An opinion piece in the Washington Post brought on so much scorn on Twitter that they changed the headline in a matter of hours. Professional idiot and occasional Democratic strategist* Zerlina Maxwell’s piece was entitled “No matter what Jackie said, we should automatically believe rape claims,” but after tons of Twitter mockery, the headline was changed from “automatically” to “generally.”
Hey @ZerlinaMaxwell. remember original headline on your crazy story? pic.twitter.com/z3aOtbIDMW
— Dan Gainor (@dangainor) December 6, 2014
Why did @ZerlinaMaxwell downgrade Belief Settings from "Automatic" to "Generally?" Is she a witch? pic.twitter.com/OhgNv7rak1
— FilmLadd (@FilmLadd) December 6, 2014
Here are some of the better tweets about the piece:
.@LilMissRightie Zerlina Maxwell is all about ignoring facts when it suits her: pic.twitter.com/yxCHuO4Mi5
— neontaster (@neontaster) December 6, 2014
I wonder what @ZerlinaMaxwell would say if a woman accused her of rape? Should we Automatically Believe™? @LilMissRightie @AdamBaldwin
— FilmLadd (@FilmLadd) December 6, 2014
As @ZerlinaMaxwell and others are demonstrating, Twitter provides a service: it allows you to find out which journalists believe in truth.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) December 6, 2014
What if everybody started accusing @ZerlinaMaxwell of rape? By her logic, her Facebook will suffer, but she'll otherwise be fine.
— Dr. Kankokage (@kankokage) December 6, 2014
https://twitter.com/Matthops82/status/541260970236993536
Shorter @ZerlinaMaxwell : Who cares if a guy is falsely accused of rape bc the dude bro may lose a friend on Facebook. Meh. No biggie.
— LMR (@LilMissRightie) December 6, 2014
Hi @ZerlinaMaxwell just in case you're avoiding the comments in that piece of garbage you wrote today, Preview: Ppl think you are INSANE.
— LMR (@LilMissRightie) December 6, 2014
The @ZerlinaMaxwell is a lawyer? I want to know what cereal box she got her little degree from.
— Súper (@SuperAndrea) December 6, 2014
https://twitter.com/GOPMommy/status/541265019778781184
https://twitter.com/TMZ_Politics/status/541271792372166656
.@ZerlinaMaxwell : Why did u change your article's headline from "automatically believe" to "generally believe"?
— A.J. Delgado (@AJDelgado13) December 6, 2014
https://twitter.com/Neal_Dewing/status/541275686758277120
Atticus Finch weeps. RT @dangainor: Hey @ZerlinaMaxwell. remember original headline on your crazy story? pic.twitter.com/90sjyWaajg
— CNN Is Hitler (@NolteNC) December 6, 2014
Stuff like this is a good example of why @ZerlinaMaxwell is a law school graduate but not a member of the bar. pic.twitter.com/o7iouO9Z8d
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 6, 2014
America was founded on rule of law. Left wants to throw that out for whatever feels good at the time. @ZerlinaMaxwell
— Dan Gainor (@dangainor) December 6, 2014
And this is no exaggeration, she is literally saying that someone accused of rape faces few consequences, so these claims should be accepted without scrutiny:
Many people (not least UVA administrators) will be tempted to see this as a reminder that officials, reporters, and the general public should hear both sides of the story and collect all the evidence before coming to a conclusion in rape cases. This is what we mean in America when we say someone is “innocent until proven guilty.” After all, look what happened to the Duke lacrosse players.
In important ways, this is wrong. We should believe, as a matter of default, what an accuser says. Ultimately, the costs of wrongly disbelieving a survivor far outweigh the costs of calling someone a rapist. Even if Jackie fabricated her account, UVA should have taken her word for it during the period while they endeavored to prove or disprove the accusation.
I wonder if she believes that all white women’s rape allegations against blacks should be automatically believed? And is this what “equality” means, that women will be believed over men?
Yeah that’s kinda stupid.
*As was pointed out on Twitter, Zerlina isn’t a lawyer yet, as I had originally written.