The struggle for human treatment continues. The problem – Men – who are content with the rape culture status quo have serious worries about moving away from said status quo. Heartbreaking…
http://samuel-vimes.tumblr.com/post/175897683050/weheartfandom-yikes
25 comments
July 17, 2018 at 6:50 am
tildeb
All it takes is the accusation. That’s the reality.
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July 17, 2018 at 6:02 pm
The Arbourist
@tildeb
Is it not a good thing that women’s voices, especially when it comes to interpersonal relationships, may have moved up a few notches toward them being treated as human in society?
Are you saying that this is a bad situation for men?
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July 17, 2018 at 6:18 pm
tildeb
“Moving up a few notches” and getting rid of due process are not synonyms, Arb. The cost for this ‘moving up’ harms everyone and undermines our most basic legal rights. Everyone’s. It is an atrocious development and many careers have already been ruined thanks to the widespread excuse that women somehow ‘need’ this exemption and can cast accusations and know these are sufficient. Just look at the author Galloway and the atrocious destruction of his career by invertebrate people who then have the audacity to support the vilification of Atwood, for crying out loud, daring to suggest that discarding due process is not a solution but has an even chance of creating new victims. Trudeau, by his own idiotic support of this SJW bullshit should resign because he’s been accused. Case closed. No jury needed. That’s what he did to others in his party. And really, who cares what’s true when justice is on the line, am I right?
I think we should listen to big brained people and grasp the explanations for their criticisms (of this kind of vindictive travesty and collusion by cowards to facilitate it) in order to establish their independent merit. And Atwood’s point has nothing but legitimate merit. There has to be a better way.
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July 17, 2018 at 8:23 pm
bleatmop
“All it takes is a single accusation” – Ya… that’s really hurt Brock Turner’s career and he was fucking caught and convicted raping someone. Oh wait, it didn’t. How many people have accused Cosby and yet there are still people defending him. How many did it take before anyone considered investigating him for rape? How many people have Louis CK’s back despite him admitting to sexual coercion? Kevin Spacey might have had his Netflix show canceled but he’s since released one movie and has another in post production. And the king creep Harvey Weinstein. How many people did it take to bring him down. I lost track of the number of accusations. It was only when it was overwhelming that something was done. AND the creep also admitted to his crimes.
So ya… it doesn’t take a single accusation. I even have an ex-friend that was a police officer here in Canada. He was lamenting one evening about having to work a Saturday and Sunday morning because he would have to deal with all the women reporting rape that wasn’t rape in his opinion, it was just women that “regretted having sex”. When it comes to being believed about rape women are certainly not on equal grounds as a man.
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July 17, 2018 at 8:45 pm
tildeb
If you’re going to quote me, then get the quote right, please. And it’s ridiculous to claim that a case like Galloway’s simply doesn’t happen when in fact it most assuredly does. That’s the reality, that the accusation is sufficient to ruin some people’s careers – that’s why Ontario now has a Ford rather than a Brown as Premier – when other cowards act on the accusation alone as if were true because the accusation is made.
My point that you haven’t addressed but tried to run over with this gish gallop of yours is that getting rid of due process in law is not a solution but a shortcut you’re willing to endorse in some cases apparently but presumably not in others, yet ignore and/or dismiss the very real danger not just to some men falsely accused but to women once due process itself is no longer required but pre-empted according to some level of social media support for the alleged victim.
Due process in law is important for everyone. But this is just a typical danger that so many ideologues of the Left and Right dismiss in their single-minded pursuit of furthering some specific partisan goal… in this case to assume the testimony of a woman trumps due process in these cases but not those.
Come on, you can think better than this.
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July 18, 2018 at 5:39 am
tildeb
A timely article here.
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July 18, 2018 at 11:12 am
The Arbourist
Also a timely article.
“Why must every rape verdict where a Brock Turner is given a pathetically minimal sentence or where the Ulster rugby players escape conviction despite the manifest evidence that a rape took place, result in women having to explain the obvious? When a woman is unconscious she cannot consent and the lives of rugby players who gang rape a woman out of desire to act out pornographic fantasies on her are not more important to protect than those of their victims. Why are men’s reputations still in 2018 more important than women’s lives?
In a recent interview with Vulture, Isabella Rossellini says the #MeToo movement demonstrates “the subtle ways women can be diminished.” Though many would like to think so, the sexualization of the female body isn’t just about “men’s nature,” but is also very much about power and humiliation. Rosselini points out that the routine degradation of women doesn’t only happen in overtly violent ways, saying:
“Rape is a way of being hurt that everyone can recognize. There are other ways. It could be your boss saying, ‘I like your skirt on you.’ It’s a compliment, but it makes you feel diminished.”
