a graveyard for the things that need to die
epilogue gaming released an article on the very credible rape allegations against jacob geller and to say it ruined my entire day is putting it mildly.
those who follow US politics have been met with countless stories of prominent rapists getting outed and then getting away with sexual violence, over and over again. the cycle is the same every time: the rapist is outed, people are outraged, others defend them, the defense becomes louder than the outrage, the defense then attacks victims directly and indirectly involved. it is completely predictable at this point. if you are angry at a rapist, dont worry. soon enough, someone will be in your mentions to scream at you for not being compassionate enough.
i support prison abolition but it is very much a project for the future. completely abolishing prison is simply not feasible in a world where rape is given probation, where rapists insist on occupying public facing positions, where a convicted rapist is the most powerful man on earth. you want us to forgive, move on, be gracious, but there is no grace given to survivors.
survivors are treated as criminals. michael tracey, a subhuman i happen to have gone to college with who ran in my circles, recently doxxed the jane doe who reported being gangraped by seven men. he defended himself by alleging he was exercising his first amendment right to free speech. i dont believe in free speech and tracey should be under the fucking prison. he should be on a fucking t-shirt for what he did. iykyk.
survivors are put on trial for the crime of being raped. everything about you is scrutinized. the police dismiss you. the courts allow defense attorneys to tear you down while providing a weak case, and even when a rapist gets convicted, he gets probation or some fucking shit. drug trafficking gets you decades, life. stealing a bike three times in a three strikes state gets you life in prison. rape is rarely even convicted at all.
but we know this. what i find truly reprehensible about epilogue gamings article is how much it frames gellers right to a clean reputation as an alienable human right. hot take but you are not entitled to a platform. theres this irritating discussion of prison abolition going around that simply baffles me because its as if every survivor on earth is calling for a public execution. in fact, i dont believe even the worst prisoners should be subjected to torture. i am categorically against the death penalty. i strongly believe how we treat prisoners is a reflection of our societies' values and ethics.
theres just one tiny problem with this argument: we are not talking about prison. geller has never been convicted, nor did he even have contact with the legal system. the university of north carolina handled it all internally because of course they did, because universities enable and practically encourage rape.
you are not entitled to a clean slate, to a sterling reputation. you do not have the right to escape public ire.
the article was truly fucking vile but i took the most issue with the author bringing up the victim as a sort of gotcha. this accusation did not come from his victim but from others who knew of the incident at the time. we dont know what the survivor thinks. i worry about her and i hope shes okay. i hope she stays anonymous and hidden from the vultures online who hate women and want to torture them for the crime of being raped. but concern trolling about the victims well being IN DEFENSE of geller is nothing short of depraved.
i also had to take a step back and collect myself when the piece of shit author said the following:
What bothers me is what happens when public grief becomes pleasurable. The internet has developed a social economy around the destruction of public people. There is status to be gained by discovering the incriminating screenshot first, by producing the definitive thread, by demonstrating that you were never fooled. Moral judgment becomes participatory entertainment. The public figure becomes an object onto which thousands of strangers can project their righteousness, anger, disappointment, politics, and red-meat appetite for spectacle.
....pleasurable? you think this is pleasure? you think we're all ecstatic to be reminded of the worst thing to have ever happened to us, over and over again? you think this feels good? what could compel someone to say something so heinous?
simply put, people do not like victims. being a victim is the worst thing you could possibly do. to be victimized is to be dehumanized. when you are traumatized your behavior sometimes changes, and people dont like that. it makes them feel bad, and you wouldnt want other people to feel bad, would you? being a victim can make you difficult. aggressive. angry. it can make you insecure and oversensitive. you might even be diagnosed with bad person disorder. sorry, i meant borderline personality disorder. its hard to remember since a bpd diagnosis gets treated with the same gravity as a rape conviction.
just kidding. rapists are treated better than borderlines.
the sheer audacity of this woman to write something so heinous, so cruel, speaks to this general hatred of victims. if you hadnt ruined this poor mans entire life i could still watch his youtube videos guilt free!
there is no spectacle. survivors want the right to move on and forget. we want to live in a world without rape rather than being reminded of it 24/7, but thats too much for you people isnt it? as a survivor i dont want the people who victimized me to spend the rest of their lives in prison. in fact, when i realized that a conviction WOULD ruin not just their life but the lives of dozens of other people who relied on them, i ended up testifying in a way that benefitted them and they got off. no charges, and on the public record there i am, defending my abuser.
i would later on be victimized by someone else, and this time i told a close cousin right after. she told me i shouldnt have gone with him and i got what i deserved. she doesnt remember this. for her it was just another day. but it broke something inside of me.
as a result of all of this, i simply cannot trust people anymore.
there is no such thing as a perfect victim, but every rapist, every abuser, is a perfect case study of why feminists are too hysterical and militant, why cancel culture has gone too far, why we should all be more forgiving.
heres what i have to say about forgiveness:
Someone gets a gun
Doesn’t know why he shoots
It doesn't matter
Once the flesh is torn
It doesn't make a difference
If we all can say
Exactly how it got to be this way
Stop trying to explain to me
Why I'm supposed to be forgiving
If you will not say you're sorry
FUCK ALL THESE PEOPLE!
graveyard song - jeff rosenstock