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curl-6 said:
atomicblue said:

Things like that hashtag bug me. So many court cases now feel like trial by social media, when in reality there are only two people who *truly* know what happened.

Whether most people choose to believe the accused or the victim (and I've seen plenty of instances of both) in cases like this, a lot of people make pat judgements as though they know exactly what happened, and they don't. It reveals some of the really ugly biases and preconceptions people can have about women, or men, or rape cases.

Yeah, I hate the lynch mob mentality that comes with such cases. The fact that just saying that on Facebook would probably get me attacked and harrassed by hoards of angry people calling me a "rape apologist" goes to show just how insane the whole thing is.

I believe rapists should be severely punished, in fact I think they currently get off too lightly in terms of sentencing, but apparently I'm pro-rape because I believe people should be proven guilty by evidence, not by allegation alone.

Yeah, exactly the same problem I have.

I've basically given up on discussing any subject like this on Facebook or most social media sites or forums because it's so hard to find people who can discuss it reasonably. Even here is pretty bad for that sort of thing most of the time, and while this thread seems to be faring better at the moment there are still a couple of ugly comments.

At the same time, it's tricky because I find myself wondering if some of the people who are deliberately unreasonable in discussing the subject do so because that deters other people from talking about it. For one reason or another, I'm sure there are people who would like to limit the amount of attention or discussion sexual violence gets, which is a problem in itself.