**** Elections thread *****

[wufwugy]

How does accusing someone of sexual misconduct signal your virtue?

The only way I can see the movement being abused is if some scorned or delusional woman uses it as a revenge tactic.

I certainly don't want to be too aggressive with my opinion on this. It's tough to say where it's right and where it's not.

The wave of revealing sexual misconduct is only good in as much as it improves womens' ability to tell the truth. But I see some of what is happening not being that. Women already have very strong ability to reveal assault and be believed/appreciated for it. #MeToo is having women come out when they otherwise wouldn't, which shows that in some of the cases the events were not as big of deals as maybe they should be for them to want to come out in the first place. And the cascading result, we can predict, will be like what you said, women having increased incentive to use it for ill gains.

Two people I admire have to comments on this that I agree with.

Jordan Peterson: all these new claims demonstrate why sex has been traditionally enshrined in marriage.

Scott Adams: an unintended consequence of these new claims may be men hiring fewer women.

And on reddit there was recently a top rated post along the lines of "how men greet women now" and it was a gif of a woman trying to hug the Mr. Bean actor and him pushing her away at the face and shaking her hand instead.

I see this heading in a direction we may not want it heading.

[Poopadoop]

Well, I don't know for sure either.

But, I can sort of understand the female perspective on it. First, men are often pretty aggressive sexually. Part of that is the fault of our culture which has an archetype of a man relentlessly chasing a woman until she finally gives in. It doesn't work that way in real life. A woman who likes you doesn't run away. IRL, it's more like man chases woman until either he gives up or she gets a restraining order. But a lot of men act like that strategy is supposed to work and get pissed when it doesn't.

Second, a woman coming forward to report abuse is generally not getting praise heaped on her. If anything it's the opposite. If it goes to trial,the standard defense is 'she's lying' or 'she was asking for it wearing those high heels and having a drink alone in a bar'. Which, if she's actually a victim, is pretty degrading treatment. So I think a fair number of women who have been abused are quiet about it because it's just not worth the ordeal to speak up. And when they see others speaking up, they get the courage to speak up too. It's easier now because of that, rather than being a voice in the wilderness so to speak.

Third, men can protect themselves from unwanted claims in certain ways. Not initiating physical contact is a pretty simple rule to follow with strangers, and on dates not being pushy with physical contact is another one. Fact is, if some woman wants to make up a story about you it's going to happen even if you're a perfect gentleman. But I think it's generally rare for that to happen because it has such serious consequences for the man. I mean you could also accuse someone of robbing a bank if you didn't like them and wanted to make them suffer, but not many people are that wicked.

So overall, I'm inclined to believe most of these women.