that the Mayor of Seattle has kept his job for *months* following numerous allegations.

Tell me how that works

The fact is that abuse allegations are a garbage way to exact revenge for the very reason that we, as a society, don't believe survivors.

Today has been awful and it's ugly but if this encourages even one person to LISTEN when someone confides in them: Good.

Though I suspect it will not; months of watching silence or protection of an abuser will, I imagine, encourage survivors to remain silent.

(But I hope not. I believe you. It's not your fault.)