I like movies about "the old world". Master and Commander is one of my favourites. Another one I like is The Last Duel.
Confess!
One of the reasons I like these movies is it shows just how easy life is for both men and women relative to the past. It's the same reason I use thoughts about US slavery as a motivator for my runs and workouts. This ain't hard. Slavery is hard. These kinds of things give one perspective.
For those unfamiliar with the movie, the essential plot is that there is an accusation of rape. In that day rape of a woman was a property crime against her male "owner" which would be her father or husband. If that case was not resolved "judicially" then a duel would ensue between the offended parties. If the woman's defender was killed in the duel, she would be seen as a liar and burnt alive.
Talk about incentives.
In such a society making certain accusations carried a high penalty. You couldn't call someone a rapist, in public and get away with it. Men who may consider raping a woman had to consider that they might end up dead by means of public impalement. Men involved with women had to consider that if such an accusation was made, they may have to fight to the death. Knowing this, one would have to seriously consider the morals of a potential wife. A whore wife could literally get you killed.
Today no such risks exist for men or women. But the risk is even less for women. A man who is accused of rape, which is now expansively defined, can have his reputation completely destroyed with no recourse. Even if a trial works out in his favour enough people will still consider him a rapist and that he just got lucky.
Defamation, back in the day, could get one killed via duel as well.
Women, this society is told, should be believed regardless of evidence short of video. Punishment against the accused should and will begin before a trial. And that assumes there is a trial. Now, if a the accused denies the charge, never brought to a court of law, he can be sued for defamation. This is what happened to Trump. He was accused of sexual assault by a woman and he denied it quite vigorously. For this he was sued and the woman won. Because she was defamed as if HE was not defamed by the charge *that was never proven beyond reasonable doubt*.
In the time of The Duel, Not only would Trump be able to ultimately "fight it out" but that woman would have risked being burnt to death. Do you honestly think she would have risked that back then?
Now we have Brand who has been accused in multiple media outlets of rape of multiple women. Unnamed as far as I know at this writing. Youtube, a Google company, well Alphabet, demonetized his videos and a UK minister actually wrote to other social media companies asking them to ban Brand as well.
Mind you, this is over accusations. Nothing founded, never charged and for events that are, to my understanding at least a decade old. So now we are at a point where an accusation produces punishment of the accused (sometimes by the same government that would be charged with providing a fair trial!) while hiding and protecting the accuser.
This underscores my point for a long time that one of the major reasons the US is going to shit is because there are no consequences for bad behaviors by the ruling class and women, in US society are quickly becoming a Ruling Class. Since there are no consequences to leveling false charges against people/enemies, there is no incentive to not do it. If a case is lost, they have not lost anything. Not even money since they, in government, spend taxpayer money. But lets stick with private accusations.
If the women in both Trump and Brand's case knew they were risking death if shown to be lying or at a minimum could not substantiate their claims, would they have spoken to anyone or sued?
Today we have many ways to prove a rape, in the classic sense, occurred. DNA, cameras to place the victim and assailant in the location. Potentially incriminating text messages, etc. Women who make an accusation that cannot be proven ought to face the same penalties the accused would have received. Rape claims made decades after the fact should be treated as libel and defamation against the accused unless actual evidence can be offered.
While private companies are free to do what they like, they should seriously reconsider supporting this "punish the accused" culture that has grown in the past decade. They should consider how they would like it if they were accused of some wrong doing and as a result were, say, de-listed from the stock exchange(s) and had all banking services cut off from them. I'm pretty certain they would not care for that one bit.
Do unto others...