Within this global conversation about sexual violence against women, from Ulster to Weinstein, is also a demonstration of pervasive efforts to deflect the conversation into one about how men suffer when women speak out are.”
When women speak, men deflect. Due process has not served the needs of half the population – they still seek inclusion in the process of fairness and of justice.
You speak of process. It doesn’t work for women currently and if men feel a bit marginalized because of *unfair treatment or unfair expectations (see Cavill) *. Welcome to the fucking club of what women put up with at the base level of their experience in society.
A spirited defense of the system (that currently doesn’t justly serve the needs of half the people) does not need further defense – but rather a harsh critique and analysis of the systemic features keep it in its current broken state.
When the ‘due process’ isn’t in material fact due process then we need to correct said process.
So, as in the OP, let’s not derail the conversation shall we? To reiterate:
“If you don’t know the difference between politely asking someone out and sexually harassing them, you have a serious problem.”
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July 18, 2018 at 11:59 am
tildeb
So when a female student accuses you of groping her, you are okay with not only losing your job but have social media pile on so that you never work as a teacher again, are you? You’re okay being ‘a bit marginalized’ this way, are you? No severance. No redress. Just a verdict that you’re guilty because a female says you’re guilty. No mitigating considerations are wanted or needed. You’re good with that… so good, in fact, that you’re more than willing even supportive when this same method is used on the firing of the next male teacher, and the next, and the next, and the next?
You have given up any ground to stand upon other than complete capitulation to the method and justice of accusation alone. Nothing bad is going to happen from that, eh?
Come on, Arb.
This rationalization you put forth is patent bullshit and you know it. You would deem it only fair and just to have due process, to have the right to face your accuser, to have her provide some kind of evidence other than her word alone that you did what she said you did when you know perfectly well you didn’t. All the rest of your comment is worthless on this point – unless it’s happening to ‘bad’ people, in which case isn’t it grand? – and this is the only point I am raising that matters to my point, that all of us have the right to due process and not be subjected – even though in your mind an accusation by any woman is ‘proof’ that the accused person receiving such treatment is bad by your definition and is therefore deserving of punishment – to this most recent mob mentality that accusation alone is sufficient.
Seriously.
By excusing this excess, you are undermining your own due process and just because you’re willing to jettison it when it comes to sexual accusation doesn’t mean others should. That’s why sexual assault allegations only based on the he said/she said variety alone, without corroborating evidence, are so problematic. The problem of sexual assault isn’t solved or even addressed by your substitution of accusation alone. Pretending it is is the height of folly because you are undermining not just your right to due process but mine as well. I don;t care you’re fine with this; I’m not. That’s not derailing the conversation, it’s the direct effect of your position that you would prefer not to address (which is why you haven’t). On this matter you have no liberal principle on which to stand. It is totalitarian to the core.
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July 18, 2018 at 1:20 pm
The Arbourist
@Tildeb
I take what precautions I can when interacting with female students. The door is open, if there is an EA available I have them stay in the room. It is a sad reality of the teaching occupation. It certainly isn’t my fault, but others (mostly men) have made student interactions a much more precarious experience.
Would I be okay with being falsely accused and vilified in social media? Of course not, who would?
Here’s the problem. The legal and professional avenues available to women have been and still are notoriously unreliable in the pursuit of justice. What do you do when everyone assumes, by default, you’re lying or misinterpreting or *you* sent the wrong signals?
Is there a disconnect between your defense of the justice system and the fact that it doesn’t really work (and hasn’t for a very long time) if you happen to be female and have been sexually harassed, assaulted, or worse? What if the social media route is the only way to actually be heard, because the formal legal/social avenues are not available or effective. In the majority of cases women say nothing, absolutely fucking nothing, because they know that the systems in society are against them – and that is the injustice we need to address at root of this problem. Not seeing this fact of our society is either very convenient or a rather large blindspot thus evinced in the argumentation that has been presented so far.
In some sort of platonic realm all of these considerations are quite valid. Yet in the dynamic of our society relationships that run counter to what would be considered ‘just’ are considered the norm by society.
I do not have to plan my routes when I walk, or carry keys defensively, or really even give more than a passing thought to my safety and boundaries when I am out in public. If I was female in society I would be living under a constant threat to the integrity of my person and boundaries and I would lead a less free and less dynamic life because of it (living in rape culture/patriarchy).
It really isn’t what is going on my mind. It is a part of the system that has the capacity to be intrinsically unfair and unjust to men/those accused. I really do get it – it shouldn’t be this way, but reality time, because the proper legal and social channels have been denied to those who have suffered assault and abuse it is the reality we now face.
