The Horror of Being Eric Swalwell’s Wife Brittany Watts
Can you imagine being Brittany Watts right now? One minute you think you might be the next First Lady of California and the next you’re discovering how one, two…now SIX women have come forward to say your husband Eric Swalwell is (how shall we put this delicately to the AI censor bots?) an aggressive deflowerer wandering dick deviant freak abusosexual?
To anyone who doesn’t follow the fetid quagmire of U.S. politics: The Democratic front runner for the California governor’s race was Rep. Eric Swalwell. His political career quickly imploded this month after multiple women accused him of 🍆 misconduct. Including one former staffer who alleged he drugged and 🍆🍆🍆🍆-ed her, prompting a House Ethics investigation, the suspension of his California gubernatorial campaign, and his eventual resignation from Congress.
Swalwell, in typical FW fashion, has categorically denied the allegations. But, he did acknowledge unspecified “mistakes in judgment” in his personal life and apologized to his wife and supporters. Now, he doesn’t have many supporters thanks to pressure from both parties. And key Democratic allies have dropped him.
Yeah, yeah, enough about Eric Swalwell, Tracy. How’s our chumped wife doing?
Brittany Watts just suffered a cataclysmic D-Day in public.
Her husband’s double life (which is bad enough!) didn’t include quaint betrayals like blowjobs from interns, but Bill Cosby-, Harvey Weinstein-level criminality. So, she’s doing about as well as you’d imagine. Brittany’s probably curled up in a fetal position somewhere sobbing. Or has her feet in stirrups getting STI tested after years of presumed monogamy. Hoping whatever’s in the Petri dish isn’t HPV16.
But no one I can find is talking about her. The pressures she’s under to Stand By Your Man or publicly forgive and defend him. And for those righteously furious on her behalf, the equal pressure to immediately divorce the father of her three children. The man, who up until a few weeks ago, she probably thought hung the moon and was going to be the next governor.
Brittany, we know what it is to be whipsawed like this. Protect yourself, girlfriend. Go get those STI tests stat, and do a Pap smear for the HPV. Get the vaccine too. God only knows where that 🍆 has been. You might also consider calling Eric’s first wife and compare notes. We’re here for you.
Meanwhile…
Eric Swalwell would like to apologize for that thing he did not do.
The Universal Bullshit Translator is here to assist.
“These allegations of 🍆🍆🍆🍆 assault are flat false… they did not happen.”
I must publicly — and with the best scrunchy face of contrition I can muster — apologize for things that did not happen. They don’t exist. I also apologize for aerial wombats. And baloney flavored breakfast cereal. And the entire Kingdom of Mordor.
“I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past.”
Has my 🍆 gone off the reservation? Does it wander and show up uninvited? Did it not wear a dinner jacket? Yes, okay. But am I unique among governors?
“Those mistakes are between me and my wife… I apologize deeply.”
Surely this isn’t disqualifying! My 🍆 is just between me and my wife and perhaps 6 staffers and assorted others you haven’t discovered yet.
“deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment”
>>> 🍆 <<<<
HE DID IT. Not me!
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This is the good news- thanks to metoo, these women will be believed. Not sure if there will be the consequences he deserves- I think prison would be that- but they will be believed. 20 years ago, they’d be called all sorts of names and blamed. My favorite part of the long piece I read – CNN?- one of his victims called her situation “Stockholm syndrome “ . I screenshot that. I call it cult of one. Power imbalance, alcohol abuse, black or brown out- then- “you wanted it”. I know this man, he is everywhere, and I hope this particular version of this man gets punished and his wife, poor thing- may she be free.
There’s a chance he’ll be prosecuted and convicted. The Manhattan DA is investigating the assault that occurred in New York City in 2024. The victim apparently discussed it with various people and I believe in therapy. If I recall correctly, there was also a text message she sent at the time.
I certainly hope so.
