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Shibley in āDaily Callerā on Ezra Kleinās Support for āTerribleā Affirmative Consent Law
Yesterday, Vox co-founder Ezra Klein wrote in detail about Californiaās new law requiring that college and university students in the state receive ongoing, affirmative consent for sex. In his piece, Klein calls the bill āterribleā but argues that ā[i]ts overreach is precisely its value.ā FIREstrongly disagrees, and our Senior Vice President Robert Shibley explained why Kleinās article is so troubling in an today.
Robert reviews ¹ū¶³“«Ć½app¹Ł·½ās objections to the law, such as its vague requirement for āongoingā affirmations of consent and the fact that it effectively shifts the burden of proof to a student accused of sexual assault. He then writes:
To Klein and other supporters, these arenāt bugs, theyāre features. Citing saying that one in five women will be victims of actual or attempted sexual assault in college, Klein says that āmen need to feel a cold spike of fear when they begin a sexual encounter,ā and that ācases in which campus boards convict young men (and, occasionally, young women) of sexual assault for genuinely ambiguous situationsā are ānecessary for the lawās success.ā Why? To change a perceived culture of entitlement to sex among campus men into a culture where those āunfairā cases ābecome lore in frats and cautionary tales that fathers e-mail to their sons.ā Itās hard to see how this would dissuade serial predators intent on nonconsensual sex ā at least suggests that they are the bulk of the problem ā but it could certainly have an impact on those who donāt place enough value on enthusiastic consent.
But as Robert notes, there may be an upside to Klein sharing his thoughts with the public:
Klein has done a valuable service by providing the most honest assessment yet of why the law is manifestly unjust in every traditional sense of the word ā and why its supporters donāt care.
Check out Robertās article in full at , and read Kleinās in Vox.
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