What Do ALAS Feminist Bloggers Have in Common With Rush Limbaugh Supporters?

This is in relation, once again, to the Duke Rape Case. I find a terrible and frightening similarity between nuggets of anonymous thought on a popular feminist blog called ALAS, and the kind of stuff you read on the radical right blogs, i.e., a strategy of shoot first and keep shooting till your hand goes cold. They readily accepted the false claims and statements of Nifong and Mangum with the same zeal and unquestioning vigor that Rush Limbaugh junkies accept the words of their master as absolute gospel. Course, the media disinformation, Nancy Grace, and others, are to blame for much of this, but still. You judge for yourself. Is this typical of feminist thinking or just typical of human beings who reinforce each other's wrongness? ... These comments are from last spring. Posters are commenting on the "guilt" of the lacrosse players.

• Q Grrl Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 7:36 am The entire Duke lacrosse team has shat on the community for years — turn around is fair play.


• Rachel S Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 6:41 am One of the things that I find ironic is that these people who are so quick to point out alternative theories and suggest that this never happen are prognosticating (sp) about evidence that is either wrong or simply not there.


• Antigone Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 7:20 am I don’t doubt that the girl was raped.


• Shannon Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 7:21 am I think the victim deserves someone to take her side for once. These guys can get a fancy lawyer, and are protected by their status. Nobody is calling them into account for their rowdyness or loud partying, and saying that is why they raped the woman, but the woman is being bashed by rape apologists right and left.


• Q Grrl Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 8:38 am What part of the crime do you disbelieve? Barring non-consensual sex, what about the beating and strangulation? These men, specifically the lacrosse team, have proven, year after year after year, their willingness to engage in illegal and disruptive behavior, with little to no regard to the consequences. Suddenly, when the crimes escalate (or are finally reported) these men are innocent until proven guilty? Honey, they’ve been proving their guilt for years. Hell, they’ve already copped to criminal activity the night of the party, so I’m really not sure what “innocence” of theirs you’re trying to shore up.


• Ampersand Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 9:52 am But it seems incredibly unlikely that all of them are innocent (even if none of them committed the rape, some of them may have important knowledge that they’re withholding, such as descriptions of other guests at the party). Under the circumstances, and given the severity of the crime, I don’t think the use of public shaming by the DA is out of line.


• geoduck2 Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 10:03 am What is it about this case that is hard to understand? The police found 4 fingernails & her cellphone and her makeup bag in the house. (They held her from behind with an arm around her neck. Her nails broke off as she tried to pull away the arm that was cutting off her airway.) The medical examination found tearing and injuries consistent with rape. Her father says that her face is bruised ... A court standard is innocent until proven guilty. But we are all free to take and judge the information available to us.


• ms. jared Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 am thank you for this post. i too have noticed how quick everyone is to say “don’t rush to judgement” but it seems it’s only reserved for rape. we can “rush to judge” ken lay and tom delay and every other criminal ASAP but when it comes to rape we’re all supposed to immediately dismiss the victim’s claims and wait for the courts to decide.from what i’ve read and from past experience, i am much more inclined to believe her and i do.


• anon Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 1:14 pm I posted the below on Rachel’s Tavern, but I think it is relevant to this discussion. The way I see it, you basically have 2 kinds of people - those who are able to believe that such heinous acts can be committed by “basically good kids” and those who are not willing to believe it, which leads them to concoct elaborate schemes for explaining the rape and beating of this woman (which as far as I can tell is not in question - the only thing that IS in question is the who) ... Similarly, I think the men on the Duke Lacrosse team who allegedly raped the young woman have some sort of explanation in their heads that absolve them of responsibility. They may believe these rationales so completely that they are probably puzzled by the outrage and outcry. They may have lied to themselves so completley that they have begun to really believe it.

And then, many months later, when it had become overwhelmingly clear that Nifong and Mangum were lying and that the lacrosse players were innocent (even Susan Estrich had backed off), we have comments by many of the exact same people, even as recently as June. The comments in parens are mine:

• Whether or not the Duke Lacrosse Players committed rape that night--I now believe they did not, although of course I could be mistaken--thinking that an inconsistent narrative shows no rape took place is wrong. (OMG! After it had been shown that Mangum lied repeatedly to protect herself and destroy the lives of others--and btw, inconsistent story demonstrates false testimony in other crimes so why do these people not see this as evidence of lying, especially in this case where the lies on the part of Mangum were so numerous and profound?)


• With trepidation, I’m not limiting the comments here to feminists. (In other words, these people fear opinions that might contradict their own?)


• If it can be proven that Nifong withheld evidence and lied to the judge, he should be disbarred and, ideally, put behind bars. (OMG! IF? IF? IF? Who is she kidding?)


• THIS POST IS A FEMINIST, PRO-FEMINIST AND FEMINIST-FRIENDLY ONLY THREAD. (Regarding an ALAS post that slams everyone as a "vulture" who claims false rape charges potentially hurt real victims--in other words, this poster seems to be saying, "Just tell me what I want to hear." I have friends who work in rape crisis centers who say the same thing. I guess they're vultures too?)


• I stand by most of my past posts on this subject. But I no longer believe Mary Doe was raped that night. Nor do I believe she wasn’t raped. I’m now an agnostic on this question. (She is "agnostic" on the subject! No evasion here.)

Enough. Now, I can't talk compare this to Rush Limbaugh supporters without wanting to vomit, so I'll just leave that part out. But a big question remains. Have these people become just what they hate, i.e., ignorant, narrow-minded sexists?

You tell me.