How many women would have to claim a candidate for American President or sitting President sexually assaulted them but with no evidence before most voters start believing some if not all of them?

The key word is “no evidence”
No evidence means you can’t draw a reasoned conclusion.
If your conclusion is not reasoned, it is capricious.
Would you want to be on the wrong side of judgement based on caprice?

Almost 100%. People in general have a mob mentality. If the person seems to be guilty, string ‘em up!

@kritiper
That’s the spirit!
The new Dark Ages!

@mazingerz88 You said it yourself, “no evidence” That’s a mic drop moment there.

Problem is this shit happens in private so there are no witnesses. A rape kit test can be administered but even if the DNA matches the accused it can’t really be seen as compelling evidence.

Sexual assault cases by their very nature aren’t going to have much, if any, evidence to examine. It’s just the word of the accuser against the accused. So all you can do is look at the accuser’s credibility and even then there may be no clear conclusion. It’s a mess.

@josie “The new Dark Ages”?? Hell, it’s always been that way! People still jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts or both sides of a story.
And we call ourselves “civilized”...

“Even if the DNA matches the accused” ..... No. That is compelling evidence. This is why it is critical to report any event like this. Every. Single. Time.

No, it’s not @ARE_you_kidding_me. It just proves they had sex. It doesn’t prove forced sex.

I don’t think it’s about the number of accusers, but how believable they are, which sadly has too much to do with how the megacorporate media portrays the stories.

Most voters?

Speaking for myself, it only takes one credible accuser. If Biden’s the (D) nominee, it looks like we get our choice of credibly-accused sexual predators for president. Yay “democracy”!

With “no evidence”, it is an allegation. I could claim you sexually assaulted me…does that make it true? I could create a really convincing story to go with it if you like. But in a court of law, it really comes down to my word against yours. And unfortunately, sexual assault allegations have been politically weaponized so trying to prove an old case against a politician is tough. The defense that it is a political ploy will always come into play. Timing has a lot to do with it as well. If the “victim” has been silent for 10, 20, 30 years and never said a word about it and then, suddenly, when the accused is in a heated political race the allegation comes to light, it looks suspicious as well. And to many people, the more publicity surrounding these claims, the more it looks just like a smear tactic.

@seawulf575 You have near-zero credibility, and no connection to me, so no. You apparently also have little or no ability to accurately assess the credibility of others, so I guess that’s why you’re so lost in this conversation, rather than intentionally being offensive?

@Dutchess_lll True, but it does add to the credibility of the accuser somewhat if there is something. I believe it is so important to report any events like this or the few perpetrators will keep getting away with it over and over.

@Zaku I’m not aware I was addressing your comment. I was responding to the original question. As for having no credibility, that is an interesting statement. On these pages I have every bit as much credibility as you. Maybe more since I am looking at fairness and not emotion. I would love to see sexual predators put away until the sun rises in the west, but I don’t want to give in to mob mentality. Now, other than a personal attack, do you really have any pertinent response to my comment or are you just spouting?

@seawulf575 I was responding to your comment directly above mine, which followed mine. But if you were responding to the OP, I assume it’s equally true that you have no relationship to them, whereas the women accusing Biden of assault did have relationships or contact with him, and are credible.

So you accusing anyone on Fluther of rape, that you have no contact with and don’t even know who they are, and are anonymous and male and have nothing to lose since you’re just being annoying not serious, has less than zero credibility.

And carrying on like this repeatedly on rape threads seems like pretty offensive behavior to me. Rape “skepticism” on public forums isn’t helping anything, except exposing the terrible state of too many people’s thinking on the subject.

https://medium.com/@leonardosantoro_39961/joe-biden-has-been-credibly-accused-of-rape-the-public-response-has-been-appalling-f678433ccf98

I never reported my attackers @AreYouKidding. It was too embarassing and they’d blame me for it anyway. I was asking for it, they’d say.

@Zaku My point is that just because an accusation is made does not mean it is factual. That is not how our justice system works and is not how a sane country would do things. If it were then any accusation, even me making one about someone on here, would be proof enough and that person would be guilty until proven innocent. And as much as you might not like it, unless there is something more than a claim…some evidence or corroboration…it is just wrong to assign guilt. And the original question stated there was “no evidence”. So me making a claim against someone on these pages holds just as much credibility as any other claim that has “no evidence”. Silly, isn’t it?
And none of this is to say I am supporting the sexual predators over the victims…I’m just not supporting the victims when there is nothing to back them up other than a claim.

Take Bill Cosby as an example.

Because he was vocally anti-Obama, and against irresponsible gang youth culture infiltrating the African American community, I was assuming the first six or seven accusations were political. But after eight accusations, and that the assaults were at the Playboy mansion at the height of Cosby’s pro-family image career, I began to have my doubts and assume he very likely was guilty.

Then, I met someone who knew Cosby in the 1960s when he did filthy night-club comedy acts—and it was then that I believed all or most of the accusations,

@seawulf575 You mentioning that “just because an accusation is made does not mean it is factual” is obnoxious. First, WE KNOW. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT. The world does not need any more reminders of that. Also, most of us are extremely upset that our society allows serial sex abusers not only to not get proper justice, but to get away with it, and to hold high offices, to the point that it looks very much like the leading candidates for POTUS that we’re allowed by the two-party system to choose between, are probably both serial sex offenders. And what enables that? The kind of behavior you are indulging in here, by acting as if you’ve got some enlightened message that we need to hear.