It’s Women Who Suffer When We Don’t Ask Question

Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2014-12-13 04:15

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a piece posted just two days before the story came undone, New York’s Kat Stoeffel not only deplored the resistance to “taking a traumatized young woman at her word” but argued that even if Jackie’s harrowing tale was made up or exaggerated, it was problematic to debunk it. In Stoeffel’s view, the benefits of believing the story—“forcing reform at UVA, encouraging other women to come forward”—outweighed any possible negatives, since no specific individuals had been accused and no innocents’ lives could be ruined.

“To what end are we scrutinizing?” wondered Stoeffel—a startling question for a journalist to ask. The answer is simple: Because journalism is about facts and truth-telling. To defend a possible lie that may have social utility is not journalism but propaganda.
...
Commentators across the political spectrum have expressed concern that Rolling Stone’s sloppy journalism will damage what Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle calls “the righteous fight for rape victims.” But despite its righteous goals, the crusade against rape has leaned too far toward promoting the dangerous idea that accusation equals guilt and that to doubt an accuser’s word is heresy. Finding the balance between supporting victims and preserving the presumption of innocence is a difficult line to walk. Perhaps the lessons of the UVA story will help steer the way toward such a balance.'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

The author's right, of course, in the same way that if enough ppl in a city make prank calls to 911 saying there's a fire at whatever address, soon the fire dept. will begin taking its time to respond to fire calls. (If it goes on long enough, even the most dedicated firefighters will become cynical at the sound of the station alarm.) Then when there is an actual fire somewhere, it'll be anyone in the burning building who pays for the effects the prank callers had on the firefighters.

But let's say that every time there's a prank 911 fire alarm call, not only does the community refuse to believe the call wasn't a prank even if there's no objective evidence to show the building had ever been on fire, but anyone who happened to be passing by the building when the firetrucks arrived are presumed by the firefighters and police who show up to have either tried to start a fire or actually did -- despite little or no evidence to support the accusation.

Then, let's assume those ppl are presumed guilty of actual or attempted arson and forced by their neighbors to sell their own houses at a loss and move out of the neighborhood, branded arsonists, and all without an actual trial. They may not be in jail, but they've lost their houses and had to sell them at a loss. Worse still, no other ppl in any other neighborhood will believe them when they say they aren't arsonists. As for any prank caller identified, he or she is, instead of being punished by the legal system or sanctioned informally by the community, allowed to just walk away from their actions, or even worse, it rewards them by hiring them to write about how they were done wrong by being exposed as a prank caller to 911 reporting house fires that didn't happen.

So yes, ppl in houses actually on fire pay the price for the prank callers' foolishness. But the ppl arrested by the police or firefighters, slandered/libeled, forced to sell their homes at a loss and move far enough away to actually find a new place to live also pay an awfully big price, and arguably, a much bigger price than the false accuser does.

The biggest victims of false rape accusations are not actual rape victims. It's those falsely accused who are. After all, rape victims, while deserving of justice, can't undo what happened to them. But at least they can seek redress in the legal system if persistent in the face of disbelief. As for falsely-accused men: not much they can do, practically speaking, is there?

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2014-12-13 04:49

"Not believing the victim is 'heresy'" using a term normally reserved for the (former) crime of not accepting church doctrine - is further proof that Feminism is more like a religion than a rational belief system.

Of course this has been noted many times before - but it is now becoming glaringly obvious.

Other terms to look out for:
Blasphemy, dogma, inquisition, holy water, Saints and miracles.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by fathers4fairness on Sun, 2014-12-14 22:08