True story: this happened to me

My first fiance apparently worried that our friends would turn their backs on her, on account of she was scheming to kick me out of the apartment and move her work buddy in all on the same weekend. Our social circle was pretty intertwined at that point (we were still in college), so she started telling everyone that I was this whole other person behind closed doors and had done all sorts of awful things. I had no idea any of it was happening. All I knew was that my fiance dumped me and replaced me in a day, and almost everyone took her side.

Apparently she made some kind of comment at a party that got her busted some time later, and she ended up admitting to the whole thing in a tearful "I just didn't want you guys to hate me do I did this awful thing" stupor. It was met with much sympathy. There was some reconnection after that, but life had moved on, so.

I mean, not to validate this garbage article. But that happened.

what's the point of that article, fuck you jobu?

True story: this happened to me

My first fiance apparently worried that our friends would turn their backs on her, on account of she was scheming to kick me out of the apartment and move her work buddy in all on the same weekend. Our social circle was pretty intertwined at that point (we were still in college), so she started telling everyone that I was this whole other person behind closed doors and had done all sorts of awful things. I had no idea any of it was happening. All I knew was that my fiance dumped me and replaced me in a day, and almost everyone took her side.

Apparently she made some kind of comment at a party that got her busted some time later, and she ended up admitting to the whole thing in a tearful "I just didn't want you guys to hate me do I did this awful thing" stupor. It was met with much sympathy. There was some reconnection after that, but life had moved on, so.

I mean, not to validate this garbage article. But that happened.

Fun fact: we're still good friends.

I'll take this one.

The point of the article is to inflate the sense that sense of doubt that should be given when a woman claims rape. Even though FBI statistics have it as 2-5% of rape claims are lies, if you publish articles like this people will naturally begin to think of it as more of a coinflip.

Devils Advocate: Aren't we trained (or at least, shouldn't we be) as a society to cast doubt upon a story in which we dont have any evidence or proof of a crime occurring? Our entire justice system (again, supposed to be) predicated on the notion that one is innocent until we KNOW we are guilty? While there is no question that article is complete and utter trash, I think there is some validity (not just in sexual assault, but also the recent cops killing kids, and even something like Casey Anthony) to the fact that ALL claims that a crime has been committed should be treated with some doubt.

Sure, but we've turned into this society where everything we debate has to have this perceived balance to it, even when reality says one side should be weighted more than the other. It's like the old adage that says if one political party came out saying that the earth is flat, the headline the next day would read "politicians disagree on shape of earth" even though one side of the argument is clearly more valid than the other. We have this way about us that if a position is stated loudly enough, it becomes valid, even when it shouldn't be.

The truth is, a very small minority of sexual assault claims are made up. And when you publish an article like that, you skew the representation of how much of a minority those cases are. And because of this, and not just this article but the cumulative effect of the attitude in general, there are a lot of people out there who when hearing about a sexual accusation, will default to "well there's a pretty good chance she's making this up" and that's dangerous.

I'm not really advocating for people to stop writing skeptical pieces when it comes to anything, but you have to be careful to not misrepresent reality.

that's something of a large deterrent in my mind to falsely accusing someone to the police of rape. there's a very large and immediate price that goes along with that kind of accusation...