Kellyanne Conway: 'I'm a victim of sexual assault' - Polidicks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45700508 White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has revealed that she was sexually assaulted as a younger woman. "I'm a victim of sexual assault," she told CNN without giving details. Ms Conway, 51, has hinted previously that she was molested by Congressmen. The comment came as she was defending President Trump's embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing allegations of sexual assault.

Really doesn't matter what side you're on. That's not something anyone should go through. I would hope seeing all the comments from the GOP and GOP voters would make her rethink her stance, but I know party loyalty knows no bounds.

I only hope that if Kellyanne comes forward with a story, it's a true one and not a political gambit. And if she really was sexually assaulted, I sincerely hope she comes forward to testify against the guilty party. One can't help but raise an eyebrow, however, considering her history of lying and distorting facts on behalf of this administration. Not to mention choosing to throw in her lot with a POTUS who is a sexual predator himself, by the accounts of many, many women.

In 2017, she described that interview as her "#MeToo moment", but said that "nobody cared" about it due to her political views. It's because you support Donald Trump, the creepy sex president and serial liar.

I'll be real here, I hate Kellyanne Conway and can't stand her interactions with the media. That being said, I'm not a fan of what the second half of your post might be implying. I think we should generally believe people's claims that they were sexually assaulted. It's no joke and shouldn't be talked about lightly, and if you watched the interview (save for her trying to turn the topic away from Trump's accusations) she seems very genuine in her own personal story. She's spoken about things like this several times in the past and is vouching for anyone who thinks they've been assaulted to come forward. "They [sexual assault victims] should all be heard. And they should be heard in courts of law." CNN Interview September 2018 "I would talk to some of the members of Congress out there... When I was younger and prettier, them rubbing up against girls, sticking their tongues down women's throats, uninvited, who didn't like it." MSNBC Interview October 2016 False accusations are something that can land you jail time, as was demonstrated by a case this year. I believe there's a difference between distorting facts about the President, and about something deeply personal in your own past. It's scary in this world for someone to publicly come forward about their sexual assault. Just see the ridicule that's been thrown at Dr. Ford for telling her story. I think it's only fair to believe Conway.

It's fucked that one side will grant themselves endless support but never extend the same favor towards the 'enemy', even though both middle class dems and repubs want the same thing Even in WARFARE we see good civility https://www.stmuhistorymedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Angus-Mcbride-1-770x572.jpg

and defends people as being incapable of it because they're fine upstanding individuals (publically)

We should not pass judgment one way or another until a verdict from a court is reached. I doubt she's lying but that attitude is what gets some men's lives destroyed by false allegations.

Doesn't surprises me. Bet there are a lot of shitheads at congress capable of that.

The attitude that we can't trust people who bring accusations forward until a verdict is reached is exactly why most women don't come forward. Like, I get the point you're trying to get at, but false accusations are just not a thing statistics wise.

I think it's just how you worded this, but there is a percentage of accusations we do end up discrediting, although it tends to be at about 5%. I do think accusers should get the benefit of the doubt for this reason, at least initially, so a trial can happen, but we do still need to investigate because of the rare times when accusers do lie.

What the fuck, the judicial system isn't about trust haha. We're not saying we don't trust them but if you're gonna go about assuming de-facto that it's not a false allegation why even bother going through the motions? Just throw them in jail directly right?

Yeah sorry, I'm not that great at elaborating my points. From what I've read false accusations tend to come from people with a history of false crime reports and pathological lying. Aside from the obvious joke about Kellyanne Conway being the lying political talking head she is. Of course the investigation is the ultimate arbiter as far as the law is concerned, but when someone brings up false accusations they tend to say it as if the process for bringing the accusations forward is literally just finger pointing and done.

I feel like if someone claims they were a victim of sexual assault that they should be listened to and believed. I obviously can't say from first-hand experience but I can imagine it's a very hard and embarrassing thing to talk about. I can see why people don't come out because they don't want to be part of a scene. Which makes claims against famous/powerful people so much harder. Since you WILL attract hate from terrible people. For that reason I think it would take a truly evil person to make false claims of assault to ruin someone's life/career. At the same time if these claims end up in a legal battle I feel obligated to believe in "innocent until proven guilty." And for me that means accusations alone are not enough to pin it on the accused. There's got to be more information that turns the tide in the direction of plausibly. Since there have been prominent cases (Mattress Girl, if I remember correctly?) where there wasn't enough credible information to say for sure. That doesn't mean you don't treat the accuser with respect and empathy. It just means you gotta follow the set rules we have in place while administering justice. That means refraining from judgement of the accused until the evidence points to plausible. tl;dr these things are complicated, accusers should be listened to but the accused should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Since Conway hasn't accused anyone yet there's no reason to doubt her claim other than her track record of misleading information. I hope she comes out with more info if she's comfortable but until then...

I saw a interesting thread on twitter about false accusations https://twitter.com/jeremycyoung/status/1046056287929356289

You said "we shouldn't pass judgement" in response to someone saying we should believe victims of assault. I assumed you meant that, not the outcome of the case.

If I don't trust Kellyanne, it isn't because she's a woman, it's because she's been a professional liar for the last two years.

I feel like "believed" is too strong. They shouldn't be disregarded, they should be taken seriously and the matter should be investigated, but I don't think you should believe any accusation simply on it's own.