If we truly believed women, all this nonsense about the Trump-Epstein files would be moot. We could just believe the women who were there and who have come forward about what happened on Epstein’s plane or Epstein’s island or Epstein’s ranch and who participated. But we don’t actually believe women. At least not when there’s a man who insists that he “didn’t do that” which she insists that he DID do.
Yes, thank God we’ve progressed to the side of believing women. But I think we’re still at the conventional “Surely She Must’ve Known About His Double Life” for the wife. And a certain segment will fault her for not standing by him. And it’s not just political and rightwing Christianity. Hillary still stands by Bill. I think Brittany Watts is every much of a victim as the women Swalwell assaulted. Brittany *bred* with this guy, which I doubt she would’ve if she’d known who he really was. Now that she knows, I hope she gets out soonest.
I’m thinking that all the travel he did probably helped him cover up.
100 percent she is a victim and in many ways- hopefully?- will see that she married a person who is actually a total stranger, that everything she thought he was, he wasn’t. More life changing and traumatic in some ways than just being drugged and assaulted. But all related! Abuse abounds, and all of it is coercive control, and he is all image management- his entire career is just that- a mirage, an image, of a “good man”.
I read this post and it comes right back to my observaton that all us chumps are experiencing awful things, but in slightly different ways.
I for sure wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. He didn’t j”just” cheat, he committed disgusting crimes. And it has all been exposed publicly. His poor wife, that is SO much to navigate. I cannot imagine what she must be going through.
But at least she really and truly can see she needs to get out. And look, I don’t envy her. I am more just saying that whatever “flavor” of horror we each get served up, it all comes with different shitty angles. Some chumps want the RIC to be real and work. Some get involved in a long, drawn out pick me dance. While others, like this woman, are handed this horrrible mess where sure, she knows she needs out, but then she has to deal with the public-side and the “omg WHO was I even married to?”
Yes, I just read this, from an author I have been following on Medium:
Does a Narcissist Actually Know They’re Lying? A Former Detective Answers, Joshua Mason
https://medium.com/@iamjoshmason/does-a-narcissist-actually-know-theyre-lying-a-former-detective-answers-9c30ed3be44c
Basically, he said, No, they believe themselves as they are lying. Not to get political, but I’ve always felt that is what is happening with Trump. Many of us have always seen that Trump is a terrible liar, of course. (It was a picture of me as a doctor. As Richard Pryor one joked, Are you going to believe me or your own lying eyes?) And yet there are *still* people who believe Trump.
But I think that’s what makes FWs like my own such “good liars.” There is a greater force working on them than the truth; they need to believe they are wonderful and faultless and can do no wrong. I don’t believe my FW, my adult children don’t believe him, but his own family does, and they also may never be able to see or face the truth.
I’ve thought that for a long time about Trump, that he believes his own lies. There may have been a time when he knew he was lying, but not now.
Amen.
He could lose his law license if convicted.
How will he support his kids if that happens? If he has to have a different career who will hire him? I guess CNN, (see Toobin). Is the chumped wife supposed to shoulder the entire burden? From potential First Lady to drudge in one fell swoop.
That’s why you lawyer up ASAP and get out while there’s still income and assets.
The chumps always ending up paying a high price. Most of us have paid heavy prices before DDay, at DDay and even when we wise up and leave. I’m still paying off that loan I had to take out for my 2023 divorce settlement. I lost friends, retirement, cash, my health (!!!), but I did gain a life. I hope she learns soon instead of digging in with him.
There needs to be justice in family court for these abusosexuals, intentionally inflicting emotional distress and STDs on wives and kids.
I was under the huge lie that I was loved. I lost all you did but I’m telling you..i just have to go back in time..know I was not loved but of use..and I get back on the horse no matter my losses. At 69 I left my creepy now X and except for all the losses, I have my precious self back. It is a beautiful gift to myself to say..but 2XCHUMP..I DO LOVE YOU!!