And jesus-fuck, the amount or indignation by those who are used to holding the large end of the stick is coming thick and fast. Men are getting a shitty deal in this one instance – WELCOME TO THE SHOW – because shitty treatment is the norm for others and now that we have to deal with the blowback from the system created and propagated by us, it’s a problem.
So the problem is the potential for false accusations? Really? How about this – the problem is a system that has a systemic bias against women and the expression of their rights and basic humanity – if the proper legal and social channels actually worked then we wouldn’t be here right now would we? So can we address the real problem here instead of banging on about an injustice done to us men, that happens to be a direct result of the system we put in place?
No kidding. The systemic biases must be addressed in the legal system and society at large, until they are addressed then more unfair and unreasonable treatment will be the result for both sexes in society.
Is this fair? Is it just? Absolutely not. No, in fact it is an absolute outrage and I rail against it here and in RL often – probably too often for the liking of most but that is not my concern. Because there are two sets of standards and expectations one for males and one for females and that rule set favours males in the majority of the cases and really that is the problem we need to be addressing.
You have been derailing the conversation, going on about the unfairness and injustice done toward men and their rights. A flawed system that has finally (in a limited sphere) come back to bite those who created it. Your selective indignation and defense of justice betrays what seems to be a narrow view of who is entitled to rights, personhood, and liberty under the law.
Classical Liberal Principle – Laws to provide protection for citizens from wrongs committed against them by other citizens, which included protection of private property, enforcement of contracts and common law.
We, as a society, have failed in the protection of half our citizens within the framework of the law and the current set of social norms. I am standing for the *just application* of laws to all members of society, and that fits my definition of liberal principle and is decidedly not totalitarian in any sense of the word.
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July 18, 2018 at 2:11 pm
tildeb
There is a disconnect between claiming liberal principles, which you do, and then supporting that which is contrary to it: condemnation and vilification by accusation alone. That’s what the #metoo movement is. What I’m saying is you can’t have it both ways, claim to be liberal but support fascism in action and then rationalize it as a ‘get even’ kind of ‘justice’. Your support is decidedly towards the fascist approach by waving away or belittling the very real destruction of careers and the very real replacement of what’s true with lies by women in the name of correcting a social power imbalance. That’s the bullshit. That’s what endangers me and you and women, too don’t forget. Endangering me and well as yourself, as well as any woman accused, will produce exactly that which you claim you want to get rid of: injustice.
There has to be another way. It’s not either or and getting rid of due process is not a solution but more fascist creep into our daily lives. You gotta stop doing this. We have all got to stop going along with this bullshit and rationalizing away classical liberal values. That’s what this kind of identity politics does: it destroys. It never, ever builds.
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July 21, 2018 at 10:18 am
Vesuvius R. Kaine
What I’m saying is you can’t have it both ways, claim to be liberal but support fascism in action and then rationalize it as a ‘get even’ kind of ‘justice’.
Hypocrites to the end, for sure. What Arb probably won’t admit to you is that yes, while he does all these things to try and provide a safe space for women entering his office at work, he’s also doing those things to COVER HIS OWN ASS, protecting himself against unfounded claims of harassment as well.
In reference to previous comments about being gutless, I’d like to see Arb post a sign on his door saying, “I’m a male, and therefore all women entering should simply assume that I’m a rapist, about to rape. To protect you from even the potential of this, 1) Please leave my door open at all times so others can hear our conversation, and you have an escape route, 2) please make sure my EA is here at all times as well to corroborate your story, and 3) please make sure you’re recording this at all times. Otherwise, please help yourself to come in, leave, and then make a false accusation all over the Internet. I’ll respect your right to (false) victimhood, and very quickly resign my position in your honor.”
And to your point, Tildeb, if liberal principles (as I see them) are about supporting all victims, then that’s what people who call themselves liberals should be doing – not doling out this selective justice (like you see on this blog) favored towards people who they like vs. people they don’t.
Again, I may not be the cheerleader you want in your corner, Tildeb, but bravo to calling out the phoniness and hypocrisy here that ends up ruining the very causes they’re trying to support.
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July 21, 2018 at 11:38 am
tildeb
More and more, I’m finding the only supporters of classical liberal values come from I would call the ‘Right’. This is a problem because such values simply are not partisan yet so many people I would call from the ‘Left’ no longer seem willing to support them given certain situations. From the ACLU withdrawing from supporting First Amendment cases that defend ‘hate’ speech to the complete overthrow of the Southern Poverty Law Center and its massive financial resources, from the vilification of the falsely accused to the doubling down on the accusations, so many people from the ‘Left’ are not just willing but actively supporting the ideological zealotry needed to dismantle these fundamental rights and freedoms of all.
