Is the sheer volume of the flood of sexual assault claims against celebrities and politicians causing them to be less believable?

I think it adds to the credibility. Abused people have usually not been believed. With the increase in going public, victims are finally being heard.

I don find them less believable, but I do agree that we should be be clear as to the severity of each accusation.

I’m afraid so. All you need to do is look at comments on Facebook (I know, big mistake) to see what many people think about this. I followed Deadspin and they shared an article about Ellen Page and her complaints. The majority of comments were misogynistic and homophobic. It was disgusting to read. They blamed her for jumping on the bandwagon.

I’m a victim who had no one believe her. I know how that feels. I know why people stay silent for so long. Victims aren’t believed and it doesn’t matter if you come out immediately or wait years until others come out.

Yes. That’s sort of what I alluded to last week.

I think we’re getting some ‘revenge complaint’ smears now from people who have a grudge of some sort or another.

Obviously I don’t know the absolute truth, none of us do. But I’m beginning to wonder how much “me too, I want my 10 minutes of fame” is hitting the news these days.

I think it goes both ways.
On the one hand, the revelations are shocking, and as more roll in, we can’t help but be affected by the sheer numbers.
When trying to sort through individual stories though, and trying to determine validity, it is bound to make us feel a need to deny, hope it isn’t true, question motives.
Sorting through those allegations will be a bugger.
I keep wondering if this will have a notable affect on couch auditions.

I find them credible, but I am overwhelmed by the volume. It is getting hard to keep track of. Why did all of them come out at the same time?

I don’t think the volume of accusations makes them less believable, just the opposite. What I find disturbing is just how routine and commonplace these incidents must be. There is an inevitable fatigue from repetition which must result as the round-the-clock outing gallops apace. For those with multiple accusers, their careers are certainly down the drain (everywhere but Alabama where the state motto remains “you can still get away with it”)

Everybody LOVES witch hunts! Even the low-lying suckers who themselves are witches who would rather no one knew about!

I’m not skeptical at all. There are vastly more un-reported and un-publicized cases of sexual violations than there are false ones.

But I think there is an issue of conflating the worst cases with the less flagrant ones, and the people who are still dangerous with the people who admit what they did and have changed their ways.

No, More believable.

The things that some people consider sexual harassment is what makes it less believable.

I take it case by case. If a story feels like weak sauce, it probably is. Like the George Takei one – the way it’s told doesn’t mesh with real world circumstances. For instance: the idea that Takei roofied him, and before his pants are off, he manages to wake up, safe-word out, get to his car and drive home, and remember the entire conversation 36 years later…

No one who’s drunk and roofied to the point of unconsciousness is waking up a few minutes later and remembering shit. My husband had lost entire days to roofies that he took on purpose. Let’s be real.

Hard to say how this will shake out. When Trump admitted to the locker room talk, but said all the women were lying, I lost faith in people’s judgement.
What I am interested in is how are the celebrities who admitted inappropriate behavior treated differently than those who deny, deny, deny!

I find it obvious which ones are politically motivated and which ones are real and there are a lot of real ones.

This is something I shared on fb-

“Can we please leave Louis C.K. out of the equation? When I was 18 I was forced to watch a bouncer at the club I worked at jerk off. I was a new employee. It was after hours. He had seniority. I needed my paycheck to pay for my nightly motel room. These women who are accusing Louis accepted an invitation to his hotel room late at night. He didn’t touch them. He didn’t threaten them. They could have walked out. I didn’t have this choice.

What he did was inappropriate, but it wasn’t a crime. He doesn’t deserve to lose work over this.”

We need to believe the victims, but some women are making it difficult for those who have truly been victimized.

Louis C.K. admitted to doing it since he had power over the women. That is kinda the crux of the problem. They could have walked out. But he probably would have fired them. Every place I have worked has explicitly said you don’t bang people you have power over.

Roy Moore was just a pedo.

Judge Moore ran as a Republican in the 1994 Etowah County election and was elected to the circuit judge seat (6 year term) with 62% of the vote

Did you know that?. I sure as fuck didn’t. And the girls he got all pedo with probably didn’t either.

