As a fan of equality, I propose we be equally pissed for every group that has been wronged. I don’t buy this selected/timed outrage explanation you’re pushing. I can be angry for this, and angry about loss of abortion all at the same time.
I apologize that it’s taken me this long to respond, I’ve been at work all morning. I would just like to take a moment to agree with you. I DO believe that false allegations should be spoken about more often, and that men SHOULD feel supported to share their fears/concerns/etc about this sort of thing happening. I do think that just by saying “That happens so rarely it doesn’t matter”, that we’re hurting the feminist cause, because it’s just like people saying “Oh, rape abortions only account for 1% of all sought after abortions, so it’s a non-issue”. For the people affected, it’s absolutely a huge issue, even if they’re both technically statistical anomalies.
I think its important to be outraged about false rape allegations, as it not only ruined this young man’s life, and the people’s lives he’s close with, it now sheds a mistrustful eye on true rape victims. However, I do think it is telling that this story has resurfaced today as though it happened yesterday, when it is in fact over a decade old. I think it is telling that it is resurfacing during a time period where women’s rights (not even just to bodily autonomy, but there are people arguing to get rid of no-fault divorce as well, among other things) are such a hot button issue. I think it is telling that it’s resurfacing during a period where we’re seeing a surge in young men subscribing to manosphere style content (I honestly think these young men feel unheard/unsupported in their hopes/dreams/wants/worries/fears/etc, but that opens up a whole other topic around extremist feminism).
Yes, I’m angry that this happened. I’m empathetic. I’d like to think (and I’ll likely search it after this comment) that this young man received multi-millions in compensation, because not only did he lose 6 years of his life to the system, he’s also faced a loss in job and relationship opportunities, and not to mention the emotional and psychological effects of being accused and found guilty of a crime he did not commit.
TL;DR - Yes, we can be angry that this young man was wronged, but we can also be critical and suspicious of how/why this story resurfaced now.
Edit: I looked it up, his name is Brian Banks and he was only awarded $142K by the state of California for this wrongful conviction. That makes me doubly angry on his behalf. In no way does that even begin to try and make things up to him (not that I’m arguing that money fixes everything, but holy fuck, only $142K?!). https://www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org/brian-banks
Yeah, I feel you. It does seem suspect, but it’s possible this person just found out about it. I suspect I’ve seen this news story before, but I may have forgotten about myself since it wasn’t immediately familiar to me. I find it overwhelming what’s been transgressing with women’s rights lately. Especially since half of America’s potential voters… are women. What the heck is going on? I’ve been beginning to wonder if our “elections” might actually be rigged in more subtle ways than we hear about, for instance, the Republicans screaming about in relation to Trump. How else could we explain this slow decline of personal freedoms impacting literally 50% of our population? Anyways–I’m not trying to spin conspiracy theories or convince anybody that there is an illuminati-in-the-shadows play happening behind our backs. I’m just sitting here wondering what could possibly be the cause of the weirdness we’ve been seeing for the last few years.
I spend a lot of time talking to a good friend of mine who is a conservative, and it’s like we live in alternate dimensions of information. He’ll randomly hit me with accusations about Biden that mirror almost exactly the accusations I had for Trump four years ago… its unbelievable. I think the propaganda machine has been running on full blast for at least a decade now, and I would like to know who is behind that. I’m guessing this same propaganda machine is what’s responsible for the radicalization of young men that you referred to.
I don’t think the commenter you’re replying to is arguing that. At the very least, I don’t argue with that. But I think it’s still important to be critical of the intentions of the post and our reactions to the post all the same (and I think this is true for the majority of news or opinion-based posts).
Thank you! I wasn’t intending to argue that this sort of thing doesn’t matter at all. I think it’s mad fucked up that his life was ruined (though I hope he’s been able to rebuild since then), and I think he deserves all the support (mental, financial, social), in the world, but I am suspect of the timing of this/the motivation behind bringing it back up in today’s current climate when it wasn’t prefaced with a “So, how can we do better to combat this sort of thing, alleviate the fears of people, and still support victims?” Like, it wasn’t brought up in a conversational sense at all, and that’s what feels odd about it all.
It’s a 13 year old news story posted as if it happened two days ago. There are certainly false rape accusations but they happen very rarely. Black and brown people in the US are incarcerated for crimes they didn’t commit literally every day, there are plenty of current stories to tell about that. But false rape accusations are not common at all, even though a certain demographic likes to push the idea that they are.
As a fan of equality, I propose we be equally pissed for every group that has been wronged. I don’t buy this selected/timed outrage explanation you’re pushing. I can be angry for this, and angry about loss of abortion all at the same time.