This is exactly why I think we need additional protections put in place for both the victims and the accused. Society does not know how to reasonably deal with matters involving sexual assault. It always devolves into a shitfest where either the victims, the accused, or both are harassed/threatened by people who shouldn’t even be involved. IMO the controversy around almost all sexual assault cases is a societal problem being caught in a negative feedback loop. If the accused is some average person nobody knows about, they are usually publicly shamed by the media and have their entire lives ruined throughout the entire process pending litigation, which may result in the loss of their jobs and any means to afford an adequate legal defender without support. Meanwhile false accusations rarely ever see consequences due to the nature of how hard it is to prove or disprove sexual assault claims and even when they do get caught, your example just shows they get a slap on the wrist compared to the amount of damage they have inflicted. On the flip side if the accused is someone rich and powerful, swarms of people rush to their defense and some media groups may attempt to smear the reputations of legitimate victims to defend their allies. Either way, someone always is made out to be irredeemable monster at the end of the day. Someone always has to be lying and society always has to assume the worst before waiting for the full story or a verdict to come out. Nobody ever considers the possibility that the accuser can be a victim of sexual assault, AND the accused may not necessarily be guilty of committing the assault. The point is, these situations and judgmental attitudes of society make things worse on every level. The negative feedback loop I’m noticing lately goes something like this: Some people take things way too far and hand out extrajudicial punishment to anyone simply accused of committing sexual crimes regardless of the context. Absolute nobodies like myself see these horror stories about how one false rape accusation can ruin your life regardless of the legal verdict due to how prejudiced society acts towards men when accused of sexual misconduct if they aren’t a big household name with lots of influence in the media. In turn, we start fearing the possibility of that ever happening to us if we ever are unfortunate enough to come across anyone who’s enough of a vindictive cunt to try that on us. Some people take things way too far and start harassing accusers regardless of if they are actual victims of sexual violence. This makes things harder for actual victims to come forward. Some big name celebrity or politician with a huge support network gets accused of sexual assault. Their supporters and affiliated media outlets then go on to play into our fears to cast doubt on the validity and sincerity of the victims. At first the victims are publicly shamed until there are way too many accusations to dismiss; and it becomes obvious that the celebrity/politician was a serial rapist scumbag when they slip up under pressure and incriminate themselves. Go back to step one and repeat. Society’s prejudice and double standards act as a double edged sword which can threaten the rights of both the accuser and the accused depending on context and several other factors. As a result, I don’t think the media should be allowed to publish the names of either party until after a final verdict has been reached in cases of sexual assault. They can say if an investigation is taking place, where and when the assault was allegedly committed, but not who was involved. The one exception I can think of at the moment would be if accusers are victims of retaliation such as being fired by a company for filing a lawsuit against someone they’re affiliated with. In that case the media could publish a story about the company retaliating against the accuser for filing a sexual harassment/assault claim, if the accuser wishes to have their name published.

I hope the whole #MeToo movement and the apparent increase in people reporting their past sexual assaults encourages men and women to report cases of sexual assault sooner rather than later when there might be more physical evidence available to result in a conviction. (even damning biological evidence of rape). From a societal and mental health standpoint I don't want anyone having to dwell on their abuse for decades because they're afraid to seek justice. No one should be afraid to seek justice. We need public resources available to victims of sexual and physical abuse. Hell, even just as a purely sterile, legal reason. Reporting it earlier rather than later makes it a lot easier to get justice with fair due process.

That doesn't mean her story of being molested should be ignored.

Support people when they say they've been abused. Question people when they say who abused them.

All forms of sexual assault should be taken seriously. Such as Kellyanne Conway's story. But the reason why people are raising eyebrows is that she's supporting a Administration that ignores sexual assault violations and shits on women's rights and supports people who have sexually assaulted individuals in the past/recent past. She's pretty much being the "Uncle Tom" of this situation.

That makes...no sense whatsoever? If someone opens up with their story, show them support, but if they feel brave enough at the current time to give any details about it to legitimize them against people that would disbelieve them anyway, now that's when it's just too much to support?

Or you know. Support them and leave it to the professionals with asking about the details. Cause most victims hate talking about the details. Unless they're in a controlled environment where they can speak their details without backlash or rude judgement from people who haven't experienced similar situations.

You can provide emotional support for someone without accepting their testimony of who did it as fact? This really shouldn't be very difficult.

Taking it with a heaping grain of salt though because unlike Ford or Anita Hill, she has a long history of lies behind her.

If they're not open to discussing any details or trying to back up their claim of who did it that's fine, but they shouldn't expect anyone to change their opinions of the person they're accusing.

Its totally fine for people to have second-doubts when it comes to these situations. Cause its understandable to keep on "stand-by" until the evidence is revealed. But the problem with this shit is that evidence has come out and Victims have testified about the assaults, but even then people are calling the evidence false or it being "Conspiracy theories".

Keep in mind that some police officers don’t care. If you want to file a complaint for sexual assault and the cop does not take it in, you’re shit out of luck. No idea how often it happens in the US, but it’s a real problem here in France where policemen will not file complaints for rape and will bring the victim into question with malevolent intent. They have no idea how to be tactful with rape victims and will only add further trauma to the situation by turning accusations on their heads, providing an image of a loaded judicial system that will help stifle victims. The patriarchy doesn’t run on magic, it actually has its own enforcers, and justice is too often part of the problem rather than the solution