Yes politics sucks. The sad part is it only gets worse the less you pay attention, but because you're not paying attention, all is good.

This whole thread though feels like two bots arguing about which one is more right.

Apparently it's just fucking impossible to not rape people. I mean Jesus Christ.

Heritage foundation.... Yeah they are pretty much all liars . plus aren't they against contraception?

So Maine's choices are an alleged sexual assualter or a known and confirmed adjudicated rapist and 99.9% likely a pedo protector known as Susan Collins? Two extremely shitty choices, I'll admit.

The Politco story is well sourced with therapist and boyfriend messages from before Platner was ever in politics.

Sometimes a broken clock is correct, this is one of those times.

I mean that's the whole asymmetric corner we've painted ourselves into. Every time you give flimsy accusations the benefit of the doubt, you make real accusations less credibile. Every time you doubt real accusations, you enable rape culture. Normally the ethics seem clear - always believe women and rape culture eventually starves. But what if fascists weaponize the issue before that happens?

Yeah, common sense says a conservative activist doing this during a campaign is probably full of shit. But didn't Brett Kavanaugh's accusers have the same smell? Maybe jumping in front of the spotlight is the only way these women can be taken seriously.

We’ve got weirdos pretending that this waters down the term rape in this thread, lovely.

When you are having sex with someone, presumably you are trusting them? You are trusting them to be safe, to not push boundaries, to do only things you consent to do.

When someone stealths you, they are saying that they don’t give a fuck about you. That trust was misplaced. They are willing to do something to you that you explicitly did not want. Are they going to stop there? (The same type also often pushes for anal/“accidentally” attempts penetration there.)

It’s terrifying and traumatic. Your head races - are you current on your birth control? How likely do you think it is that this guy has some disease? And you get a physical reminder that your consent didn’t matter, the sensation and needing to clean up after if they finished.

It’s also so goddamned common. It’s trivialized.

If you slip the condom off without someone’s consent, you are a rapist. Rape fucks victims up whether it’s a stranger in the bushes or a FWB stealthing you.

You can be that guy. I'll be that guy along with you.

Why would you not wanna be that guy? That’s the reality of it.

The other allegation is also rape since he didn't stop when she asked him to multiple times

Agreed

Well then don't be that guy Platner!

What if it slips off because your dick is too small?

Maybe he’s got a thin penis like the detective in Deuce Bigalo Male Gigalo

Fucking gross

I really don't understand women. What would compel a person to have sex with someone who raped them 5 times already?

Actually really good point, I meant to grab the original Washington Post link anyway. It's updated.

I dug up his old Reddit comment about rape victims earlier because I was curious and couldn’t quite remember the details:

“Holy fuck, how about people just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to? Men and women, you make a choice to consume enough of a substance to lose your self control. So if you don’t want to be in a comprising situation, act like an adult for fucks sake.”

He needs to drop out.

They can outgrow it, just takes more work than most people are willing to do. I'm with you though, if he were truly reformed he wouldn't say it never happened, he'd own up to it an explain.

Yeah, there's still plausible deniability, I'm not fully convinced he's a rapist, I'm just not particularly convinced he isn't given the accusations. Holding his ground will say he's more invested in his ego than his professed beliefs.

If he's innocent I hope he drops out and continues the fight to clear his name.