Post
by mistermack » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:13 am
I think the vast majority of these claims are just scammers who want money.
Some might be cases of false memory. And I've actually done that myself. It happens.
A friend told me a story years ago of something that happened to him. When I was a salesman, I found the story a convenient one to tell, if the conversation started to flag, so I re-told it a lot of times, as if it happened to me. [ salesmen will tell you anything ].
Some years later, I recounted the same story back to the guy who originally told it to me. I'd actually forgotten that it was a story, I thought it was a real memory. True fact.
He gave me a funny stare, and said '' that's weird, EXACTLY the same thing happened to me '',
I was dead embarassed when I worked out what happened.
It's not exactly the same thing as this though. It was the repetition, I think, that made me forget that the story was not really mine. And it was a harmless tale to tell punters, not something important like being raped or assaulted. I think that would take a lot more to become a false memory.
But I suppose if you start lying to yourself, after some years, the same thing can happen.
Someone can get treated a bit badly by some celebrity, just get fucked and dismissed. They can change it in their heads to coercion to make themselves feel less of a slag. And end up believing it.
It can happen.
But the bottom line is that none of these cases are safe, after tens of years of saying nothing.
Maybe someone did get raped or assaulted. But hard cheese. If they didn't report it then, it's their own stupid fault.
It's just not safe to convict after all those years. Especially when you are talking about such a grey area as consent. It's far too easy to change the details just slightly in your head.
The difference between coercion and persuasion can be tiny. And often is.
Some women like a bit of both. And that's a fact.
While there is a market for shit, there will be assholes to supply it.