I apologize that it’s taken me this long to respond, I’ve been at work all morning. I would just like to take a moment to agree with you. I DO believe that false allegations should be spoken about more often, and that men SHOULD feel supported to share their fears/concerns/etc about this sort of thing happening. I do think that just by saying “That happens so rarely it doesn’t matter”, that we’re hurting the feminist cause, because it’s just like people saying “Oh, rape abortions only account for 1% of all sought after abortions, so it’s a non-issue”. For the people affected, it’s absolutely a huge issue, even if they’re both technically statistical anomalies.
I think its important to be outraged about false rape allegations, as it not only ruined this young man’s life, and the people’s lives he’s close with, it now sheds a mistrustful eye on true rape victims. However, I do think it is telling that this story has resurfaced today as though it happened yesterday, when it is in fact over a decade old. I think it is telling that it is resurfacing during a time period where women’s rights (not even just to bodily autonomy, but there are people arguing to get rid of no-fault divorce as well, among other things) are such a hot button issue. I think it is telling that it’s resurfacing during a period where we’re seeing a surge in young men subscribing to manosphere style content (I honestly think these young men feel unheard/unsupported in their hopes/dreams/wants/worries/fears/etc, but that opens up a whole other topic around extremist feminism).
Yes, I’m angry that this happened. I’m empathetic. I’d like to think (and I’ll likely search it after this comment) that this young man received multi-millions in compensation, because not only did he lose 6 years of his life to the system, he’s also faced a loss in job and relationship opportunities, and not to mention the emotional and psychological effects of being accused and found guilty of a crime he did not commit.
TL;DR - Yes, we can be angry that this young man was wronged, but we can also be critical and suspicious of how/why this story resurfaced now.
Edit: I looked it up, his name is Brian Banks and he was only awarded $142K by the state of California for this wrongful conviction. That makes me doubly angry on his behalf. In no way does that even begin to try and make things up to him (not that I’m arguing that money fixes everything, but holy fuck, only $142K?!). https://www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org/brian-banks
I am pleased by your views and would like to subscribe to your newsletter
Yeah, I feel you. It does seem suspect, but it’s possible this person just found out about it. I suspect I’ve seen this news story before, but I may have forgotten about myself since it wasn’t immediately familiar to me. I find it overwhelming what’s been transgressing with women’s rights lately. Especially since half of America’s potential voters… are women. What the heck is going on? I’ve been beginning to wonder if our “elections” might actually be rigged in more subtle ways than we hear about, for instance, the Republicans screaming about in relation to Trump. How else could we explain this slow decline of personal freedoms impacting literally 50% of our population? Anyways–I’m not trying to spin conspiracy theories or convince anybody that there is an illuminati-in-the-shadows play happening behind our backs. I’m just sitting here wondering what could possibly be the cause of the weirdness we’ve been seeing for the last few years.
I spend a lot of time talking to a good friend of mine who is a conservative, and it’s like we live in alternate dimensions of information. He’ll randomly hit me with accusations about Biden that mirror almost exactly the accusations I had for Trump four years ago… its unbelievable. I think the propaganda machine has been running on full blast for at least a decade now, and I would like to know who is behind that. I’m guessing this same propaganda machine is what’s responsible for the radicalization of young men that you referred to.
Anyways, I’ll get off my weird soap box lol
I don’t think the commenter you’re replying to is arguing that. At the very least, I don’t argue with that. But I think it’s still important to be critical of the intentions of the post and our reactions to the post all the same (and I think this is true for the majority of news or opinion-based posts).
Thank you! I wasn’t intending to argue that this sort of thing doesn’t matter at all. I think it’s mad fucked up that his life was ruined (though I hope he’s been able to rebuild since then), and I think he deserves all the support (mental, financial, social), in the world, but I am suspect of the timing of this/the motivation behind bringing it back up in today’s current climate when it wasn’t prefaced with a “So, how can we do better to combat this sort of thing, alleviate the fears of people, and still support victims?” Like, it wasn’t brought up in a conversational sense at all, and that’s what feels odd about it all.
I don’t get why everyone in the thread is just calling this post out like its some sort of propaganda. Whats that all about?
It’s a 13 year old news story posted as if it happened two days ago. There are certainly false rape accusations but they happen very rarely. Black and brown people in the US are incarcerated for crimes they didn’t commit literally every day, there are plenty of current stories to tell about that. But false rape accusations are not common at all, even though a certain demographic likes to push the idea that they are.