[user104658]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

Listen there were plenty of us abused by members for daring to doubt a gay black man who was supposed to have been attacked by trump fans

The thread was incorrectly opened and worded from the start

All the bigotry and preducise came from members in ivory towers thinking that they had to be right

Naturally there is no sight of them now

In my opinion, the argument was entirely between people with agenda-driven opinions, and no one at all would have been "abused" if (yes) the story had been reported impartially in the first place, or if the response had been a healthy detached scepticism rather than driven by incredulity.

It's the difference between;

"I'm not sure if this entirely adds up, let's wait and see how it unfolds"

and

"You're 'avin a larf aintcher??? What a load of NONSENSE!!! Definitely untrue!"

An alleged attack victim should be given the benefit of the doubt until there IS evidence that contradicts it... and as it turns out, it wouldn't have required much patience to wait for this one to start unravelling.

And I have to stand by the opinion that Alf got the ban for the spectacle he made once vindicated / the additional things he said, and not because "people couldn't handle being wrong".

I do agree though that there are certain names suddenly missing from the thread now that the narrative has changed but I don't know that there's much point harping on about that or making it a character flaw... I mean not to be too patronising but we all had to learn at some point, and there's nothing inherently WRONG with wanting to believe the best in people when they say something has happened to them.