This whole story is so disturbing. I guess the lesson is that our work is never done. Abusive cheaters and r*pists will always walk amongst us and we have to be ready to see them and hold them accountable. I hope this chump finds you, CL!
In other news…
The CNN expose about the online *ape academy….
What’s being reported about Eric Swalwell is only the tip of the iceberg.
These days we’re finding out that what’s under the tip of the iceberg is commonly far, far darker and much more sinister than anyone could ever have imagined.
Looks like GIsele Pelicot’s case is far from an isolated incident.
If your partner is lying to you, the best and safest thing to do is get the heck out.
A detective once told me that you can only know another person as much as they will
let you.
You don’t know what you don’t know, and finding out your partner has a secret sexual double life is not an accidental minor flesh wound to be minimized and “gotten past.”
If you find out someone you’ve chosen as an intimate partner has a secret sexual double life, they are intentionally plunging the biggest knife in the drawer into your back while you’re not even looking, and I consider it emotionally akin to *aping you while you’re asleep.
Get the assistance you need to leave.
♥️
I haven’t been brave enough to read that article yet.
Yesterday I finished reading Pelicot’s memoir, and Monday, while I was still reading it, I also read the CNN expose. My ex had a secret sexual basement, and when I was doing the horizontal pick-me dance he was manipulating me to join him in there (I did do some things I am now ashamed I did), but reading those two accounts I thought what I went through was more than bad enough, but it could have been much worse.
THIS
What I realized from the Pelicot story and the CNN investigation of how widespread that type of assault really is is that “r*pe by deception” is on a spectrum. Though cheating falls somewhere on the “lighter” end and sedation r*pe on the darker end, the former creeps closer to the latter the more it comes with emotional abuse, coercion and gaslighting. Furthermore, the entire spectrum of betrayal trauma represents a unique type of compounded pain that most people are initially completely defenseless against.
Some of the things victims in that story said to interviewers were heart-rending but also instructive and relevant for survivors of anything that falls on that spectrum, like “You have to find something bigger than the pain or you drown in the pain.”
I hope she has friends and/or family giving her safe harbor and full privacy.Her young children are likely her priority right now and she may likely still be in a state of shock. I hope we hear from her only if and when she is ready to do so. We have no right to expect her to update the public on her trauma.
I hope she gets far away from him with her children and he gets what he deserves – a jail cell!
She must be going through hell, which is where he belongs. There are way too many of these guys, and yeah, I know NAMALT, but enough of them are so that I don’t think I could ever trust again. They don’t come equipped with warning labels. How are you supposed to know who is safe? When I found out how depraved my FW was sexually I was beyond horrified and felt like he’d been assaulting me our entire marriage. If I’d known what he was into I would never have consented, would have left him on the spot, which is why he never told me about his vile fantasy life. It doesn’t compare to this situation, where the guy actually acted out his sick fantasies, but it was awful enough. I was sleeping with the enemy for decades.
I hope Brittany finds a way to heal from this horrific trauma and divorces him ASAP.
Same OHFFS. Mine had pics of women being tortured, screaming in agony. This was commerical porn, readily available. I never wanted to even know about this level of depravity. I was sleeping with the enemy as well, and didn’t know it until he started being emotionally sadistic to me. Cops care? Nope. Family court care: don’t know yet. 10,000 showers and I will never feel clean.
Yeah, not all men are like that but are there an equivalent number of women who like to drug people unconscious and then sexually assault them? Are there the same amount of women who use their job status to force young people to sexually service them? No. There is a significant number of men who do that, or would like to, and there are far, far, far fewer women who engage in those behaviors, or would engage in them, given the opportunity.
Yep, and the number of them is significant enough that I don’t have anything to do with men in my personal life anymore. I’m not taking the chance and at my age I don’t really want a boyfriend anyway. I don’t see how having one, even a decent one, could add a lot of value to my life. He would have to be an exceptionally wonderful person and that rarest of things, a man who does not like porn. There’s no way I’m going to find that so I’d rather be alone.
