False rape has real victims, too, #FtB folks

Note: This post will be updated from time to time, to note some specific claims.

Is Julian Assange the victim of a false rape claim, possibly over politics? Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, very possibly over money?

I don't know. But, because rape is a serious crime, so are false rape claims.

And, sometimes, it may be over an even more ludicrous reason: fame.

Here's another false rape claim, admitted to by the false claimant, a former New York City TV weatherwoman Heidi Jones. Sad. And a reminder that while rape is a serious crime ... for that very reason, so is a false rape claim. Especially when driven by possible attempts to reclaim fame (this case?) for money (possibly in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case?) or for political or other motives (just barely possible in the Assange case?).

And, another!

Once again, college people, too much drinking, some sort of sexual activity, problematic memory, and a rape claim that didn't play out, at least against the person in the spotlight. Once again, social justice warriors, maybe start your focus on ... alcohol? And, as for motive? SJW folks, this one's clear on at least a possible motive. Monetary payout from a presumed first-round NFL draft pick.

As for false accusations in general, whatever the motive? They happen. I'm not saying they happen often, but they clearly happen. Per the headline, need I remind you of the Duke lacrosse team?

Or, maybe they DO happen kind of often. And, for all the reasons above and more. More below the fold, with details on how about one-quarter of claims don't pan out (U.S.) and almost 10 percent are deliberately false (U.K.) More below the fold.

Will charges against Assange split feminism?

I can only but 100 percent agree with Australian website Crikey, and against at least a certain subgroup of gender feminists such as Stephanie Zvan (and, in her case, apparent in thrall boyfriend Greg Laden) on this issue.

These moves are evidence of the situation your correspondent suggested in Crikey yesterday — that the Assange case is proving to be the final process by which the second-wave feminist coalition formed in the late 1960s splits substantially, with feminists with differing attitude to Western state power finding themselves on different sides of the debate.

Given that this certain subgroup of gender feminists appears intent on making the apparent but not necessarily actual charges against Assange, and absolute support of them, a litmus or purity test, yes, it could well split feminists — especially if one of the two original complainants is backing off.

So, has Ardin been brainwashed by some portion of the patriarchy? Has Counterpunch's Matrix hero gotten to her with the patrio-matrix? Did the patriarchy spirit her out of Sweden? If Anna Ardin is indeed not cooperating with Swedish authorities, and is not even in the country, isn't that because she fears a patriarchial Swedish government, not Julian Assange? (And I can get snarkier.)

And, while Laden claims that he does think the U.S. government is out to get Assange, he also, judging by his animus against Assange, might not necessarily think that's bad.

(By the way Ms. Zvan, the claim that this two-day-old when you linked it Guardian story proves he was charged in a legal sense does no such thing; the reporter uses "charge" and "allegations" interchangeably. You're obviously blinded by your fundamentalism.)