• git [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    These rumours have been circling since 2019. It’s unclear if it’s a targeted smear campaign or if there’s truth to it as all the allegations tend to be posted on reactionary sites.

    In this case, there’s a paper trail (texts/emails) that can be used to corroborate the story. Hopefully she’s brave enough to bring this to a lawyer or an investigative journalist that can chase this up.

    Yes, it’s suspicious that a new account starts posting allegations like this but remember:

    • We should assume good faith and believe all victims in the first instance. It’s hard enough speaking up about this with the cloud of uncertainty of people doubting you always hovering over you. Remember that most women you’ve spoken to have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lives so let’s not contribute to a culture of minimising their plight, even indirectly.
    • Twitter followers/account creation date doesn’t mean jack shit in a world where you can buy pre-seeded accounts.
    • Certain details can be subpoenaed from Apple/email providers, even if the actual messages no longer exist, that would lend truth to or discredit these claims.
      • Wojackhorseman2 [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        In the last couple months we had a ton of wreckers spam it pretty regularly on the site here but mods are pretty fast

    • Luna_Les [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Believe women until it's a leftist that's accused congrats

        • Luna_Les [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I have no reasons to have a fucking alt in this place, I was told about this thread and I'm fucking disgusted

            • Luna_Les [she/her]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Just because people falsely accuse does not mean that you shouldn't believe the victim ffs, this is some reactionary type shit wtf even libs would side with the victim

                • JonathanKington [none/use name]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  I just started reading about this, what new stuff was posted that made you take it more seriously? The only newer things I can see on the twitter are a screenshot of a document and a contact page.

                    • Luna_Les [she/her]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      I mean you said you take the accusation seriously now or at least a little more seriously. So that's great, I don't have any reason to argue with you and I'm sorry if I was overly aggressive

  • MarxMadness [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Howie Hawkins had a great take on sexual misconduct accusations during the primary:

    Credible allegations of sexual assault should always be investigated with due process, no matter how rich or powerful the accused is. This shouldn't be a partisan issue - it's a question of basic justice.

    This always struck me as far better than an emphasis on believing the accusation, because accusations can be weaponized (see Alex Morse) and it's well documented that eyewitness testimony is not 100% reliable.

    • wantonviolins [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The problem there is hair-splitting over what is and is not a “credible” allegation. Some rando new twitter account making accusations doesn’t meet that threshold for a lot of people, and for many others that’s as good as a confession because they already don’t like the accused. It’s easy and effective to use a power differential to dismiss the credibility of allegations, which is why “always believe victims” is a thing in the first place.

  • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    No idea if it has anything to do with this, but it was kinda weird how he was not even mentioned on the 500th anniversary episode.

  • TankieTanuki [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Big if true.

    [he] made fun of people with autoimmune diseases

    Huh?

  • quarantine_man [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    we used Facetime a lot he said I have nice boobs once starts referring to him as "Justin" instead of "Virgil Texas" halfway through for no explicable fucking reason

    k, moving on

  • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There's too many weirdly specific details on a brand new Twitter account for this to be true. Virgil gives me the creeps, like all wonk freaks, but I'm guessing this is a subtle Channer troll. No one knows about Rebel Girl outside of internet people.

    • jabrd [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Honestly the first thing that came to mind was the /u/Beatnik allegations on this site where there were a lot of weird details given but nothing that couldn't be found just by googling around for a bit. Idk, as a sexual assault survivor myself I'm always prone to believing someone even when their story isn't the most credible just because it's hard to think straight and put together an airtight argument in a situation like this. That said, this is an allegation I've heard circling forever without ever seeing anything to back it up when you would expect there to be some which makes me think its a coordinated smear coming from some weirdo right wing online group

      • Luna_Les [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        What fucking happened to believing the victims? you guys are a bunch of limp dick hypocrites

  • FidelCashflow [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    We always knew he was a lib, but him being a libertarian is just too much.

  • Poetjustice [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I remember seeing posts about Virgil being a creep on here a few months ago. I think we should absolutely withhold judgement until more information comes out, between Beatnik and JPEGMAFIA (who a fascist 4Channer admitted to making a fake accusation), it’s best to let everything fall into place before we jump to conclusions. There’s definitely wreckers against far left personalities who want to take advantage of our stances of believing victims, esp Tara Reade, to trap us into an indefensible position

    • hauntingspectre [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Yeah, that last sentence is definitely a good point. Folks who weigh in hard for or against will have staked their reputations on this and will therefore have to fight to the metaphorical death rather than admit they're wrong.

      • Poetjustice [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yup, I already see resistance libs all over this, especially Xeni Jardin who definitely has a bone to pick with leftist podcasts after they basically outed her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after he was a known pedophile.

  • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Really rubbed me the wrong way when they made fun of people calling things "grooming" like people with different #s of twitter followers dating because like... Yeah? Even if it's a relatively niche community, someone anonymous doesn't have as much power as someone with tens of thousands of Twitter followers to back them up and assume any claims made against their favorite parasocial friend are fake or false flags or something

    • Pezevenk [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It's genuinely ridiculous to act like someone with many twitter followers dating someone without so many follower is grooming and people should really really quit this nonsense, it is very disrespectful to both parties involved and it completely trivializes the word.

      • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I didn't mean to say that the former is literally grooming, but that power imbalance isn't a non-issue and could easily be weaponized if the celebrity were to be scorned somehow

        • MazovianThought [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Felix once said on TMBS (I guess this would've been 2018ish) that he was making like $75k (can't remember if this was pretax or take-home) which is comfortable but nobody is becoming a millionaire on that kind of money, especially if they live in NYC.

        • 4zi [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          they make an average of 150k/month from patreon alone, so thats 1,650,000 annually. split by 4 thats 412,500 annually per member (not including paying editors, producers, etc.)

          this also doesnt include money from spotify (lmao), twitch, youtube, etc.

          its very likely they are millionaires but who knows for sure

          • ennuid [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I doubt they are millionaires, but they are no doubt well off. I bet they live pretty expensive lives. They would be millionaires if they lived in Ohio lol

  • RedArmor [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Didnt he allegedly marry an underage girl? I am fuzzy on the details but it’s why he uses the name Virgil Texas as a pseudonym.