The Cornell 7 case has all the hallmarks of a collective hysteria on par with Ferguson, Missouri—“I am Jane Doe” is the equivalent of “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
In this case, just like in Ferguson, the most fervent advocates don’t know the facts of the case and don’t care to know them, lest they complicate a narrative condemning a group of people as a class—the police back then, fraternity members now.
To dissent from the orthodoxy is, once again, considered a hateful act. It was all but forbidden back then to suggest that Michael Brown got shot because of what he himself did (assault a police officer), and the mob this time has no tolerance for the idea that Jane Doe should bear responsibility for own conduct and decision-making.
Brown was considered *inherently* a victim, and so is Jane Doe.
This is not the way to think about such cases in a rational society. Now, there is much that still hasn’t been made fully public in the Cornell 7 case, but what we’ve seen of the evidentiary record clearly points to consensual acts that Jane Doe came to regret (and to the abysmal conduct of almost all of the young men involved).
But the facts are irrelevant if they don’t align with the ideological narrative, and if in the fullness of time, this case proves to have been a hysteria and witch hunt, it won’t matter—all the celebrities, Democratic politicians, influencers, advocates, and journalists will move on, unchastened, to the next thing, just like they did with “Hands up, don’t shoot.”