We're all very much aware there are indeed people who would use these situations to spin whatever bullshit they'd want to, accuse people wrongly, etc., it's just the sad reality of people being terrible. The thing is though, statistically the ratio of people libeling someone and those who were genuinely assaulted isn't even at all, the percentage of false rape accusations probably doesn't even exceed 10%, let alone combined with genuine assault that goes unreported to the authorities, therefore never gets prosecuted ever.
It really sucks that there's no way to make sure no false accusation are ever made and it's absolutely true such stuff happens. But it just bums me out that whenever faced with a "gray" situation like this, so many people prioritize the wellbeing of the potential offender, instead of the potential victim. People throw phrases like "innocent until proven guilty" and "what if she's/he's wrong and lying?", but they never seem to ask "what if she/he is actually right?". The victims, for the most part, have nothing to gain from this. If anything, there's a great chance people will be affected negatively if they choose to speak out, even now. Something really shitty is deeply rooted in us if the first question when we see someone potentially sexually assaulting an individual we ask is "what if the victim is lying?" instead of "what if this dirtbag really did it?". People need to rethink the vicious and depressing cycle of reporting a sex crime and the public reaction this is, and how all of us contribute to it.
I would really hate for "witch hunts" to happen, I would hate for this to spin out of control for all of the wrong reasons - all sane people would agree with me imo. But what solutions would you suggest? Doubt the victims - do something we'd been doing for so long, something that has caused so many people to remain silent or never try seeking justice in the first place? I'd rather take my chances of believing the victims, knowing how incredibly hard it is to publicly come forward with something like that and how hard it must have affected them personally, and retain faith in authorities and the law to find out the false accusations if there are any.
Just my two cents, probably something that has been brought up a million times already. Personally I don't really keep up (it's depressing you genuinely have to keep up with it not to lose count) with all of this, so I couldn't say if there are any red flags about any of the accusations even if I wanted to.
