erin

This dumb bitch used to go to my parents’ church. She left because the church decided to support their queer members. My mother, a veteran teacher in Wake County, is going to speak at the legislature to give her a piece of her mind, especially due to her harassment of a trans teacher in the county. The teachers here overwhelmingly do not support her or the conservative bullshit this legislature tries to force (much to their disappointment). They enforce the messed up rules intended to harm queer kids with cis kids, to get the parents motivated to push back (like refusing to call a cis kid by their nickname unless the parents have submitted the right paperwork for an alternate name), and will not out children to their parents. Stand by our teachers and help them resist legislation like this.

edit: the entire reason for her introducing this law is because she’s awfully pressed about a trans music teacher existing.

What are you talking about? I have never supported Platner. I have always opposed him. Even if he was “reformed,” which I doubt, why should we need to accept such terrible candidates? I am not a Nazi supporter, and you should stop and think about why it’s so important to paint everyone you disagree with as evil rather than reexamining your cognitive bias. Do you have short term memory loss? Why should she have automatically known it’s a Nazi tattoo. You fully ignored my last comment again, and continue to argue disingenuously. Respond to what I say, not the strawman of me that you’re shadowboxing with.

It’s like talking to a brick wall. Yeah, he probably isn’t totally honest with women about being a mercenary, it’s not exactly a popular job for getting laid. You’re making so many assumptions because it’s easier to jump through hoops to blame a rape victim who is supporting your cause than it is to reexamine your personal biases. The buzzwords you use are just classic logical fallacy bullshit, “gaslit,” “abusive,” “racist,” like I THINK THE GIY WAS EVIL. I just don’t have a hate boner for his VICTIMS because he’s a manipulative rapist!

You’re totally right, she might have known his past, his beliefs, and his profession, but probably not! The rape happened way before his political career.

You hate her because you hate that it took her word, “a white woman’s tears,” as you put it, to convince the public. She is not the public. She did not do his crimes. We cannot know if she knew the horrible things he believed and did, but I’m not giving a rapist the benefit of doubt like you’re so dedicated to doing. You are incapable of examining that cognitive dissonance. In the absence of knowing, I choose to support victims. You choose to blame them. You would rather wallow in a persecution complex and throw mud because someone disagrees with you, rather than accepting that WE WANT THE SAME THING.

All I’m trying to do is get you to realize that:

1. Rapists lie. The rape happened before he was a public figure and before his political career. He almost definitely lied to her or concealed the whole truth
2. The tattoo is obscure, and very few people would recognize it for what it is.
3. Ergo, she probably didn’t know that he was a Nazi or a merc, and either way, we have no way of knowing!

You would rather operate on a “guilty until proven innocent” framework, even when the facts don’t support your conclusions, because you’re absolutely incapable of introspection and realizing that your quarrel isn’t with her, a very brave individual who was victimized by your mutual enemy, but with the public which was willing to trust a “former” Nazi mercenary but not a rapist. Again, not her fault.

Why do you find it easier to defend the hypothetical integrity of a Nazi, mercenary, rapist than to trust a woman?

Almost certainly! Are you just reading my comments and not processing any of the words? How many times do I need to repeat myself? Rapists lie! Why wouldn’t they? The consent of a woman means nothing to them.

We’ve been over this. The tattoo is not obviously Nazi unless you’re familiar with the racist dogwhistles. Have you seen the tattoo? Its not a swastika or an iron cross, to the average person it just looks like an ordinary tattoo. You’re doing such ridiculous mental gymnastics and going in circles just so you can justify your misplaced victim-blaming resentment.

Why do you keep assuming it’s impossible to hide you’re a Nazi mercenary? Jobs and political beliefs are like, the easiest thing to lie about. Men lie about those constantly to get laid. Conservative talking heads even brag about it because modern women won’t sleep with conservatives. Stop making assumptions and support the rape victim.

it kind of hurts that a white woman tear is worth a lot more than many brown lives.

