Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
Well, you do have a point there, but it is my conviction that one of the worst mistakes you can make in a person - to - person contact is thinking for the other.
I'm generally inclined to agree, except when that approach can risk causing another person significant emotional pain. Sometimes the odds and stakes favour one approach and at other times the odds and stakes favour being cautious and kind even when it may be inappropriate to think you understand perfectly what someone else is thinking or feeling. "Better to be safe than sorry" isn't that outlandish a notion

If your sister comes to you in tears and says she's been raped, do you refer to studies and high profile cases about false rape accusations and explain that one in ten rape accusations are false? I believe the obvious answer is that, at that moment, the only right thing to do is to be kind and gentle and supportive rather than to be skeptical or even "neutral"--no matter what you yourself believe about your hard-nosed amoral mentally ill drug-addicted gold-digging hotel-room cleaning sister. And of course I think that's the only appropriate response if your brother comes to you in tears and says he's been accused of raping someone. It's the only appropriate response for you, for the doctor, for the cop, for the lawyer, for the judge, ideally also for the media but I suppose we'll never have that utopia.

At this point I may be shadow-boxing