So I welcome anyone and everyone willing to stand up in support of these classical liberal values regardless of other positions regarding partisan politics. And I condemn without favour anyone willing to cast these aside in their quest to implement an anti-liberal ideology. So the fact that I find most of my targets from the Left should be a fucking wake-up call of just how insidious and pernicious this anti-liberal ideology is and just how far the infection has spread throughout, and without proper attention by people from, the Left.
This fascist ideology to undermine the autonomy in law of the individual is not rooted in the extremes of political leanings as so many ideologues will try to rationalize, but from the middle where typical people give away their rights and freedoms incrementally in the name of redressing injustice. The intent is good; the means is totalitarian.
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July 21, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Vesuvius R. Kaine
So are you seeing both a huge and clear division on the Left, between classical and neoliberal? Personally, I’m left wondering where the classic Liberals and classic liberal viewpoints are anymore (yourself excluded). Bill Maher seems to be the only public one left, to me.
The causes they tend to support are great – clean environment, personal safety, pro-worker rights, support for minorities, anti-plutocracy, etc. – but it seems like those on the left now get so high on themselves in their bubble that they end up being a joke at best, or a pure evil at worst – leaving the Right to appear far more sane, and if not, at least be far more effective.
Like Bill Maher said in his “New Rules” segment one night, start going after real Liberal issues and some real Liberal victories (ex: election results and Supreme Court Justices) instead of putting all your energy (and all your excitement) into a Trump voter celebrating and bragging that you got a Trump voter with mental issues off TV.” (Might be paraphrasing a bit here, but it’s close.)
He gave another great commentary here: https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/01/30/bill-maher-hey-liberals-we-lost-because-you-cared-more-about-being-politically-correct-n2278231
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July 21, 2018 at 12:17 pm
The Arbourist
@Vern
Quoted from my comment – “It is a sad reality of the teaching occupation. It certainly isn’t my fault, but others (mostly men) have made student interactions a much more precarious experience.”
No kidding. Who wouldn’t engage in proactive CYA? Denying the fact we live in a culture that is hostile toward women, and not take precautions, would be a severe intellectual and ethical oversight.
How do you tell who is a sexual abuser and who isn’t? How do women know beforehand of what man’s intentions are, and given the male propensity toward violence, should they not (as they currently do)act and prepare accordingly?
Bashing those strawpeople must get tiring after awhile, no?
This comment is rich. You see, one of the very premises of this blog is to illustrate that the experiences of women and men in society are significantly different. The notion that there is some sort of fair equilibrium that we’re moving away from is absurd. There never has been a just balance of the sexes in society and now that it is being redressed (as in Men have to treat women as human beings, not objects) in a limited way – people (mostly men, at least here) are making a stink about it.
Tildeb introduced the false accusation angle to set up his by now bogstandard railings against the creeping po-mo threat to the very fabric western liberal democracy.
Addressing the systemic barriers women face that are present in society is a threatto the patriarchal status-quo. If that somehow translates to a threat toward liberal democracy, then liberal democracy must be dire straights, given its stated tenets (life, liberty, property etc.) The OP is about Men reacting poorly to women wanting to be treated as fully fucking human. Let me quote the OP:
“If you’re approaching women in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, then YOU need to change your behaviour, instead of whining about how some men are now facing consequences for serial harassment and assault.”
Read that quote again slowly. This should not be rocket science. I can partially understand why women get so frustrated in dealing with men who, rather than dealing what being is said, centre themselves in the problem and make it about them.
The amount of rancour for even the suggestion that the current imbalances in our society and in our justice system be addressed speaks loudly enough.
So really, it comes down to this – do you you know the difference between politely asking someone out or sexually harassing them? If you do, then you’re good. If not, you may part of the problem.
Engaging in self-effacing hyperbole like Cavill does, illustrates exactly the problem named by Helen Price in the response.
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July 21, 2018 at 1:53 pm
tildeb
My issue isn’t about treating women well or poorly as you are trying to portray; it’s about using this issue of victimhood to undermine a classical liberal value all of us share – males and females – of due process in law.
You state, “If you’re approaching women in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, then YOU need to change your behaviour, instead of whining about how some men are now facing consequences for serial harassment and assault.”
My issue is with the ASSUMPTION you make: that an accusation alone IS sufficient to demonstrate harassment and assault as if real, as if true. No amount of hand waving about care and concern for women alters the dominance in your mind for this assumption to be more important than what is actually true. The accusation should not be impeded by due process to find out what IS true. That’s why you are an ideologue. By sticking with the rationalized framework where an accusation is sufficient to have the power to be true regardless if it is, you honestly don’t care about and sacrifice as trivial what’s true.