I very much agree, but that isn’t her fault.

I literally agree with you, but you’re reading so much into a relationship you know absolutely nothing about because you cannot separate your resentment of an unjust and racist system and society from the blame of one woman.

Yes, he should have been in jail. Yes, she should not have slept with him, but you have no idea how much she actually knew about him. If she had full knowledge of his history and and understanding of his job and still slept with him, yeah, that’s a poor choice, but she is still a victim.

Regardless, I highly doubt she did have full knowledge of his past and what the obscure tattoo meant. He raped her, he probably lied too, and it kind of sickens me that you find it easier to trust the word of a Nazi mercenary man over a rape victim woman. These kind of people revel in manipulating their way into women’s pants. He slipped his condom off for fuck’s sake!

This woman is a victim, and she’s an asset to your (and my) cause. Stop with the misogynist mental gymnastics and operate on what we actually know, which is that an abuser raped her and she’s facing the full consternation of both Graham’s supporters, and apparently detractors, for that choice.

You need to take a second and redirect your anger. Don’t jump through hoops and make assumptions to justify your gut reaction. You’re absolutely right, it’s 100% unjust that it took this woman’s word when his actions should have been enough, but again, that is not her fault. I am not going to make assumptions for Platner’s benefit. A man that is willing to non-consensually slip off a condom multiple times despite her saying no is absolutely willing to say whatever he needs to to get in a woman’s pants. I highly doubt that he’s going into a hookup and telling his partner “hey, I liked blowing up brown people so much I went back as a mercenary.”

I simply don’t know, and I will not assume, so I will support the victim and be happy that she came out against this person I refuse to support. It should not have taken her word, but I am still glad she did and have a great deal of empathy for a fellow SA victim that was able to come out against her abuser, even though he’s a public figure. I wasn’t able to.

Color me surprised that the rape victim blamer is also a misogynist.

You clearly didn’t read my comment, and how do you know she knows what that tattoo means? I would have no idea that’s a Nazi tattoo. Again, you fully ignored the fact that he raped her, he probably lied too. You just make all these assumptions that she knew exactly what his tattoo meant and she knew exactly what he did in the military and she knew he was a mercenary. How does the cognitive dissonance not bother you?

Also, I’m not a liberal, and don’t call me a cunt. I’m a leftist, and I’m going to afford a rape victim with empathy and not jump through hoops to justify my disgusting prejudice. Read my comment again, and make a response that isn’t just “lalala I’m not listening” with a healthy dose of misogyny on top.

edit: this misuse of gaslit is really the icing on the cake. you’re assuming a woman has psychic knowledge of her abuser’s past, knows what a tattoo means that means absolutely nothing to most people without specific knowledge, and then deciding that the communist woman you’re arguing with is a “liberal cunt” because she disagrees with your misogyny.

Not to victim blame, but [victim blames]. Come on. Two things can be true, he’s an evil Nazi mercenary and he assaulted, and likely manipulated, a woman. Do you know that he was honest with her about his history? You’re making a lot of assumptions about a woman where the only thing we know about her is that she was a victim of sexual assault. You don’t know how much she knew about him or how he manipulated her. She is an asset to your cause by doing a very brave thing and speaking up, and all you can do is blame her for not knowing this guy is bad news. You really think a guy that is willing to rape a girl is somehow above lying?

You are part of the problem. Your resentment should be directed at the establishment and the voters that are willing to accept a Nazi mercenary but not a rapist, not the rape victim. I find your comments in this threat to be genuinely disgusting. Easier to pin the blame of a system on the woman that was a victim than to recognize that she is an asset to your cause! Assigning blame to her is both counterproductive and incredibly presumptuous.

Again, you do not know her story and you do not know the lies he sold her or how he manipulated her. We know that she was a victim, and a victim of someone you take issue with. Support her, don’t go through mental gymnastics to find a way to somehow blame the victim.