I think Power Consolidation is most dangerous of the choices. All the others can be mitigated or punished. Unless power is consolidated in magat or oligarch hands.
Every rape victim I have ever met could tell you exactly what day it happened especially those who reported it to the police. Who could forget something like that? Yet, Jean Carroll not only did not report being raped to the police, she does not even know what year it happened. There is a simple reason why she cannot afford to state what day Trump is supposed to have raped her in the Bergdorf department store. If she said what day this happened, Trump might be able to prove he was elsewhere that day.
I'm really sorry to hear this, John. The world can be so vicious and cruel sometimes. I am sorry for the violence your loved ones have endured.
Here are a few thoughts in response. I don't propose to lecture you about responses to trauma. You have lived it out, helping people close to you through the painful process of recovery and all that that entails. But it's also worth noting that trauma responses are absolutely not uniform. The expectation that a credible assault survivor will present in a particular way (devastated, withdrawn, unwilling to discuss it publicly) is itself a misunderstanding of how people process and survive sexual violence. The fact that Carroll has discussed the assault in ways that some find tonally surprising, or that she didn't immediately report it, or that she has spoken about it with a certain wry detachment, or that she does not present the same set of facts that other abuse victims might, is not evidence against her. It may in fact be evidence of exactly the kind of coping and compartmentalization that people close to assault survivors recognize.
The reality is that two separate jury cohorts, her own American peers, have judged her evidence substantial enough to award in her favor. On two separate occasions. (Sure, the first jury answered "no" to rape in the narrow legal sense Carroll alleged, and "yes" to sexual abuse. Trumpists have tried to make hay of that distinction. But what they always leave out is that the judge subsequently clarified that what the jury found Trump did to Carroll is what most people would simply call "rape." In other words, the judge rightly noted that the legal label was narrower than the common understanding of the word. But the conduct itself fits peoples' typical understanding.)
And keep in mind that the people closest to Carroll knew about the assault before Trump was a political figure. He was a celebrity, yes—widely known. But she had no political reason to have mentioned any of this prior to his political rise, and so skeptics who see this as fundamentally a political play have to grapple with that inconvenient fact.
Someone who has helped women through the aftermath of sexual violence probably knows better than most that the things that make Carroll seem "off" to observers—the humor, the semblance of composure, the utilization of the public platform—are often exactly how strong people survive. Falling apart is not the only authentic response to trauma. I wonder what you think the juries got wrong.
I think Power Consolidation is most dangerous of the choices. All the others can be mitigated or punished. Unless power is consolidated in magat or oligarch hands.
Every rape victim I have ever met could tell you exactly what day it happened especially those who reported it to the police. Who could forget something like that? Yet, Jean Carroll not only did not report being raped to the police, she does not even know what year it happened. There is a simple reason why she cannot afford to state what day Trump is supposed to have raped her in the Bergdorf department store. If she said what day this happened, Trump might be able to prove he was elsewhere that day.
Every? How many rape victims have you met that confided in you?
My wife, for one. Three others, as well.
I'm really sorry to hear this, John. The world can be so vicious and cruel sometimes. I am sorry for the violence your loved ones have endured.
Here are a few thoughts in response. I don't propose to lecture you about responses to trauma. You have lived it out, helping people close to you through the painful process of recovery and all that that entails. But it's also worth noting that trauma responses are absolutely not uniform. The expectation that a credible assault survivor will present in a particular way (devastated, withdrawn, unwilling to discuss it publicly) is itself a misunderstanding of how people process and survive sexual violence. The fact that Carroll has discussed the assault in ways that some find tonally surprising, or that she didn't immediately report it, or that she has spoken about it with a certain wry detachment, or that she does not present the same set of facts that other abuse victims might, is not evidence against her. It may in fact be evidence of exactly the kind of coping and compartmentalization that people close to assault survivors recognize.
The reality is that two separate jury cohorts, her own American peers, have judged her evidence substantial enough to award in her favor. On two separate occasions. (Sure, the first jury answered "no" to rape in the narrow legal sense Carroll alleged, and "yes" to sexual abuse. Trumpists have tried to make hay of that distinction. But what they always leave out is that the judge subsequently clarified that what the jury found Trump did to Carroll is what most people would simply call "rape." In other words, the judge rightly noted that the legal label was narrower than the common understanding of the word. But the conduct itself fits peoples' typical understanding.)
And keep in mind that the people closest to Carroll knew about the assault before Trump was a political figure. He was a celebrity, yes—widely known. But she had no political reason to have mentioned any of this prior to his political rise, and so skeptics who see this as fundamentally a political play have to grapple with that inconvenient fact.
Someone who has helped women through the aftermath of sexual violence probably knows better than most that the things that make Carroll seem "off" to observers—the humor, the semblance of composure, the utilization of the public platform—are often exactly how strong people survive. Falling apart is not the only authentic response to trauma. I wonder what you think the juries got wrong.
My sympathies, worthless as they are. Please tell me they got justice.
I have read of victims so traumatized that they blanked the trauma. Severe damage.