Originally a comment by Rob on Concealing a rape for social justice.

The saddest thing of all is that a young girl has been raped. The manner of her rape, the fact it was in a place where she was vulnerable and should have been safe just makes things worse.

The whole awful saga gives us a lot to unpick about the current state of American society especially, but I suspect about all societies.

The fact that the rape was a non-story at all until the father being arrested became a right-wing cause. The fact that the school and Board administrations either attempted a cover-up and/or didn’t properly communicate something so seriously between them. The fact that the Board Chair either lied or stated as fact something he didn’t know. The fact that an activist felt empowered in a public meeting to accuse the rape victim of lying (presumably without any evidence at all).

The fact the understandably angry father was the one treated as being in the wrong and arrested to boot. The fact that the USAG just assumed the fathers arrest was related to anti-vax protests and used him as an example of ‘terrorist’ behaviour. The fact that the alleged rapist was shuffled off to another school without a safety plan that prevented him raping another girl under similar circumstances. In fact, I wonder if there are only two victims. Sodomy and violent oral sex seem kind of deep end for a first timer, but maybe?

Lastly, given the nature of the rape(s), I would put money on the boy being a habitual consumer of quite nasty hard-core porn, the freely available existence to minors of which causes me considerable concern. I suspect people often hardwire to their early arousal experiences. If those come about from watching hard-core non-consensual simulated rape/non-consensual porn, rather than consensual fumbling with a similarly aged partner – it’s begging for trouble at some point. I’m sure there are other things we could pick out of this. It just screams of a society that is becoming increasingly dysfunctional.