Sexual assault on campus is a genuine problem—but
the new rape culture crusade is not the answer.
That's coming up next on the factual feminist.
Now watch these protesters shout down a speaker. 
The speaker—a left-leaning "anarchist"
concerned about police over-reach had once
defended the idea of due process for those
accused of sexual assault. The rape culture
activists were having none of it. They may
think of their movement as progressive and
world-improving. In reality, it's just the
opposite. Professors at Oberlin, Rutgers,
UCSB they've been been urged to place "trigger
warnings" on class syllabi because they have
books like the Great Gatsby—Or Things Fall
Apart— which contain misogynist violence.
Students at Boston University have demanded
that a Robin Thicke concert be cancelled:
His hit song, "Blurred Lines," is supposedly
a rape anthem. Meanwhile, the list of schools
being sued for their horrific mistreatment
of falsely accused young men is growing. Presumed
guilty is the new legal principle where sex
is concerned. This movement will not help
victims, but it will turn our campuses into
hostile environments for free speech and for
due process. It's already happening. And so
far, university officials, political leaders,
the White House they're siding with the mob.
What is going on? It appears that we are in
the throes of one of those panics where paranoia,
censorship, false accusations flourish—and
otherwise sensible people abandon their critical
facilities. We are not facing anything as
extreme as the Salem Witch Trials or the McCarthy
inquisitions. But today campus rape culture
movement bears striking similarities to a
panic over daycare centers in the 1980s. In
August 1983, an anguished mother called the
police and reported that her 2-year old son
had been horrifically abused in the McMartin
preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.
She described a network of underground tunnels
where school staff had sodomized her child
and forced him to watch animal sacrifices.
The mother was mentally disturbed and her
story had no basis in reality. But the news
media seized upon it, and paranoia about Satanic
Cults became a national epidemic. Parents
were on edge too because advocacy groups,
had been telling them that as many as 50,000
children had been abducted by strangers. As
news of the McMartin barbarity spread, a national
network of abuse-therapists promptly materialized,
and they used these intimidating interview
techniques to implant false memories of abuse
in children. These abuse therapists were joined
by an influential group of conspiracy-minded
feminists, including Gloria Steinem and Catharine
MacKinnon. Now there were some fantastic civil
libertarian feminist who tried to blow the
whistle on this witch hunt, they were vilified
by the conspiracy caucus as backlashers, or
child abuse apologists. Today's college rape
panic is an eerie recapitulation of the daycare
abuse scare. Once again, the hysteria is incited
by the constantly repetition of a fictitious
statistic in this case the claim that "one-in-five
women on campus is a victim of rape." Once
again, conspiracy feminists are at the forefront
of this movement. Just as feminist psychologists
persuaded children that they had been abused,
so feminist activists have persuaded many
young women that a foolish druken hookup was
actually a felony rape. Some people say that
these moral panics, while overblown, they
do call attention to serious problems. This
is deeply mistaken. The hysteria about daycare
abuse and campus rape it confuses and discredits
genuine cases of abuse and violence. Molestation
and rape are horrific crimes that warrant
serious attention and vigorous response. Panics
breed chaos and mob justice. Please let me
know if you have any ideas on what we can
do to stem this rape culture panic. I welcome
comments and suggestions. And if you find
this video useful, please share it and subscribe
to the series. And follow me on Twitter. Thank
you for watching the Factual Feminist.
