As allegations of sexual harassment and assault continue to pervade the news, some have raised concerns that the prevalence of sexual misconduct cases may prompt a witch hunt in which innocent men are accused, or men are accused of misconduct for actions that most would consider innocent or harmless. Sadly, not everyone believes that these cases should be approached with caution or with the presumption of innocence until the accused are proven guilty. Emily Lindin, a columnist for Teen Vogue, is one such person. She went so far as to state that she had no problem with the fact that some innocent men may have to become casualties in the fight to prevent sexual misconduct.
In a series of tweets published last week, Lindin let her controversial and highly un-American perspective be known.
“Here’s an unpopular opinion: I’m actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault/harassment allegations,” she began.
She continued, “First, false allegations VERY rarely happen, so even bringing it up borders on a derailment tactic. It’s a microscopic risk in comparison to the issue at hand (worldwide, systemic oppression of half the population).”
“And more importantly: The benefit of all of us getting to finally tell the truth + the impact on victims FAR outweigh the loss of any one man’s reputation,” she opined.
She concludes, “Sorry. If some innocent men’s reputations have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay.”
Of course, it would not be her paying the price but the innocent men whom she has so callously designated the necessary martyrs of the SJW’s agenda. Let’s face it: It seems that for some such as Lindin, the efforts to root out sexual misbehaviors are less about fighting for equality and more about targeting white men. If SJWs were truly concerned with misogyny and the objectification of women, they would have targeted the hip-hop and rap culture for its treatment of women in music and videos.
Lindin’s perspectives on this subject are wholly un-American and go against everything for which the Founding Fathers stood. John Adams once noted, “It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, ‘whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,’ and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
The protection of the innocent is deeply ingrained in the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment protects an individual’s right to due process of law, which was further enshrined under the 14th Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from illegal searches and seizures, and the Sixth Amendment guarantees rights that ensure criminal prosecutions are fair and legitimate.
Fortunately, the Founders disagreed with the notion of the “greater good” and recognized it as a tool to be used to bring about totalitarianism, and instead established a republic that protected individual liberties. Sadly, this is the system that SJWs wish to dismantle.
Interestingly enough, the backlash against Lindin was swift, and not just from conservatives and libertarians. “You don’t care that innocent men of color are disproportionately accused in colleges, and punished without due process in ways that ruin their lives? Your feminism is comfortable with blatant racist scape-goating?” tweeted one user.
In fact, college campuses are one place in which false accusations are of particular concern, because school policies rarely protect the rights of the accused in their overambitious efforts to prove that they support women’s rights.
Even CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted, “I’m guessing you didn’t get a good grade for your 7th grade book report on To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Another user noted that Lindin’s views pose a dangerous threat to her sons.
“I pray that your unpopular opinion remains just that, your opinion & not something that unjustly hurts my sons.”
As for Lindin’s claim that false allegations are rare, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women has found that the rate of false reporting is somewhere between two and 10 percent. First, that is a rather wide range, and second, that still means that two to 10 percent of men are falsely accused of crimes from which they may never recover.
Take, for example, the three lacrosse players at Duke University in North Carolina who were falsely accused of rape by a black stripper that the boys had hired to perform at a party. The boys were suspended from school, and one lost a Wall Street job offer as a result of the indictment. And while they were eventually exonerated, they note that they are continually battling the stigma of being accused of rape.
Furthermore, this country has yet to come to a decision on what can be classified as sexual harrassment and misconduct. A recent poll from YouGov reveals that one out of three young adults now consider it sexual harassment if a man who is not a woman’s romantic partner compliments her looks. Another one out of four young adults agree it is sexual harrassment if a man offers to buy a woman a drink. About half of those polled also said it was sexual harassment for a man to look at a woman’s breasts.
If the SJWs have their way, one might wonder if there will be any more procreation because men will be terrified to get anywhere near a woman in fear that they will be unfairly accused of misconduct!