I am saying that accusation is NOT sufficient. So you frame that to mean I must be biased against women and unconcerned about harassment and assault carried out against them or I would go along to get along. That, too, is unmitigated bullshit because it does not represent what is true; it represents more of your own presumptions, your own false equivalency. You seem to disagree with the reality of actual victims created by accusations alone. That IS PoMo ideology in action, Arb. You think pointing out how acting on this assumption in real life and destroying innocent people’s careers in real life by accusation alone – people who very well might treat women in ways that do not make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe and the number of examples is growing – is simply “whining”, simply a patriarchal excuse for anti-woman business as usual, that you’re justified with this fascist action because you’ve got to break some eggs to make an omelette and so some real victims from false accusations are acceptable because of the number of victims of harassment and assault (as if empowering accusations alone will stop harassment and assaults), that there must be some male victims to start to even the score and that that’s the reasonable cost to help more women potentially feel more comfortable or safe. Yes, due process stands in the way, so therefore due process itself must be patriarchal and so it must be part of the problem.
That’s the bullshit you’re peddling with this rationalized ideological framework of preset victims and vicitimizers, where it levels the playing field to make ‘vicitimizers’ victims and is okay. The scope of this bullshit will not be revealed to you until you are accused of harassing a female student. Only then will the Great Awakening occur that you have nothing to defend you – including what’s true – because you’ve already given away due process in your zeal to appear to be concerned about the safety and comfort level of real people in real life when you’re not… you are only concerned about the accuser being empowered enough to harm others. You do not care if the accusations are true or not. I’m saying that will come back to bite you. That’s the attack on due process – your own due process – that you support, that you’ve already framed as part of the patriarchy and so dismiss out of hand whether or not due process might be valuable for all of us. The civil rights you SHARE with women is not patriarchal, Arb; that’s your bullshit ideology reframing the real world and taking you down the drain with it. But listening to it and framing basic classical liberal values as if they are patriarchal is a problem because you are excusing doing this actual harm to real people in real life in the name of supporting and protecting presumed victims. Making victims protects victims. That’s your broken PoMo ideology in action and you’re doing it. You have not just equated your presumption to be equivalent to what’s true but superior to what is actually true, and that when what is actually true is to take a back seat to your Post Modern framing of the world into victimizers and victims, then you’ve gone one step too far and trodden on the rights of everyone. You are trying to impose your ideology on everyone in your zeal to appear to be a warrior seeking social justice by undermining the central pillar of justice itself: due process.
You need to revisit your broken thinking on this because this IS the path to totalitarianism, dismantling individual rights in law one step at a time while lying to yourself the entire time.
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July 21, 2018 at 8:07 pm
The Arbourist
@Tildeb
Oh.
Well that is the important issue though. Women are treated poorly in our society and it is a systemic problem that requires a change in the base set of values we hold. So, that is the real thrust of this post. And as far as portraying your priorities, you have succinctly answered the question, which is more important – Male reputation or female lives. No portraying is necessary at this point.
Due Process: “A fundamental, constitutional guarantee that all legal proceedings will be fair and that one will be given notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to be heard before the government acts to take away one’s life, liberty, or property. Also, a constitutional guarantee that a law shall not be unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious.”
(1)Due process, as above, is a constitutional guarantee that a law shall not be unreasonable, Arbitrary, or capricious.
(2)A substantial material divide exists in the application of the law between individuals on the basis of whether they are male or female.
Therefore, the classical value of due process – in which there is not an capricious or arbitrary application of laws to individuals is actually the issue at hand, because the laws regarding sexual assault and rape (and a myriad of other issues) are indeed arbitrary and in their current expression in society and capriciously affect women attempting access justice in our society.
So, it may be time to realize that due process also happens to be linked how close you are to what is considered the default in society (totally going there – being white and male). The farther away you are from the default, the less likely the concept of substantive due process will fully apply to you.
And that folks is where the problem is. You are arguing for ideal that does not exist in our society and blithely ignoring the systemic features that impinge on the ideal, that in fact, make the application of due process both arbitrary and capricious.
The material conditions need to be named (systemic racism, patriarchy etc.), critiqued, and changed to move toward the just ideal that is defined in substantive due process, because we are not there yet.
This is what I said in the initial comment – “Is it not a good thing that women’s voices, especially when it comes to interpersonal relationships, may have moved up a few notches toward them being treated as human in society?”
This is what you’re hearing: “My issue is with the ASSUMPTION you make: that an accusation alone IS sufficient to demonstrate harassment and assault as if real, as if true.”
JFC.
I didn’t say that.
You were teeing up your about ‘false accusations’ rant and making assumptions without asking for clarification from me on what I meant.
Are you currently aware that the status quo for the most part is for women to shut up and take the abuse? Because if they speak up about being assaulted and take the legal avenues under the frakking due process that is currently available to them – they will almost always be shut down. It why most sexual assaults go unreported, because women are not dumb and are very aware of the systemic barriers and biases deployed against them.
