Communication Breakdown

I have this notion that no one really says what they mean anymore.  Or, they say exactly what pops into their heads, without regard to anyone else's ideology.  

This whole Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearing has me thinking about growing up.  Going to parties.  Being around drunk boys (and girls).  Very few people on the party circuit in high school and college were thinking about lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court.  We were just having fun.  

Here's the deal:  sometimes "fun" gets out of hand.  Sometimes a girl drinks too much and ends up in a room full of stupid, drunken boys.  It happens.  Sometimes the girl has to maneuver her way out.  Sometimes she has to fight her way out.  And usually, the boys in the room are people she knows, vaguely or personally.  She doesn't want to freak out right away, because she doesn't believe that these people she has met before would ever hurt her.  And then comes the moment when she realizes that they (or he) want something far beyond the excuse for going to the second room ("listening to music", "playing the guitar", "checking out a cool space", whatever).  Sometimes people can be too trusting or naive or stupid or drunk to make good decisions in any given moment.

But ... if someone who compromised me and caused me psychological harm - even if it was 30 years ago - was about ready to be given a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, I would speak up.  I understand why this woman didn't tell the authorities. It's embarrassing on every level, and she didn't want other people to know.  But if what she says is true, and if what the others say is true, that this man was a belligerent, drunken idiot throughout high school and college, grabbing girls inappropriately and laughing about it like total dick, then he doesn't belong in a position where he is one of nine people determining & interpreting the law at the highest level.