It’s annoying that we have to add the silly NAMALT disclaimer when talking about this just because all too often somebody is dim enough to think we actually believe all men are r*pists.
It’s probably true that not all men are rapists, but you don’t know which ones ARE rapists until you’re in a vulnerable situation with one. Best to avoid them ALL.
Not all snake bites can kill you, but I’m not willing to take chances with them, either.
As the saying goes, not all men but (almost) always a man.
The NYT story on “Alpine Divorce” (when a man takes his wife/partner up on a mountain trail beyond her capacities and leaves her behind) yielded so many, many comments from women describing similar behavior on the part of men. A few men tried to say “Not me!” A few women made your final point, but not as well as you did. I’m remembering that saying for future use!
I read that article and was absolutely appalled.
To me, “Alpine Divorce” almost sounds like the physical equivalent to becoming a stay-at-home wife. In both cases, women are rendered so vulnerable that they have to rely on their partner for survival (literally or financially). Sadly, many men don’t appear to be trustworthy enough for that, and at least a small subset of them is probably orchestrating such situations deliberately.
I think you’re being charitable, Amelia. In some circles, a LARGE subset of men are deliberately orchestrating such situations deliberately.
That thought entered my mind. How many of those men wouldn’t have a problem with it if their wife or girlfriend had d*ed? Say from exposure or a fall. Was this a way to get rid of an inconvenient partner? I mean, maybe I’m exaggerating, but you have to wonder.
I think the possibility of the inconvenient woman dying is a feature, not a bug.
You’re not exaggerating. That’s what the term “Alpine divorce” refers to–a way to get rid of the wife. You take her up there, leave her behind (or throw her over), and hope she dies of exposure. Another variation involves boats and the ocean (“she fell overboard”).
And those of us who have been on boats in the ocean with coercive controllers or abusers have very few doubts that that guy in the Bahamas ensured that his wife had that very convenient “fall” from their dinghy and that the boat key “in her pocket” was a very convenient way to explain not reporting her “accident” for several hours.
I found some articles that were sugar-coating this phenomenon by blaming it all on poor communication and “big egos”. I believe there are some cases where the guy’s intention wasn’t to get the woman killed. Possibly some of them (especially the younger men) simply thought: “If it turns out she can’t keep up with me and my athletic goals, then she is just nothing to me.” This would be bad enough (and I totally believe such things do happen). However, I fully agree with you that some cases are probably much darker than that (while large parts of the media seem to pretend they don’t exist).
My FW is an avid cyclist. When our kids were in middle and high school, he wanted them to ride with him, buying them both bikes. They each went with him only once or twice because he would take off and leave them behind on the bike trail. We live in a city. The kids would literally be miles from home and had to find their own way back. And when told why they didn’t want to go with him anymore, he brushed it off and acted baffled. I don’t think he was trying to kill them, but he was a self-centered jerk.
Agreed!
It is horrible to deal with D-day in front of your whole world. Yes my world was smaller than hers, thousands instead of millions; but still it was my whole world. I suspect many chumps deal with it. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
I hope Brittany gets the support she needs, whether it is here, or in her own circle.
It’s my state and I’ve been following the disgusting accusations. Whether his wife knew or not, the best part of all of it is that victims are finding their voices and speaking out. (But why now and not when he first ran for public office? I dunno.) But I also know what my cheater former narc of 30 years would say about it, something snarky like, “See, everyone does it, so why do you expect ME to be any different? Everyone cheats, why make such a big deal out what I did? Who do you think you are, standing on your moral high ground?” Yup, that’s what the cheater would say to me to make me second guess my decision to divorce him and go completely no contact.
Many victims of sexual assault think they are the only victim of the perpetrator. It took until now for them to figure out it was a pattern with Swalwell.
I think it’s now because they had to find each other and build up a critical mass, and agree to all come forward together so that they’d be believed.
