Welp. That's it, folks. After damn near- holy nuts- six years, I've got to say goodbye to the Big Orange. Some of you may recognize me as one of the few admitted conservatives that lurk hereabouts. Those of you who do recognize that know the reason I do is because I've found, generally, I can get a better look at the issues with less bias than some mainstream news media sites- and certainly more intellectual honesty, the pursuit of which got me permabanned from RedState and their ilk.
So I've made it a point to stop by at least once a day every day for the last six years. But now in the wake of the turmoil and commentary over the now-discredited story published by Rolling Stone on the "rape culture" at UVA has made me feel disgusted, naive, and- ultimately- feel the need to pack it in here.
If you want to skip out here, I guess we can both share in the infamous words of Curly Bill- well, bye. Otherwise, feel free to hear me out.
I come here to groan at the inability of most of my ideological brethren foam at the mouth, trying to rationalize the news of the day into their worldview, rather than the other way around. Sure, occasionally, I've had to roll my eyes at something I found particularly "libby", but not for the most part. The few times I've participated in conversations around here, I find that, while there's plenty of troglodytes here who would just as soon permaban someone, or hide-rate them into oblivion, for not toeing the ideological party line, they're few and far between. Even if they disagree, most of the folks around here engage you, instead of attack.
Then, the Rolling Stones article broke about rape at UVA.
Now, the old-timers around here who know me might remember one of my first forays here was, in the wake of the MyDD/DailyKos wars of '08, to find Kossacks who lived in Charlottesville. I'd been accepted to UVA, and I had to move my eight-month old daughter and I hundreds of miles to set up in a place where I had no support structure, no friends, nothing. I wrote here about struggling to get by, especially as the recession hit full-bore, and the Kossacks here were more than understanding- I got offered money, food, and, more importantly, emotional support- the latter of which I accepted gratefully.
The University took a shot on me. I was a non-traditional student, single parent with bad grades. I was one small financial catastrophe, broken-down car, sick kid away from complete disaster. You're required to have insurance to go to UVA, but I only had enough to buy a catastrophic coverage plan for my daughter on the private market at the time, which I know now was almost as bad as nothing at all- I blew thousands of dollars for a sheet of paper, and could've been kicked out for not having health insurance. There were legions of "better choices" than me.
But they- and it wasn't just one person, either, it was a panel of them on the admissions committee, I've come to find out now- took a shot on me. And gave me the support I needed to not only graduate, but on the Dean's List both semesters of 4th year. I could go on and on about how much of an opportunity I got, but, suffice it to say, the University made me who I am today, gave me the tools I needed to succeed, and I owe them a debt that I can never repay.
So imagine my feelings when I read the Rolling Stones article. There were tears in my eyes. So many different things at one; complete horror and disgust over what had happened, shock at how it could have happened at my university, Mr. Jefferson's university. Anger at the author, too, initially- implicating I was a blond rape-enabler and that a respectful reverence of Thomas Jefferson, a guy who used to effectively take a sharpie to the Bible to fix parts he thought didn't make sense, and who said "We need a public university that WON'T teach divinity in this country", was disdainful at best. Incredible anger outright at the author for dismissing outright the Hoos Got Your Back and Take Back the Night initiatives we've been working on at UVA, or at quoting verses from the song "From Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill" that nobody's ever heard of before.
Now, I'm not a fan of the fraternity system- I can admit that fully. But I try to live by the axiom, judge not lest ye be judged. I've never been in a fraternity, so I try not to pass judgement on them because I never went through it. I had to work my way as a single dad through UVA, and I'd watch the kids who'd never worked a hard day in their lives, mommy and daddy buy 'em a house and a Lexus as "get into UVA" presents, or they're just shopping to be a trophy wife (too many in my program that way, unfortunately). Entitled, because they've never been told "no" ever in their entire life (though, to be fair, there's too many kids these days that fit that description). And the one time I got convinced, over my objections I was way too old for that bullshit, to go to a fraternity party, showed up to find a trashcan full of punch and coke out on the table. But that's not ALL of the fraternities, and it's not JUST UVA that does that, and it's not even a sizable minority of our University. And, like I said, that sort of entitlement and such goes beyond just fraternities and UVA. It's a broader cultural problem. So I can roll my eyes at all that, and still be honest how I feel, and not rush to pass judgment.
