I don't know why I thought /r/books would be filled with fewer misogynists than the rest of reddit, but a lot of what's being said in this thread is disgusting. I don't know why every time rape is mentioned on Reddit there is a flurry of people eager to talk about how we can solve false accusations rather than how we can stop rape. This mindset and culture is why rape victims routinely do not publicly accuse their rapist or even tell others about what happened to them. The attitudes reflected in this thread are part of why many rapists think what they did is somehow OK, and also why many go free.

-This thread

"I don't know why I thought /r/books would be filled with fewer sociopathic social justice knights than the rest of the internet, but a lot of what's being said in this thread is disgusting. I don't know why every time false rape accusations are mentioned there is a flurry of people defending the practice of crucifying the accused based on lies and then unrelentingly defending the notion that people who are proven to have lied to the police and their community about one of the most horrific crimes out there should be free from punishment. How they instead try to turn it on its head and cry that anyone who wants to talk about how fucked up this situation is is actually a misogynist for not immediately taking up a hammer and nails to go tack up the next unwilling martyr for the "but vague cultural notions are more important than justice and truth!" campaign. This mindset is why false rape accusations seem to be on the rise of late, because they know they can publicly accuse anyone and face no repercussions - indeed, they can find support from psychopaths on the internet who will preach their cause long after their credibility has been shattered. The attitudes reflected in this thread are part of why many people are accused of crimes they did not commit, and are punished and ostracized and tainted for the rest of their lives. And then told by dullards on the internet that this was a better outcome than their false accuser's lies being put in the spotlight, because at least this way the real victims won't be more worried about being disbelieved."

Now that my unfunny parody of a blatant shitpost is out of the way (to the original, I say this: you knew it was a shitpost when you shitposted it), I'll present my actual arguments and beliefs. First off, rape is vile. I'm not just talking about "forcible rape" or whatever bullshit conservatives come up with to try to make some acts of rape less real, I'm talking about sex without consent. Period. Rape can cause extraordinary damage to the victim, and it indicates deep problems with the perpetrator's mind. Furthermore, rape can easily be viewed as a cultural problem. Refer to the whole "forcible rape" versus having sex with someone who has blacked out - many (fewer now, hopefully, but still many) view the latter as something different from rape. Not something good, usually, but something far more forgivable, more tolerable, less important. THAT is a real cultural problem. And it's certainly not the only one, I mean, people seem to leap at the chance to gleefully advocate sexual violence in any context that socially allows it - prison rape, castration of enemy combatants, castration pseudo-jokes in extremist feminist circles, revenge-rape. (And yes, I'm only looking at the West, here, because I don't know enough about other cultures to talk and what I do know tends to be an incredibly large and writhing worm-can.) Obviously the idea of rape as a cultural phenomenon is a buzzword nowadays, and controversial to boot, which makes talking about it difficult, but I think the basic concept should be acceptable to anyone who's paying attention. Rape is not just a series of island-isolated individuals performing vile acts beyond the comprehension of normal people. There are reasons, and figuring out how to remove those reasons is a very good idea. (Remove might be the wrong word, as it's entirely possible that a significant part of the problem is a lack of empathy or similar)

Now let's dive into the more specific issue of what to do about rape on college campuses. Whatever set of statistics you use, the fact is that it does happen. Unfortunately, in their haste to promote their cause, some people and institutions have created wildly misleading reports about the problem's prevalence, and now that this has come to light, it's created a credibility gap. Combine this with the very high profile article about college rape turning out to have been largely lies and damn lies, and you have a trifecta of skepticism-inducing nonsense. Pile on top of that the fact that colleges are using Title IX purely as an ass-covering and PR measure, and you have what's known as a "shitty situation." Ironically enough, I think everyone can agree that college anti-rape policies need serious reform. Unfortunately, both "sides" of the issue (which is an idiotic way to frame this, by the way; feminists in particular should know better because one of the strongest pillars of feminism is criticism of dualistic thinking, IMO, and it's unfortunate that this has been abandoned by certain folks in favor of "if you ain't with us, yer against us" Dubya-isms) are deeply entrenched in talking past one another, as the quoted post and plenty of other shit-tier posts squeezed out over this thread and many others show. Hell, look at the parodic first paragraph of this one - that's a pinched-off shitpost if ever I saw one! Starts right off with the name-calling, the accusations, the demonization. Fuckin' awful.