#MeToo is movement of women that inhabit the top of the social hierarchy – do you think that their largely symbolic actions are filtering down to the under-classes who have neither the voice, nor the resources to be heard? Not likely.
So, what I’m actually saying, given the material history of women vis-a-vis the law is that it is a good thing that we are slowly moving toward the definition of what DUE PROCESS actually is about. And that means that the institutions of justice in our society are slowly starting to unencumber themselves from the sexist biases that, as to date, make our legal system both arbitrary and capricious with regards to women seeking just redress in the legal system.
Because the legal system has been so arbitrary for so long when change starts to happen, those who are benefiting from its unjust nature *should* be worried, because and actual just application of the rules is starting to not condone their behaviours. And is it completely unreasonable to expect the class of men in our society to treat women as full members of society entitled to the same protections that they currently enjoy?
My answer is no. It is not unreasonable to have women treated to what the actual definition of due process entails.
–I’m appending much here of your comment because I’m not going to spend time inhabiting/defending the positions you think I hold. That is a waste of everyone’s time. Just some highlights, that I think deserve mention.–
The due process we currently have in society is patriarchal and racist and needs to be moved toward a more just application of what the idea embodies. Identifying the roots of these material problems in society is important and constant self-examination and critique are a necessary part of a flourishing democratic society.
Society will not change, nor will it evolve, if we cannot have critical discourse about its functions. Not acknowledging and making moves to combat the negative systemic elements within our society are a recipe for disaster.
The set of rights I have may be the same in the letter of the law, but within the boundaries of society they are applied differently and are experienced differently. Not acknowledging that one’s sex fundamentally alters how society treats you -in all respects- is a severe oversight and detriment to being able to determine viable solutions for improving society.
Ignoring the large bloc of sociological evidence for the variance experienced by different classes of people who live in society is at odds with reality.
Just because the letter of the law says we are equal, does not mean that in application we are treated as such. When I mentioned Platonic ideals earlier it was not by accident – the state you seem to think we’re in does not jive with the sociological evidence, the statistics nor the lived experiences of the females who inhabit the oppressed class in society.
I like a good rhetorical turn, but we’re firmly into grandiloquence country here.
Well, you certainly argue well against the arguments you set up to defeat. I would comment that blind commitment to any set of ideologies is the actual path to totalitarianism, being afraid and unable to critique what is the accepted ‘norm’ are all significant milestones heading down the authoritarian path.
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July 21, 2018 at 8:51 pm
tildeb
Thanks for this comment, Arb. Q.E.D.
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July 22, 2018 at 9:40 am
Vesuvius R. Kaine
Arb:
“How do you tell who is a sexual abuser and who isn’t? How do women know beforehand of what man’s intentions are, and given the male propensity toward violence, should they not (as they currently do)act and prepare accordingly?”
You dodge again, Arb. Can’t you admit that there’s a significant risk with you as a teacher that you could be set up for a fall should your door remain closed? Can’t you admit that likely – even with just a false accusation – that your career might now not only be unfairly difficult to continue with under such accusations, or perhaps even ruined? NOBODY is arguing that there isn’t a risk, and nobody is arguing that women shouldn’t at least be cautious.
Admit it, Arb – do you enjoy being assumed to be a rapist? Do you like that overshadowing your value as a teacher? As a good man clearly you wouldn’t, so say it out loud and in public like Cavill did, and have your thoughts and feelings on the subject automatically not matter.
The point of Cavill’s comment that gets twisted seems to be that 1) in spite of him NOT being a creep and NOT being a rapist, this whole “everyone is one” movement combined with “hey, now all you have to do with someone famous is just SAY that they touched you inappropriately and your career is ruined” makes it 2) not worth it/scary for him to even pursue most relationships, because he now mistrusts INNOCENT women’s intentions as much all you losers might mistrust his. You don’t see how that fear – on both sides – can affect someone’s potential for happiness?
Tildeb’s question: instead of being a solution, doesn’t that instead feed a bigger problem since it sidesteps rule of law and justice as well? And Tildeb’s other point: If Liberals are supposedly all about fairness and justice, isn’t this “condemn first, find the truth later (or not at all)” approach not only unfair and unjust, but risky to everyone as a society also?
“So really, it comes down to this – do you you know the difference between politely asking someone out or sexually harassing them? If you do, then you’re good. If not, you may part of the problem.
