When We Judge Without Evidence, We All Lose

I believe in the importance of moderation. In fact, when it comes to politics and social issues, I think that moderates are the only people who have ever made any last, positive impact on the world. You name someone who has made an impact; I’ll show you a moderate, simple as that. That being said, a basic tenant of this is not seeing things in black and white but various shades of gray.

In light of the recent “Me Too” movement and the he said, she said over the latest nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, we have far too many people who take a side too quickly or jump to their preferred position before anything at all has been done.

Several decades ago, especially in the 1960s, 1950s and earlier, parent figures and authorizes often did not believe or take claims of sexual abuse very seriously at all. That needed to change. But, in the last couple of decades, the typical view has gone full circle. In today’s world, it is almost always that the person accused of such activity is instantly presumed guilty. That has to change too. We need to come back to a place where we take all allegations seriously but they cannot be instantly taken for truth simply because they were put out there.

Both sides will argue statistics, which are inherently flawed to favor their viewpoint via bias and method. Some say that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men are assaulted in their lifetime. Others say that that that number is close to 1 in 20 women and far fewer men as well. Some say that anywhere from 1-10 percent of accusations of rape are false. Others suggest that that number is between 8 and 40 percent. In some regions, it is thought to be much higher. The reality probably falls somewhere in the middle.

Anyone who has paid any real attention to this subject for the last 20 years or so has heard verified incidents supporting both sides here. And while sexual abuse of anyone is one of the worst crimes and offenses against a fellow human being that a person can do, falsely accusing someone is nearly as bad and in some ways could actually have a more permanent impact or such things as a career, family…

We cannot keep going in the direction that we are as that we all almost at a place in which simply being accused is enough to convict, if not in the legal system, in the court of opinion. This is like something out of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s.

If that happens, anyone can accuse another person of anything at any time and for any reason and the one accused will suffer the consequences of that allegation. Think about how scary that is.

For me personally, my old workplace required all employees to attend a sexual harassment similar. That’s fine. In fact, that’s a good idea. However, it was pretty shocking to learn that even saying the exact phrase “you look nice today” to someone can be construed as harassment. And forget about dating, people are now growing reluctant to even be in a room alone with someone of the opposite sex (or same sex if it applies) that they don’t know extremely well.

The basic essence here is that things are getting way too out of hand. Fear and the willingness to weaponize sexuality are hindering our everyday lives all the time. We need to get to a place of reason and fairness for all parties involved. Until and unless we do that, all of this will just continue indefinitely.