What characterizes each side's position? Here's my understanding: on the anti-lying platform, we have people concerned that the zeal to eliminate rape on campuses has led to a McCarthy-esque monster of secret evidence, presumed guilt, and no repercussions. On the anti-rape platform, we have people concerned that the focus on kangaroo courts, reporters with no compunctions and big agendas, and confused victims will result in people forgetting that rape is a serious problem - they are angry that people are more focused on criticizing a bad solution than they are on finding a solution at all. IMO, both have very strong merits. The current system is a shitshow. It works for nobody but the colleges, and even then, that's only until the next round of lawsuits starts up (so, okay, the paradigm is great for lawyers). At the same time, can anyone really pretend that recent events aren't diverting public attention from actually stopping and prosecuting rape? Hell, you could argue that the focus on campuses was itself a diversion, god knows, but it's definitely become one now. Of course, there are more arguments being made, too, but I've selected the only ones I find particularly compelling, in the interest of avoiding strawfolks. For reference and disassembly, others include:

-The wrongheaded notion that prosecuting false accusations will prevent real accusations from being made (not necessarily incorrect, but wrongheaded - you don't let murderers off the hook just because they make a claim of self-defense, and you don't want people to be afraid of defending themselves [unless you're Florida, in which case you totally do, but if your argument boils down to "Why can't we be more like Florida?" then you need to reevaluate your life]). Should these prosecutions come alongside significant measures making it easier for people to come forward? Fucking clearly. Those should come no matter what.

-The notion that there is a feminist agenda out there trying to destroy men's rights (and they haven't let me in on it). Fuck's sake. It pains me to have to lend this hypothetical credence, but, for the sake of fairness, I will. Are there "feminazis" out there that want to eliminate or enslave the male gender? Yes. There are also Nazi-Nazis out there that want to bring back worshiping Odin and throw out all the Christians from Norway (and by "throw out" I may mean "set on fire"). In general, you should be more concerned about scientology than either, unless you're working in anti-terrorism or something like that. Moreover, painting all feminists or all Asatruisms (I have no idea what they're called) as fascist pigs is either stupid or dishonest. (I mean, neither become police officers very often. /s)

-"False accusations aren't important." This one's interesting. As far as I can tell, it comes from the natural arms race in rhetoric that characterizes modern discourse. So, "not as important as rape" becomes "not important." Not many people actually come right out and say this, but it's behind a lot of other complaints and accusations of misogyny, I've found. People have convinced themselves that it really doesn't matter, in the grand scheme of things. Problem is, in the grand scheme of things, all we are is dust in the wind, dude. In the grand scheme of things, free will doesn't exist, we're all puppets, and humanity will die on the rock we call home as not even a blip on the great cosmic consciousness having barely explored our own solar system. Meanwhile, back on human-time, ideological arguments that sacrifice humans for the sake of advancing a position fucking suck.

-"False accusations are as important as rape." This one isn't interesting. This one is stupid. Anyone who actually believes this is stupid. People are basically liars - if you learned anything from that famous documentary about a drug-addicted doctor in the emergent field of diagnostic medicine, it should have been that everybody lies. People lie to get attention, social status, money, kicks, whatever. Sometimes, their lies do irreparable harm. People who lie like this do indeed deserve punishment. They don't deserve to be put on the sexual offenders registry. They don't deserve decades in hard prison. Come the hell on. Lex talionis does not work. (Very little in our justice system seems to work, mind you, but that's no excuse to make it worse.)