# I pit Ms. Tara Reade for putting our country through this **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020 "2020-05-02T14:46:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/221 "2020-05-09T19:30:29Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/222 "2020-05-09T19:37:45Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Twenty years from now, when your **son is dating a black women and the raid his house and test the sheets and arrest him for miscegenation** and throw him in jail, please remember how you helped Tara Reade. When your other son is **caught in a homosexual act and executed** I could say a lot of things, but…come on. Let’s keep things non-crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/223 "2020-05-09T19:50:46Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I could say a lot of things, but…come on. Let’s keep things non-crazy. Actually, **Velocity** , absolutely nothing against you, but I feel the need to stick up for **Ann Hedonia** on this one. While I don’t think what she described is THAT likely to happen, I do believe that there are plenty of mainstream republicans who would love to see it happen. I remember the flag burning amendment almost passing back in the day. I remember the PATRIOT Act and the kinds of things that caused me to switch parties in the aughts. It’s good to keep how bad things can get in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/224 "2020-05-09T20:01:08Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s definitely easy for comfortable white people to know everything’s going to be okay… but for those folks who don’t have that privilege, maybe they might be a bit scared of several more years of policies that could result in their suffering or even death, and that of those they care about. No. Not even going to entertain this childishness with you. **Ann Hedonia’s** post was a catastrophizing fantasy, totally unconnected to anything that’s actually going on in the real world. It’s masochistic identitarian persecution pornography. I’ve got no time for it, and anyone who does isn’t worth taking seriously. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/225 "2020-05-09T20:06:35Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > No. Not even going to entertain this childishness with you. **Ann Hedonia’s** post was a catastrophizing fantasy, totally unconnected to anything that’s actually going on in the real world. It’s masochistic identitarian persecution pornography. I’ve got no time for it, and anyone who does isn’t worth taking seriously. Yeah, bigotry, misogyny, and a lack of access to health care are such fantasies… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/226 "2020-05-09T20:12:12Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Fuck off. **Ann Hedonia’s** post was weapons grade crazy. It’s the SDMB equivalent of right wing Facebook spam warning all Good Christian Folk that if the Democrats win in November they’ll be bribing lesbian welfare queens to abort their toddlers by Christmas. Just 100% batshit crazy nonsense. It’s only crazy if you take her literally, consult your horoscope, and try to figure the exact dates when her prophesies will materialize. She’s simply pointing out that voters have a choice: they can do things that make Trump’s behavior more or less likely to happen, and that there are really negative consequences if Trump and McConnell are in power this time next year. She’s not wrong. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/227 "2020-05-09T20:13:20Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Yeah, bigotry, misogyny, and a lack of access to health care are such fantasies… :rolleyes: But they _are_ fantasies – for Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/228 "2020-05-09T20:17:15Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Yeah, bigotry, misogyny, and a lack of access to health care are such fantasies… :rolleyes: Are you trolling me? **Ann Hedonia** told **Linty Fresh** that the return of anti-miscegenation laws was a logical consequence of their decision to stick up for Tara Reade; that people would be executed for being gay and that it’s Tara Reade’s defenders who’d be to blame. That’s crazy, and you _know_ it’s crazy. If you truly believe that America can go from nearly nominating Pete Buttigieg for President in 2020, to stringing him up in the town square like a Taliban warlord in 2024 if Trump wins, then - and, sincerely, I cannot stress this enough - _you are fucking mental_. But you’re not mental. And you don’t really believe this could happen. So what are you playing at? Why are you trying to deliberately sanitize what **Ann Hedonia** said? Why are you trying to substitute the actual, specific crazy things she predicted with vaguer and more nebulous concepts that are harder to pin down? What’s in it for you? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/229 "2020-05-09T20:20:13Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Are you trolling me? **Ann Hedonia** told **Linty Fresh** that the return of anti-miscegenation laws was a logical consequence of their defending Tara Reade; that people would be executed for being gay and that it’s Tara Reade’s defenders who’d be to blame. That’s crazy, and you _know_ it’s crazy. If you truly believe that America is going to go from nearly nominating Pete Buttigieg for President in 2020, to stringing him up in the town square like a Taliban warlord in 2024 then - and, sincerely, I cannot stress this enough - _you are fucking mental_. But you’re not mental. And you don’t really believe this could happen. So what are you playing at? Why are you trying to deliberately sanitize what **Ann Hedonia** said? Why are you trying to substitute the actual, specific crazy things she predicted with vaguer and more nebulous concepts that are harder to pin down? What’s in it for you? She was using hyperbole to make a rhetorical point. And according to some of the polling I’ve seen, lots of those awful things really are pretty popular among Trump supporters. A black guy just got lynched in Georgia, and if it wasn’t on tape, probably nothing would happen to his killers (hell, even with it on tape, nothing may happen to his killers). We’re not nearly so far from this awful stuff as you seem to think. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/230 "2020-05-09T20:59:56Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > She was using hyperbole to make a rhetorical point. That’s just your interpretation. _My_ interpretation, which has the benefit of being drawn from the words she actually chose to use, is that **Ann Hedonia** genuinely thinks that being gay will become a capital crime if Donald Trump wins re-election in November. Furthermore, this won’t be the fault of Donald Trump, or his supporters, or Russian trolls, or the DNC, or anyone else. No. It’ll be the fault of people who want Tara Reade’s complaint to be properly investigated. That’s Q-Anon level crazy logic. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > And according to some of the polling I’ve seen, lots of those awful things really are pretty popular among Trump supporters. Really? I’d be very interested to see these polls which show that Trump supporters want gay people to be executed by the state. Do you have them to hand? > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > A black guy just got lynched in Georgia, and if it wasn’t on tape, probably nothing would happen to his killers (hell, even with it on tape, nothing may happen to his killers). That’s a horrible crime. And it seems to very nearly have been a miscarriage of justice. But if you’re trying to spin my objections to **Ann Hedonia’s** fever dream as some kind of denial of the existence of racism then you can just stop wasting your time. It’s not denying racism to point out that **Ann** is full of shit. Her paranoid fantasies aren’t related to anything that’s actually happening in the real world today. There’s no anti-miscegenation movement vying for political influence. The government hasn’t been infiltrated by Iranian Mullahs. Saying these things will happen if Donald Trump wins is just left-wing glurge, and it’s functionally and factually indistinguishable from its right-wing equivalent that the trans-rights movement wants to turn your Kindergartner into a lady-boy. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > We’re not nearly so far from this awful stuff as you seem to think. We’re a thousand light years from it. Stop feeding her paranoia. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/231 "2020-05-09T21:14:19Z")
Returning our regular news … Ms. Reade’s lawyer contributed to the Trump campaign. [https://time.com/5834049/tara-reade-biden-lawyer/](https://time.com/5834049/tara-reade-biden-lawyer/) ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/232 "2020-05-09T21:27:44Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Returning our regular news … > Ms. Reade’s lawyer contributed to the Trump campaign. > [https://time.com/5834049/tara-reade-biden-lawyer/](https://time.com/5834049/tara-reade-biden-lawyer/) I’m sure that was just a kick-back of some of the money given them by prior agreement. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/233 "2020-05-09T21:33:11Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > Really? I’d be very interested to see these polls which show that Trump supporters want gay people to be executed by the state. Do you have them to hand? The % that wants to criminalize homosexuality for the whole country is around 30%. [LGBTQ+ Rights | Gallup Historical Trends](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1651/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx) I couldn’t find a partisan breakdown in this poll, but it’s ticked up very recently. I think it’s reasonable to suppose that most of those are Trump supporters. > [@](#): > > That’s a horrible crime. And it seems to very nearly have been a miscarriage of justice. But if you’re trying to spin my objections to **Ann Hedonia’s** fever dream as some kind of denial of the existence of racism then you can just stop wasting your time. It’s not denying racism to point out that **Ann** is full of shit. Her paranoid fantasies aren’t related to anything that’s actually happening in the real world today. There’s no anti-miscegenation movement vying for political influence. The government hasn’t been infiltrated by Iranian Mullahs. Saying these things will happen if Donald Trump wins is just left-wing glurge, and it’s functionally and factually indistinguishable from its right-wing equivalent that the trans-rights movement wants to turn your Kindergartner into a lady-boy. No, both sides are not the same. Supposing that increasing bigotry, misogyny, and hatred might continue to increase, and could cause death and sufferin,g seems like a pretty damn appropriate fear to me. > [@](#): > > We’re a thousand light years from it. Stop feeding her paranoia. The way to make sure the Holocaust never happens again is to recognize that it could happen, and vigilance is needed to make sure it doesn’t. Insisting that it’s “a thousand light years” away sounds like a method to fail to see it coming at all. I don’t think we’re close, but we’re significantly less far than I would have thought a few years ago. There is a really, really ugly part of America, and it’s many tens of millions of people. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/234 "2020-05-09T21:42:25Z")
> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#): > > That’s just your interpretation. _My_ interpretation, which has the benefit of being drawn from the words she actually chose to use, is that **Ann Hedonia** genuinely thinks that being gay will become a capital crime if Donald Trump wins re-election in November. Furthermore, this won’t be the fault of Donald Trump, or his supporters, or Russian trolls, or the DNC, or anyone else. No. It’ll be the fault of people who want Tara Reade’s complaint to be properly investigated. That’s Q-Anon level > > We’re a thousand light years from it. Stop feeding her paranoia. It was a little hyperbolic and gay execution was over the top, but everything else in my post describes situations that happened and laws that were enforced DURING MY LIFETIME. And apparently I got your attention. We are not 1000 light years away from it, we left everything I described (except the gay execution stuff ) behind less than 60 years ago. I remember when miscegenation was illegal. I remember when marital rape was legal and there are still marital exceptions in some states rape laws. And why they didn’t execute gays they arrested, prosecuted and jailed plenty of them, and even entrapped them. I also remember when crime of passion was a legal defense for murder, meaning “she really pissed me off when she looked at that other guy” made it OK legally. I remember every job I didn’t get because the interviewer said “The guys here are old-fashioned and don’t like the idea of working with a woman”. And I remember the college professor that told me that there was no way in hell he was giving straight A’s to a woman that wouldn’t sleep with him, his exact words. At best, the anti-discrimination laws meant these guys had to stop saying the quiet part outloud. Maybe I was over the top but I appreciate what we have now because I know what it like to live without it. And I know there are powerful forces now working to fill the courts with religious conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/235 "2020-05-09T23:06:58Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The way to make sure the Holocaust never happens again is to recognize that it could happen, and vigilance is needed to make sure it doesn’t. Insisting that it’s “a thousand light years” away sounds like a method to fail to see it coming at all. I don’t think we’re close, but we’re significantly less far than I would have thought a few years ago. There is a really, really ugly part of America, and it’s many tens of millions of people. Amen, brother. “It can’t happen here” has always been fantasy. It can happen wherever a large enough and powerful enough plurality can be persuaded that the “others” are a threat that must be dealt with. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/236 "2020-05-09T23:07:31Z")
> [@Running\_with\_Scissors](#): > > Comparing the Kavanaugh issue to Biden is a false equivalency for a couple of reasons. Before his supreme court nomination, almost nobody had heard of him, so Ms. Ford did not have as much of a reason to come forward, and if Kavanaugh had not been confirmed, the Pubbies would have come up with another conservative justice instead. You have a short memory. The Kavanaugh hearings were months before the midterms and It wasn’t clear at the time the Republicans were going to retain the Senate majority. Had the Democrats delayed Kavanaugh’s confirmation long enough and had they also flipped the Senate they’d have way more leverage with _any_ Supreme Court nominee. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/237 "2020-05-10T00:23:59Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > “It can’t happen here” has always been fantasy. It can happen wherever a large enough and powerful enough plurality can be persuaded that the “others” are a threat that must be dealt with. That’s right. We know that somewhere around 30% of Americans approve of discrimination against the groups Ann Hedonia described. We know, further, that a large proportion of them have no objection to violence against those groups: look at the border camps; the support for police who gun down unarmed black men; the lack of outcry from that part of the population when transgender or gay people are assaulted. There was nothing remotely “crazy” about the projections Ann Hedonia posted. And as to whether support for Tara Reade is reasonably implicated in giving Trump’s right the chance to move toward those things: of course it is. Anything that keeps someone from voting for the likely Democratic candidate is implicated in empowering the authoritarian right (in the form of Trump). ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/238 "2020-05-10T00:31:08Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > Amen, brother. “It can’t happen here” has always been fantasy. It can happen wherever a large enough and powerful enough plurality can be persuaded that the “others” are a threat that must be dealt with. It’s worse than that. You don’t even have to persuade a plurality to your side. All you need is enough people to not mind very much, or even better yet – fear those who are persuaded. That is the goal of every one of those assholes who showed up armed to the teeth at the Michigan state house. They weren’t interested in exercising 2nd A rights. They were interested in intimidation and gathering enough like minded people to their side. If they succeed, brown shirted marches and nazi style pogroms are not a far walk. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/239 "2020-05-10T00:55:54Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > It’s worse than that. You don’t even have to persuade a plurality to your side. All you need is enough people to not mind very much, or even better yet – fear those who are persuaded. > > That is the goal of every one of those assholes who showed up armed to the teeth at the Michigan state house. They weren’t interested in exercising 2nd A rights. They were interested in intimidation and gathering enough like minded people to their side. If they succeed, brown shirted marches and nazi style pogroms are not a far walk. Today I saw them described as “ammosexuals.” Not sure if they’d like that, or not. (They shouldn’t, of course. It’s not intended as a compliment.) ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020/240 "2020-05-10T01:08:43Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Today I saw them described as “ammosexuals.” > > Not sure if they’d like that, or not. (They shouldn’t, of course. It’s not intended as a compliment.) I do hope Cleatus, Billy Bob and Trey see the photoshopped pictures of themselves holding huge dildos. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-ms-tara-reade-for-putting-our-country-through-this/853020.md?page=13)