Tell me exactly how that exchange would go in your world, Arb – how a guy like Cavill is actually supposed to approach a woman and ask them out if he’s interested that’s Arb-approved? How and the heck are they supposed to communicate their knowing the difference plus their interest to another person? Virtue-signal it first all over the Internet like you losers do? Or do they have to get a full-on, online blessing first from your kind and then you send her a Tweet? Does Cavill really have to get a bunch of approvals from what amount to nothing but a bunch of grievance-hucsters, loser-narcissists, and losers trying to be big deals? Can Cavill only ask someone out by text/email/phone call now to eliminate the “risk”? Is there a sign or certificate from you clowns that he’s now supposed to carry? Perhaps a supervised introduction? Like everything, your hurt feelings cause you people to take every good cause to the point of RIDICULOUSNESS. Y’all didn’t take him down a peg at all, either, btw – he’s still successful and you’re all still a whiny joke.
Want to be effective? Pick your battles better. Here’s a couple very simple one:
1) Teach people at home and in school how not to be bullies – AND QUIT BEING BULLIES YOURSELVES SO YOU CAN BE AN EXAMPLE!!!!
2) Teach boys that while some women say they want men to make the first move, THE FIRST MOVE IS ACTUALLY WOMEN INDICATING OVERTLY THAT THEY’RE OK WITH BEING APPROACHED. Why this is still not taught at home or in schools is disgusting.
But your way? The online shaming, the constant virtue-signaling, your pathetic mob tactics, etc? Ultimately just another clownshow where a bunch of small, nothing losers (like Price and everyone else who went after Cavill from their supposed high-horse) get to act big for awhile using Twitter to try to feel important for a second and act tough (when in fact neither has actually occurred).
Plus, reality is likely that 99% of the female population would love someone as rich, handsome, and accomplished as Cavill approaching them no matter what to at least say hi. Heck, I’d even be flattered if he approached me to say hi and I’m not gay. :) You dipshits, though, hope to rob these women of that opportunity but that’s OK, right, because the ones he’d approach would likely be pretty so you hate them for that, too, don’t you?
Fact is it’s only the ugly, the perpetual losers, and those who enjoy mob-pandering that would get SO offended by what he said, and weave yet another lighthanded comment from the real world into their pathetic “boo hoo” woe is me “let me blame everything else for my life sucking” narrative that you losers (exception of Tildeb and Carmen) all love to pile on to.
Huge victory though, folks. All your Tweets caused Cavill to cave and “apologize” (haha!) So strong are you! (Yoda voice). Celebrate your victory, you crusaders you and keep flying those standards, Arb!!
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July 25, 2018 at 8:45 pm
lovetruthcourage
Great comments, Arb. No one is even talking about ditching due process. Not sure why it keeps coming up as a straw man.
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July 25, 2018 at 8:50 pm
The Arbourist
@ LTC
I couldn’t tell you. What is fascinating is all the sound & fury over a perceived slight to men’s rights – all the while women have been getting the short end of the stick – for centuries – and nothing but fucking crickets.
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July 26, 2018 at 7:05 am
tildeb
Why is due process being raised? Because that is what is being discarded and many invertebrate idiots in positions of authority are okay with that compared to the fear they have of the Mob, the social media enablers, that accusation alone is enough for them to then justifiably act upon as if true, and so what if people’s lives and careers are being destroyed by acting on these accusations alone without due process?
That’s why the lack of due process actually matters, lovetruthcourage. In fact, it’s rather important. It’s not a Straw Man whatsoever when all it takes is some accusation alone and then this is used as a justification for further actions to be taken. This lack of due process will matter to you when an accusation is used to dismantle and destroy YOUR reputation, YOUR life, YOUR career, YOUR family. Suddenly YOU will understand why due process actually matters.
There are hundreds and hundreds of such cases now with no end in sight. And criticizing this execrable social media method and those who participate in it rather than defend it and its ongoing purpose to harm real people in real life is what a reasonable and mature and honest citizen should support. By going along with this mob mentality fosters its power by making nothing more than false allegations – sometimes just the threat of making a false allegation – sufficient. That is a capitulation of a central value in our society, namely, due process and the shared expectation that accusations have be treated with doubt first a foremost (presumed innocence) until the preponderance of evidence indicates otherwise. By not upholding this value, people are undermining our civil rights. What makes this method even more disgusting are the vast number of stupid shortsighted vindictive people willing to go along with it, seeing these victims of accusation alone as a natural byproduct of a movement that is a Good Thing by fiat, that this real harm done to real people is being waved away as simply the cost of doing business to empower women. High time!
This is utter bullshit. It is dangerous bullshit. It is totalitarian bullshit.
Sell that bullshit to my female friend with two female children whose husband – a public school teacher – was falsely accused and the lies maliciously spread by a vindictive child on social media. Of course, the Toronto Board went into full ‘response’ mode. Within days, the family’s car was vandalized, the house vandalized, the girls pulled out of school where they were being bullied and attacked by ongoing accusations and questions of what it’s like living with a sexual predator. The mother was laid off her Board related contract work because her husband’s ‘reputation’ was affecting business of her employer (guilt by association) and his Rate My Teacher page was filled with negative and vicious comments calling for his death and dismemberment.
