Food for thought · 12:18am Dec 2nd, 2018
Okay, talking about this over Discord, and think it'd make an interesting discussion here as well. Namely the inherit problems with a certain movement. Yeah, you know the one.
#Metoo.
As this latest development shows: https://deadline.com/2018/12/neil-degrasse-tyson-sexual-misconduct-accusations-below-metoo-timesup-harassment-1202512371/
Basically, Guilty until Proven Innocent. That's todays's attitude to things like this. Now I'm not saying Bill Cosby shouldn't have been outed, he damn well should have been, but here's the problem now. Women do have the courage to speak up about incidents like this if someone like Bill can be outed, but that also means they can get ideas and think hey, if Bill Cosby's can be accused and I can get money off of this, why not someone else. There was this incident a while back where Elton John, he got accused of getting a bit too touchy by his former bodyguard. Anyone with a brain could see he was out for money, and nothing ever came of this accusation. The same thing happened with Joan Jett now that I think about it.
It's the Court of Public Opinion, and it's messy. In everyone's eyes, once you're accused of doing this, you did it. Now, take in Neil's defense. He's basically saying, why bother? To quote Neil himself: “I’m the accused, so why believe anything I say? Why believe me at all?”
Doesn't sound like the words of a guilty man to me, a guilty man would deny everything. This just sounds like someone who's given up. And in today's society, can't blame him. The allegations, they may be true and may be not. But it doesn't matter, in the long run Neil and so many other people will be predators in quite a few people's eyes.
Just something for you to think on.
And thus the movement that is ment for good will be co-opted by those who seek to harm others. This isn't the first case where this has happened and it will keep happening until the crime of filing a false report is made more of a determined. People have done things out of spite and revenge just to ruin someone else's life.
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I suppose the same law that requires individuals not to lie while under oath could be applied but given its subjective nature, (Witnesses seeing or hearing something out of context that could be interpreted by the court different ways) it is far from fool-proof.
Of course, the difference between making a report and finding out that its contents were wrong afterward and intentionally making a false report/accusation is hard to determine and investigations could give out false positives which could result in victims being charged with criminal actions and be known as a liar while the real criminal will at worst, get their reputation tarnished but remain legally innocent.
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See, like I said. Messy.
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And there in lies the problem. We cannot guarantee the ability for justice to happen. Personally I blame the media for stirring up most of the rhetoric and are profiting off others misery. Then again if the media did its job correctly I think our world would be a better place.
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Doesn't help that the media reports more bad news than good news these days. There are days where watching the news makes it look like the world is ending while all the good things like advancements in medicine and engineering are relegated to secondary outlets that only get seen by those who are interested in such matters.
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I also see the news media like this video from 2007. It was true back then and is even more true today.
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Sadly, I did learn about that. It's just disgusting.