Though, to be honest, maybe I’m confusing this with a different sex scandal that also broke last week. It’s more depressing that there are so many that I have trouble keeping them straight.
So many, I agree. It’s a very sad world.
Spot on. The two adult male whistleblowers who set off a string of similar accusations against a predatory member of my kids’ district school staff that had allegedly happened decades earlier were “inspired” by survivors of the Penn State scandal but also needed to find each other in order not to come forward alone.
What was notable about both whistleblowers, whom I spoke to after a local mom friend invited me to join a coalition to investigate the school’s vetting system, was that both were financially successful and neither displayed obvious mental health issues despite how the past assaults haunted them. This is something both were very conscious of and which made them feel particularly responsible to come forward because their relative appearance of stability made them more difficult to discredit while other survivors might not have managed as well. Just as they predicted, their dual public disclosure was followed by a few dozen credible accusations against the same alleged perpetrator by other adult former students.
Of course r*pe apologists would argue that this kind of social cascade is a “copycat” situation but I think normal people can perfectly understand not wanting to be a lone accuser, particularly against a powerful perp.
They don’t come forward because of shame and fear. Shame has not changed sides even though it is the dream. And the fear is for a good reason- no one cares about them, and they will be ruined, like so many of the victims of Weinstein. I’m sure it took a lot of people to support them and thank God it did happen, that they felt strong enough and supported enough to tell the truth.
Women blame themselves for things that *men* did. You’re right — it will be at least a generation before the shame actually starts to change sides. We marinate our offspring in patriarchy. We were marinated in patriarchy, which leads us to believe that men are more important than women and also more believable than women. That a predator claiming innocence is more believable than and one woman — or any group of women — accusing him of being a predator. After having been on a grand jury and seeing what goes on, I would really hesitate before trying to hold a man accountable through the “justice” system.
Early on, I realized my husband was using the law as a cudgel and the courts and lawyers and the parade of specialists feeding on his chaos were complicit enablers, despite the obligatory tsk-tsk-ing and claims that the children’s well-being were foremost. I was met invariably with subtle scorn and scepticism, and he always was granted the benefit of the doubt and a sense of professional camaraderie.
It was clear to me that the lawyers, therapists, mediators, counselors, experts, and on and on all the way up, finally, to the bored, indifferent and contemptuous (towards me) judge, were happy to uphold the patriarchy and the essential lie that my husband meant well — all evidence clearly, egregiously to the contrary. In the eyes of the court, all his bad behavior was reduced and mitigated by his professional accomplishments and stature. He was one of them, who measured people’s worth in terms of cash and power.
I got my meager payout, my children’s prospects were diminished, and their father walked with a slap on the wrist. As it had been and ever shall be. I was shamed for believing there could have been any other outcome if I played nice, which I did. Not all men, sure, and we can also say, not all lawyers and divorce-industry profiteers. The courts are a tool of the patriarchy and woe betide every woman who steps foot in them believing they will be made whole. I find it hard to shake the memory of the many gloating RIC participants, gloating at my trust in them and their lip-service promises of justice and compassion, inwardly congratulating themselves for their cynicism.
After my husband was done with my usefulness and had extracted his share of cruelty, when I was prostrate and lost, came the parade of wolves that set on me and took what remained of my money and trust.
You have so eloquently described what I experienced,i weep for us both.
Disgusting predatory divorce industry vultures and patriarchy-loving judges who play God, see chump$ like taking money from a baby.
…literally taking money from babies to give to their abandoning parent! The lasting harm doesn’t come from the primary betrayal. The aftershocks of betrayal by the Switzerland people and the courts and their experts compound the damage.
We are being gaslit when we are told the children’s well-being is foremost. In my case, my husband’s right to leave his family and withhold meaningful financial support from his children was unquestioned. Accepted as inevitable and pre-ordained. How strange, that the default should be that the children and mother be left much worse off, and the single man should sail away! What a fairy tale we are told about divorce. Our patriarchal society treats children as a liability and mothers as martyred losers.
