People often turn away to someone being attacked, so sure they'll turn away from someone being annoyed, irritated, or offended....this assumes this could place them in any kind of danger, from the literal mortal kind to even just getting a bad rep as a snitch ("snitches get stitches" is pretty much true at all levels of society, though often metaphorical--I even saw a man spank his little girl for tattling on her friends--I could share about how this applies to government and police fighting child sex trafficking as well who reported on corrupt government officials and dirty cops taking part or at least taking bribes) or otherwise not someone likely to get hired again (at least not to advance) because they're someone who "makes waves." It's not limited to sexual harassment. I knew a couple of teachers who discretely tried to counter a problem because teachers who tried to publicly correct it suddenly had "paper trails" started on them that got them fired in a way their union couldn't protect them from.
As for me personally....I wasn't sure what to do once when severely harassed several times over, both of us volunteering to set up a Halloween office party (which is related to other BS actions made to appear that life is better than it actually is) and I felt restrained because I did not want to get my friend fired. I looked around but no one would look at us no matter how ridiculous he got, which they probably saw as polite, but I saw it as a sign that his behavior was normal and expected, so if I did what I normally did then I'd be "making waves" and possibly getting my friend fired (one of those damn Cosmo magazines didn't help either, making it seem from the front cover about office hook ups, which I'm sure he saw as well). I heard later that as we were volunteers then they weren't sure office policies applied to us, and that we may actually know each other and this is just how we flirt, though I believe those are more excuses than reasons.
At least it wasn't as bad as when a carload of men threatened me in broad daylight in what I presume was a decent part of the city. I looked about to see everyone, men and women, pointedly turn away. If any called the cops then the cops didn't show up until after I was long gone. But I bet at least a few of those same people are tweeting self-righteously about the Weinsteins, in part to feel better about themselves, but also because it's what gets the thumbs up, and ultimately that's what matters--public opinion, not genuine ideals or ethics or morality.
you completely lost me with the parallel with salem .. I do not see the link ^^
An accusation at Salem pretty much meant you were screwed as there was no way meaningful way to prove innocence (and even in the US if one could prove innocence then the damage is likely to be too much to undo, and those who knowingly made false accusations cannot be punished without a much higher standard of proof).
We in the US (and some other nations as well) saw a panic about sexual abuse in mostly the 1980s about child sexual abuse typically done as part of Satanic rites in which people's lives were ruined over even an accusation by a paranoid schizophrenic (as in the accuser had a record of psychotic delusions), which not only cost the taxpayers billions of dollars (and many politicians and prosecutors sought to exploit the sitch for their own gain, including Al Gore which is why I don't believe anything he says now and would appreciate it if he stopped discrediting certain issues by speaking on their behalf), but ruined a bunch of lives. Ironically, at least a few stayed locked up behind bars longer while their trials progressed for longer than if they were actually convicted. The sickening irony is the terror it caused many children as the state seized them, forced them to endure horrid tests which were photographed and shown to jurors, and essentially sexually abused children ritually (that's what I'd call sticking instruments in a child's butt while being photographed as part of legal procedure because of a false accusation or moral panic). They had a similar motto as today, that being, "Believe the children" (that is, those speaking for the children who tried hard to coach children into saying certain things once they got their hands on them).
I do think the accusations are likely true, but I don't blame people for seeing echoes of that. So far I've refrained from sharing why blindly believing is as unjust as knee jerk dismissal of an accusation, as I don't see a point in it because people will be people (that's not a compliment). I honestly believe the majority of people against all this have their own motives, whether it's to go along with the crowd, or even to make themselves feel better for their own abuses of others (or at least silence as someone they know did so). But that doesn't necessarily mean that most of the accusations don't hold a lot of truth to them.