Still, I wanted to figure out what was going on, and fix it- but to read some of the folks around here, damn. We now know that Miss Rubin-Erdly and her editors at Rolling Stone were shopping for a narrative, and found the one they want, and wanted it so bad they could taste it. It had everything they wanted, to take down an elite, southern university that, in Miss Rubin-Erdly's own words, didn't have a "thriving feminist movement to take down the patriarchy". And, even more disgusting, they used a girl who obviously had some real trauma happen to her, but blindsided her into being a part of an AGENDA to make this about taking down an institution, rather than finding her help. Miss Rubin-Erdly even admits fully she passed on at least several other "rape" stories from other colleges, including her own alma mater, because they didn't fit the narrative she wanted to push. I mean... for real! Admitted it outright!
I constantly hear around here- and agree completely- with the disgust at the Republicans' notion that the government is broke, so we should completely destroy it and shut it down to prove it. I keep hearing around here, yeah, there's things wrong, but overall it's a good thing, and we need to FIX it, make it work better. But I heard no such sentiment towards UVA. Anyone who went or goes there is a rape-enabler, and especially anyone who tries to defend it or ask questions, and it should be, in the words of one poster here, "burned to the ground". Just like Rolling Stone, they wanted it so bad, no matter the cost.
They told me about my University, and it's culture, even though they'd never been here or knew anything about it until the story came out. I was told how disgusting I was for supporting a university whose "official song" carried the lyrics in the Rolling Stones article (which is the equivalent of RedState or Free Republic or Drudge Report finding a diary written on DailyKos by some nutjob who has two comments and one rec in his diary, and plastering it on their front page, screaming "HERE'S PROOF LIBERALS WANT TO EAT BABIES"). This has taken such ridiculous proportions that I even saw a feminist activist and actress from Los Angeles favorite tweets from a WHITE SUPREMACIST because he (probably sarcastically) was tweeting things at the president of the University. Now, to be fair, those sorts of people are probably just engaging in drive-by support of an issue, and don't really give a damn- but she, and people like her, are trying to find ways to make it be real. Ignoring that the "friends" quoted are aghast at how they're displayed, that they weren't told what had happened from "Jackie" like it was written in the RS story, that the story changed, etc, etc.
The consensus at UVA now is that, indeed, something happened to "Jackie". I don't think anyone denies that seriously, or doubts it- very few serious people think she just made everything up from whole cloth. Something happened to this poor girl, so she went to those PTSD forums, to try and get help, and she managed to say something to the UVA student activist, Emily Renda, who shared her story with Sabrina Rubin-Erdly- and "Jackie" wanted to fit in, the story snowballed, and then when Jackie saw what it had become and tried to kill it, she was told, NO. YOU CAN'T GO BACK. IT'S TOO LATE.
What a disgusting human being, the reporter. But she had her story, it fit every single possible narrative she could find. She passed up more concrete rape stories, including at her own alma mater, about REAL people who NEED HELP to find one that fit her narrative! She even victimized "Jackie" once again in the process, in her rush to file a story.
What's more is that it's beginning to come to light that the University, the Elson Student Health Center, and her friends made multiple reports to each other and/or the Charlottesville Police Department, but that Jackie wouldn't do anything official about it. That's pretty definitive, from what I've heard, and too many people are seizing on that point as if to say, see, she's making it all up. Which is, of course, ridiculous- not wanting to involve the police and relive all the trauma doesn't mean someone is lying. But it even further kills the narrative of an uncaring southern university where the reputation of the institution is paramount.
And that's what I'm stunned by now. The sources I used to consider reliable, if left-leaning, are so upset the story is not matching their narrative anymore rather than being upset at what happened or how it came out. That's WHY I came here, because that was what was different from Kos than other places. I might find the libbiest libs that ever libbed here, but by God, they were intellectually HONEST.
I don't come to Kos as much as I used to; incrementally, I've been turned off as things around here have moved from an intellectually honest but left point of view, to a counterpoint to the right. I've seen Kos himself argue that's what should happen- the Right gets away with all that bullshit, this needs to be the yin to their yang.
This pretty much just breaks it. And it's not just Kos, of course; Rolling Stone now, too, Gawker Media, etc. But those places never held as much weight for me as DailyKos did.
Take my "consensus" from the campus with as much salt as you'd like. I think that'll ultimately be the final story, but feel free to call BS on it as much as you like. The saddest part is, now, that "Jackie" is probably never going to get the help she needs, and people with legitimate problems are only going to find it that much harder to find the help.
I guess my parting point is, don't take the bait. It'd be easy to go the path of the right, and devolve the dialogue and a rhetoric to the point where, as Lewis Black says, we're essentially just dogs barking at each other in the night. But don't. Come back from that. People need somewhere to go where people CHALLENGE their own biases, rather than cater to them. Otherwise, stuff like this happens.
It's been real, ya'll. Peace out.