I’m sorry that happened to you.
My #2 Ex was creepy at home too, with emphasis on the word –at home. You just believe what my then -husband told me scrambling my brain into am omelet. Until.the giant DDay.
My heart goes out to public chumps who hoped for a better life.
Hmm let’s see
1. All women love me so they can’t help throwing themselves at me
2. All men do what I do
3. My FOO mother was screwed up and married 8x but I’m the golden child
4 I’m in the workforce with crazy woman and I have to control myself
5 yes I do porn but everyone is doing it as a man must
6 My dad is bipolar and I take care of him..
7 I’m hypersexual but God made me this way
8 I am not a liar
9 I am in church with you aren’t I?
10 I attend all school activities
11 I’m in the public eye and woman want me and lie about me
12 its not my fault its…..name 100 other things, people places things to blame
13 its your fault you don’t understand men
See Chump lady for the full list
My heart goes out to all new chumps who’s brains were scrambled like mine.
Scrambled or not PROTECT YOURSELF!!
Well, #4 was partially true, in that he was in the workforce with women and had to control himself. Of course, I understand that he meant #4 quite differently.
I suspect Brittany has had earlier D-days. Although I am a political junkie, not a human interest junkie (??) I believe that ‘it is known’ that he had some kind of affair with aChinese spy (or maybe she was Russian?). Anyway that was sort of out in the open. On my list of potential partners to avoid, I include musicians, actors, and politicians. God, how awful.
Swalwell allegedly roofied at least one victim so the current list of victims is likely just the tip of the iceberg. This guy probably has a trail of victims going back to high school since sedation r*ape is the earmark of serial offenders who tend to progress in their tactics and stages of violence.
At the very least, sedation r*pe shows dedication. As the CNN “r*pe academy” investigation attests, successful sedation requires “research” and is easy to get wrong either from insufficient sedation so that victims remember and can testify about assaults (as in Lonna Drewes’ case) or overdose which can lead to death.
If the allegations are as true as they seem to be, I have to wonder how compartmentalized Swalwell actually was in his double life and would be surprised if his violence didn’t spill over onto his family at times. In other words, I suspect his wife has probably been frog boiled in coercive control at the very least for years. Then again, Swalwell might have been practicing his sedation techniques on his wife.
In any case, after the daughter of BTK serial killer Denis Rader’s recent admission that– contrary to his family’s earlier claims that he never showed any signs of his evil side at home– Rader threw periodic “terrifying rages” at home, I get the feeling that coerced silence or brainwashed distortion due to “captor bonding/Stockholm syndrome” might be more common in the families of violent predators than the putative “seamlessly” compartmentalized offender.
It doesn’t seem to be that uncommon. I even wonder if this happens disproportionately among more privileged/educated people who may be less likely to resort to “regular” violence.
A few years ago, I followed a case of a man who got convicted of m*rdering his fiancée (I don’t remember the details, though). He was a healthcare worker and, apparently, had secretly sedated and r*ped women other than her. During the weeks before her death, his fiancée had started displaying inexplicable neurological symptoms. Maybe he had sedated her before, and those were either symptoms caused by recent exposure or long-term effects. I think it’s possible he killed her to cover his tracks.
It’s chilling.
I tried looking up the case but instead ran across stories about Hollywood producer David Brian Pearce who was sentenced to 146 years last year for serially drugging and raping women and “accidentally” killing two of them with fentanyl-laced cocaine.
I wonder if coroners are consistent in testing for sedatives in cases of apparent street drug or alcohol overdoses?
Especially if the likely perpetrator is privileged and considered a “good/stable husband”, a “pillar of society” etc. It’s probably far easier to argue that the victim had a secret drug habit or formerly unknown mental health issues.
Edit: Might be interesting to compare the rates of such deaths between single women and those who are living with a man.
