These kinds of threads and allegations are inherently problematic because opening it up to public discourse immediately deters the conversation from the topic at hand. The topic being that Robert Neal drugged and raped a woman. The fact that he dresses like a toddler, is an egomaniac, and is/isn’t a top-tier pro are all irrelevant.
1 in 5 women in the United States experience completed or attempted rape during their lifetime. – NSVRC. 1 in 5. The biggest reason you don’t hear about victims coming forward is for exactly what’s happened in this thread. Their claims are denied, they get re-victimized, or their claims are trivialized and their character is put under attack. Ultimately SLAP isn’t the appropriate medium for this kind of conversation because it’s the online equivalent of men pissing at a trough. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be talked about, but it does require a level of tact that isn’t always going to be present.
I remember Jeff Grosso talking about SV once and somebody asking him “well, what if the victim is lying?” to which he replied, “what if they aren’t?”
I used to think the worst thing you could do to a victim was to not believe them, but I think trivializing their situation is 100 times worse. What if this was your sister, mother, daughter or friend? How would you feel? A comedic detour is a SLAP mainstay, but this and Cole’s thread definitely aren’t the place.