Post #3802641

I do care about her motivations, because motivations tell you a lot. It tells you that her first priority is politics. It’s Schrodinger’s assault - simultaneously so traumatic as to warrant making an accusation years later, yet so mild that the need for justice was so low that she was able to keep it to herself until the most opportune moment. It’s suspicious as all Hell, and I wish folks like you just weren’t so credulous. You do realize that people lie, right? And Democratic politicians are particularly vulnerable to false accusations of sexual assault, as the base has been conditioned (for good reason) to by default believe victims. But you have to keep your brain on. Believing victims is a good general rule. But only a Sith deals in absolutes. You should believe victims, but you also shouldn’t be a naive fool. If all it takes for you to abandon a campaign is someone making a politically opportunistic assault allegation, then you will never see politicians you like elected. Yes, as a general rule, false allegations are rare. But we’re talking about a heated Senate seat, with millions of dollars on the line, where a false accusation can do real damage in the time it takes for the truth to come out. Normally there isn’t a lot of motivation for people to make false assault allegations. But in cases like this, there’s a huge motivation to do so. This is media literacy 101. When someone has a huge motivation to spread false allegations, you need to treat them skeptically, even if “believe the victim” is generally a good first approach.