This is all okay in the name of empowering women, am I right? After all, the guy MIGHT be guilty. Case closed. Oh, but surely innocence can be ‘proven’ after a prolonged court case… that guilty until proven innocent isn’t a fucking reversal of our Constitutional right but a necessary change to help ‘protect’ and ’empower’ women. Bullshit.
A week later he was found floating in the lake. The coroner ruled he probably slipped on the rocks and hit his head before slipping into the water.
The girl who made the accusation recanted in full when a month later the details of her story were shown to be made up. But by then, who cares? Who goes back to fix the record? The damage is already done.
But who cares? Not Arb. After all, it’s high time some of these bastards start to get what they deserve, am I right?
All sound and fury? Due process is a Straw Man?
Sorry people. You need to wake the fuck up.
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July 26, 2018 at 9:22 am
lovetruthcourage
Who is proposing getting rid of due process exactly?
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July 26, 2018 at 10:41 am
tildeb
Many, starting with diversity officers at universities school boards and all the SJWs going on archaeological offense digital digs to smear people and harm reputations. They staff Human Rights Tribunals. They write government Human Rights policies and procedures. They implement them. They are the invertebrate administrators kowtowing to social media pressure to act rather than stand by evidence of wrongdoing. They are spinners in media who will not report the facts but tailor them to fit the ideology of victim and vicitimizer. They are the ones carrying out this ideological war by assaulting by any means necessary everything that stands in the way of imposing the social justice ideology on everyone through law and so ‘they’ are the ones – anyone – who advocate for do so, who try to undermine free speech, who try to shout down those who say stuff they don’t want to hear, who try to demand action without due process, who demand ‘victims’ be granted privilege over the ‘victimizers’. They are legion and they are fascists whether they know it or not.
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July 26, 2018 at 11:14 pm
lovetruthcourage
Investigating evidence and background are part of due process. On the rare occasions that prosecutors bother charging white men with sex crimes, those white men get due process in the courts, right? There’s a trial, right? They are free to hire attorneys (or have one assigned to them free, if they are poor) and mount a defense, correct? People can “try to demand action without due process” (your words) but that’s not how the legal system works, nor how most universities work. Women have always been at a disadvantage when accusing men. (This doesn’t seem to trouble you.) Only female sexual abuse victims are raked over the coals and forced to defend their character, their mode of dress, their communication style, when they lost their virginity, how many partners they have had, everything! We don’t examine the bad behaviors of men who report their wallets stolen, even if they’re careless with their things, promiscuous, convicted thieves themselves, or known to throw around accusations randomly. Why just women? Why just sex abuse and rape? Trial by media can be a horrible thing, but people biased by media are identified pre-trial and not allowed onto the jury. Only people who haven’t heard the accusations / seen media on the case are chosen. A change of venue can be requested if few such people are to be found. Have you ever served on an actual jury? I have. Called to jury duty three times, served twice, forewoman of the jury both times. Took it very seriously. Both the prosecution and defense interview potential jurors in front of each other, and ask questions of their choosing in order to eliminate biased jurors. Only if both sides agree, is a juror chosen. At least, this is the process in the USA. Due process is front and center! I assume the Canadian system is similar.
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July 27, 2018 at 6:14 am
tildeb
It’s the lack of due process you describe that is the point,LTC. There is an accusation, action taken in response to it, and it’s then left to the victim to either do nothing (must be a sign of guilt!) or take it to court, to ‘prove’ their innocence usually by means of a libel suit. Notice the onus here: it’s on the accused. That defense from what might be and often are groundless accusations once investigated takes a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of effort. Not by the accuser. By the accused. How does one prove one is not a rapist or turn a previous consensual sexual relationship into being consensual against a specific allegation within it? But in the meantime, and this is my criticism, the accused has already taken a significant hit against a reputation, almost always suspended if not lost his or her job outright (yes, it works against both sexes), is already assumed to be guilty by those ideologically committed to always believing the accuser if a woman, is already vilified in the press and on social media because the assumption is that the person must be guilt or no one would be ‘brave enough’ to level the accusation, and so anyone who disagrees with this witch hunt – people like Margret Atwood, for example – is also attacked and vilified for daring to defend the ‘guilty’. No trial. No evidence. Hearsay. Accusation alone. Sure, someday the accusation might be shown to be untrue but by then who cares? By then due process and its results has already been relegated to some afterthought.
Whatever this is, my point is that without due process it is not justice and should be criticized by everyone.
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