> If you want to be private about rape allegations, and incidents of racism, sexism, or harassment of any protected minority group I think the problems with al

> If you want to be private about rape allegations, and incidents of racism, sexism, or harassment of any protected minority group I think the problems with all of these is that they are not always clear and they change over time. I’ve mentioned some examples in another part of this thread, but to summarize: 1. If you have not asked explicit permission and received an affirmative response at every stage of a romantic endeavor ever, you can be accused of sexual assault or rape. The affirmative response can be deemed invalid if any alcohol was involved, and can be plausibly denied if there was no written agreement (these actually happen). 2. “Racism” can be something as simple as wearing a costume of a character that is not your race (think Moana or Blue Marvel), or being a member of a group that doesn’t have the right racial ratios (even if there are no discriminatory policies or practices). 3. You can be considered to be a harasser of a protected minority group for doing things like using the word “niggardly” (not etymologically a race-based word) or assigning the book To Kill a Mockingbird as a teacher. These may seem like extreme examples, but these are all things that are happening right now, and I think it’s safe to say that the vanilla forms of all of the actions mentioned above don’t warrant a confession from a potential politician. … yet there are people that will have no problems tarnishing a potential politician’s reputation via highly subjective allegations alone if they don’t agree with that person’s politics. For examples of each of the above, search for): 1. Harvard “rape” case in the 00s, and Duke lacrosse team. 2. Silicon Valley hiring practices. Also see most cases where the term “cultural appropriation” is weaponized. 3. WaPo article (today?) about TKM. “Water buffalo” case at UPenn in the 90s. People getting into trouble for playing the circle game, not realizing that the “OK” hand sign has become a racist dog whistle in some circles.