Now you’ve got me wondering how many apparently self administered overdoses of women,resulting in d*ath,…weren’t.
Maybe the same percentage of deaths that perpetrators alleged were due to “breath play” kink or NFS (non-fatal strangulation)? https://thenewfeminist.co.uk/2025/03/we-need-to-talk-about-the-non-fatal-strangulation-epidemic-in-the-uk/
Apparently about 53% of women whose partners engaged in sexual str*angulation later killed them.
This may be controversial on this site, but it is the truth and so I type. I always want to give a balanced mindset to people who are accused of sexual misconduct because of an incident that happened 20 years ago with Dr. D. Lusional. He was accused of sexual harassment by one of our employees, who saw a lawyer to file suit. A second soon joined her. Within an hour of hearing this news for the first time I got a call from our receptionist who said to me “If my husband were the one accused I would want to know the truth”. And she went on to tell me that the first employee had talked to everyone in the office (8 women total) in order to get them to join in her lawsuit, as her lawyer said with more plaintiffs the more they would be believed. That employee told them that if they won that they would not have to work anymore, and could live off of the settlement. One of the remaining seven women decided to join her. The other 6, the receptionist informed me, were pissed off at this because the allegations were untrue, and they were all willing to testify in court, not only to the fact that he was not sexually harassing them but that the original plaintiff stated her motive for the suit as “not having to work anymore”. Before the suit could be filed the complaint was sent to the state’s labor relations office, where the claim was ruled unfounded. The lawyer at that point dropped the clients. About five years later my FW (though not a FW in this particular instance) got a call from the original complainant wherein she apologized and explained that she was in a very bad place at that time and was looking for a way out of her troubles. (I was aware of her legal, financial, and emotional problems at that time but never dreamed that she would do something so desperate.) Anyway, that is why I don’t take sides in a he said/she said situation. I have not been following this Swalwell story so Idk what proof is offered. My point in this post is that due to personal experience I don’t automatically judge based on what is said. On the other hand, victims’ stories should not be dismissed out of hand either. The truth is out there, and I want to believe. But proof, please.
Rotten apples do exist in the form of narcissistic women/female cheaters and abusers who falsely accuse for their own gain, thereby hurting the credibility of real victims everywhere. Tracy described this in her book and my fiancé lived it.
I wish there was more punishment for false allegations.
I agree with your statement, however narcissism is not the only motivating factor in false allegations. Think of McMartin Preschool, Duke University lacrosse players, Tawana Brawley, Pizzagate. All of those cases had different motivators. Those falsely accused suffer tremendous consequences, but there is no denying that real victims also suffer when they come forward with their real stories. False accusations damage our very society. (And again, I have no idea about the allegations against Swalwell, my thoughts here are not about the facts of that case.)
Deliberately false reports are between 2% and 10% of all reports. The percentage of real incidents of sexual misconduct that go unreported are considerably higher at 75%. I am not too concerned about poor, innocent men being falsely accused.
I understand what you’re saying, but the thing is that these are always he said/she said situations. Short of a video of the event, there is never going to be objective proof. So it always comes down to who is more credible. In the case you cited, the complainant was deemed not credible and that was that. False accusations of sexual misconduct are rare to begin with, so it would therefore be even more rare for a false accusation to be believed and the alleged offender punished, especially considering how few legitimate accusations result in any justice for the victim.
Thank you for writing about this Tracy.
I’ve been thinking about Ms. Watts although I didn’t know her name. How terrible it must be to find out that not only is her husband a FW, but an (alleged) r*pist.
I’m just saying “alleged” as a matter of form. I have no doubt that he’s guilty.
“You might also consider calling Eric’s first wife and compare notes”
THIS! 💯 I welcome that kind of future conversation from my FW’s current “wife.” (TL;dr – FW is currently conning her into believing they are legally married, but he actually blocked their signed marriage certificate from being filed with the magistrate during the 2020-2021 pandemic governmental office closures…)