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from the keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer? dept.
An article at vice.com reports The Number of U.S. Hate Groups Keeps Surging, Largely Thanks to Young, White men:
The number of hate groups nationwide reached a record high in 2018, driven partly by the persistent growth of white nationalist groups catering to young, college-aged men.
There are currently 1,020 active hate groups in America — up from 954 in 2017, and 917 the previous year, according to an annual tally by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The new, young face of hate emerged from the shadows during the 2016 election and organized through a shared language of memes and under the banner of the “alt-right.” Many hailed then-candidate Donald Trump, with his hard-line views on immigration, as a hero. In celebration of his election, the alt-right’s one-time de facto leader Richard Spencer led a room full of young men in suits to give Nazi salutes.
Since then, Spencer and other prominent actors, entangled in costly lawsuits and tired of being heckled by anti-fascist protesters, have faded into relative obscurity.
At the same time, groups like Identity Evropa — whose khaki-clad members were a formidable presence at the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017— have proliferated and expanded their reach by setting up new chapters across the country. Patriot Front also grew significantly in 2018 after splintering from Vanguard America, the group linked to the 19-year-old neo-Nazi who rammed his car into a crowd of protesters during the Charlottesville rally and killed Heather Heyer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bobthecimmerian on Friday February 22 2019, @12:33PM (14 children)
Look at the stats you quoted. From 9 out of 10 to 49 out of 50 such accusations are true. And when multiple women accuse the same man, what are the odds it's some grand conspiracy? 0.1%? 0.001%? And this kind of thing has brought down people like Al Franken and should have brought down Bill Clinton (and Hillary for supporting him). I don't care that Bill banged other women, I do care that he had multiple rape accusations.
How about we line up all the men who had their lives ruined by fake rape accusations and all of the women that had their lives actually ruined by rape and never got any justice, and then tell me again where society's biases lie.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Friday February 22 2019, @03:32PM (3 children)
How about instead of trying to estimate that, we investigate each and every accusation thoroughly? Hmm?
It's perfectly possible for people to form conspiracies like this, and it's far from unheard of.
Every attempt to short circuit the process of justice and leap to conclusions based on mere allegation is corrosive to society and only contributes to our ongoing breakdown.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday February 23 2019, @04:58AM (1 child)
One of the big problems is the whole legal process can be degrading and traumatic to the woman. Usually the defence tries to show the woman is a liar, a slut etc and they try really hard. Often even the cops have the same attitude.
The legal system is really shitty in some cases, such as sexual assault, unluckily, there doesn't seem to be better alternatives.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23 2019, @08:20AM
Asking derogatory questions vs. being arrested.
Hmm... I know what we need to do make the process less hostile.
Less questions - more arrests! Problem solved!
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday February 23 2019, @01:50PM
Most rape victims - including men that are sodomized - are too traumatized to contact the police immediately, which means the physical evidence is usually gone before they feel well enough to discuss the problem with anyone. And often they never feel well enough to do that. Again, look at male rape victim statistics, the numbers are smaller but the pattern is the same.
This isn't like stealing a computer or shooting someone's dog on camera, where it's comparatively straightforward to establish guilt or innocence. Rape is incredibly hard to prosecute, many women who do contact the police are told to drop it because the district attorney doesn't believe they can get a conviction. So rape occupies a niche: something that happens all of the time that the perpetrators usually get away with.
Do you really believe there is some kind of giant conspiracy against Harvey Weinstein and others like him just to get... what? Just to topple a Hollywood mogul for fun?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 22 2019, @04:01PM (5 children)
Dunno . . . when I was younger, and more naive, it never would have crossed my mind that 16 women accusing the same man of rape could be lying. But, women don't exactly think like men. More, liberated women don't think like normal women. Today, I'm not willing to make any bets.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 22 2019, @04:22PM (4 children)
Yeah, we aren't right-thinking anymore now that we've gotten out of the kitchen and don't spend our lives trying to please men.
Runaway, for the love of Cthulhu... Stop. Posting. You make yourself look worse and worse every time you do and you don't even realize you're doing it. You've the forum's equivalent of that embarrassing, racist old uncle at Thanksgiving who everyone suspects is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Maybe you *are* in the early stages of Alzheimer's, for all we know.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @06:39PM (3 children)
You don't believe the promotion of victim culture has empowered vulnerable narcissists from Mattress Girl through multiple Brett Kavanaugh accusers to Jussie Smollett? Or that the media would happily return us to the hysteria of 17th Century witch trials to earn a few extra clicks?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @10:19PM (2 children)
It sure has, but as with every other aspect of humanity the shitheels are a minority. Taking such crimes as the norm is an even worse crime that undermines the legitimate cases which are the majority.
Are you comfortable with the fact that Trump promoting racism has increased racist attacks in the US? I'll take false accusations of sexual misconduct over getting curb stomped by some asshole with an inferiority complex.
queue "show me how Trump is racist" bullshit evasions
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @11:32PM (1 child)
Obama supported BLM, Trump has done nothing remotely comparable.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23 2019, @12:34AM
Neo Nazis march and one commits vehicular homicide but "both sides".
Keep supporting the traitor in chief, totally makes you look like a stable genius!!@!
(Score: 4, Touché) by hemocyanin on Friday February 22 2019, @04:24PM (3 children)
Rushing to judgment without real evidence or due process, is the foundation of lynching. Please don't adopt the practices of the KKK.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday February 23 2019, @01:55PM (2 children)
As I responded above, most rape victims - including sodomized men - are too traumatized immediately after to report the crime to law enforcement. So by the time they do, the evidence is gone. That makes it a damn difficult crime to prosecute. That doesn't mean we should let any women simply send any man to prison based on an unsubstantiated accusation. But if several people start accusing one person, especially if they have nothing to gain beyond a few moments of negative publicity for the accusation, I'm inclined to take it seriously. To my knowledge nobody had video evidence of Bill Cosby drugging a woman or Harvey Weinstein raping someone. That doesn't mean there's some crazy mass conspiracy to bring each of them down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23 2019, @05:06PM (1 child)
You really think multiple people wouldn't conspire for some form of secondary gain, especially when, but not limited to when, the target is rich?
I will continue to require evidence before I convict. Secondly, that whole "low number of false accusations" is based on what? We know that people get wrongfully convicted of things frequently but we have no idea of how many that is -- if we did, nobody would be wrongfully convicted in the first place.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/11/16/a-selfie-saved-a-texas-man-who-was-accused-of-a-violent-crime-heres-how-he-did-it [theblaze.com]
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Sunday February 24 2019, @03:06AM
I would have to think it over more, but I'm not inclined to agree with your standard. An extremely high standard of evidence for rape convictions might prevent, say, 10 innocent men from being convicted of crimes they didn't commit. A lesser standard might result in convictions of those men - and convictions of 500 actual rapists that escaped under the higher standard. What's the bigger evil? Currently most rape goes unpunished.