But the Senator thing is a big deal that was on national news a lot. So the ladies could be all I don’t want the pedo in the Senate and spoke up.

And the article in The Washington Post is well sourced. I suggest reading it again… You did read it?

And if you somehow are so horrible you would vote for a pedo over a Democrat you can always write in Luther Strange. I assume there is a sense of shame in there somewhere.

I mean, he did it “and” he had the power of influence over them – that is, they admired him. It wasn’t a “watch me or you’re fired”. At least one of the women did say no, and was not fired so…

There’s a bit of a problem with villifying someone who was under the impression they had willing participants in their fetish, because the participants later banded together to talk about how creepy the experience was.

I guess after a certain level of fame or money or whatever you’re not allowed to have fetishes anymore.

@jp Are you commenting at me? I’m not a Republican. I would never vote for him or any other pedo. You’ve got me confused with someone else. (I only assume you are directing your comment at me because it is after mine and you mentioned Louis.) My comment was only about Louis.

No. I’ve come to the realization, that a lot of people could be accused of sexual harassment.
Some of the recent news is severe. Some are rapists, or even serial rapists. Others may have just exercised poor judgment, and in many cases were under the influence of drugs (still a problem.)

Double standards, or unequal treatment are big deals to me. If every male who groped a female, is guilty of a crime, then females need to be held accountable too. But wouldn’t that mean that a large number of people have committed a crime? I’ve personally been groped by maybe over 200 girls/women. In different degrees. Usually, they grab my penis, or butt. They are, to me, unafraid of any consequences because they are female. Just like the powerful men not being afraid because they are powerful. In both cases, they take advantage of how society views them. In both cases, they lose self control. Most of the females who groped me were drunk. Most were very attractive, and most are upper class/wealthy (take from that what you will.)

So. In my life, just one person, I have had hundreds of “crimes” committed on me. Should all those females receive jail time, and have their reputation permanently stained? These are nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers etc. I personally don’t want them all to be imprisoned. I think most are relatively normal, good people, who made a quick, thoughtless act. An instinctive impulse flashes through their brain, and they act before thinking. Some are just sick women, who grab whomever they want, and get more grabby as they’ve never been checked.

I’m not saying that groping is rape. It just isn’t. But if groping is a crime, there is a sizeable population that should be held accountable. And most importantly, to me, females need to be judged by the same standards.

So. Do we really want every person who has done what could be considered “groping,” to be penalized?

There should definitely be a change in the way people behave. But I find this behavior extremely common, and usually happening for the same reasons. It is an issue with society and human beings. Not just men, or women. It seems to me that when people know that they probably won’t be held accountable for something, they will do it if they want…

To clarify, I think the “gropers,” should be separated from the rapists. The rapists should be dealt with accordingly, and the “gropers,” maybe should have counseling or something. The sheer volume of these incidents is not surprising, to me. I wager most stories are valid. This is the society we have created…

I’m not sure I would consider the Washington Post article about Moore to be well sourced….
”Neither Corfman nor any of the other women sought out The Post. While reporting a story in Alabama about supporters of Moore’s Senate campaign, a Post reporter heard that Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls. Over the ensuing three weeks, two Post reporters contacted and interviewed the four women. All were initially reluctant to speak publicly but chose to do so after multiple interviews, saying they thought it was important for people to know about their interactions with Moore. The women say they don’t know one another.”
“Source”:https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293–11e7-afe9–4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?utm_term=.d3fcc969978

How do you find people to interview if they never came forward and were only willing to share their stories after multiple interviews? Seems a little dubious.

It’s not letting me link.

@cheebdragon McConnell believes the women. A fifth made a public statement yesterday. And it turns out Moore was banned from the Gadsden Mall for harassing teenage girls back in the 1970s.

He looks pretty guilty to me.

@zenvelo have you read this? I want you to try and look at it with a completely unbiased 3rd party view and tell me how much of it seems like quality information from reliable sources? Anything odd?

The article clearly indicates who is being quoted. You can make up your own mind as to the reliability. If you want the original details, you will need to look at the Washington Post article.

@cheebdragon That article is in the New Yorker, a publication well known for fact checking and verification. When they publish anything, I know it has been checked and is reliable.