You are assuming all Reform voters would vote Conservative. Numbers have come out suggesting that isn’t true. It’s actually only about a third.

It could also have been Labour voters lending their vote to the Lib Dems. In my area the Labour voted dropped a lot but the Lib Dems took the seat from the Conservatives. There was a lot of Lib Dem campaign material beforehand saying a vote for Labour was a vote for the Conservatives.

I think in these cases the ideal is to hold opposing thoughts at once. Firstly, that everyone is innocent until proven guilty under the criminal (or civil) law and the accused may be telling the truth. Secondly, that a victim may never be able to prove their allegation under the criminal or civil law because of the nature of the crime and may be telling the truth.

Most rape victims will never get justice. Over 90% of rape complaints don’t even make it to the CPS (this is around 60,000 cases depending on the year and figures you look at). Most of them don’t lead to a prosecution, and even less lead to a conviction. Most rape victims are not protected by the law.

If we think in a very binary way, we either discredit and blame the accused or discredit and blame the accuser. I don’t think that’s helpful.

The police also drop around 90-5% of cases before they even get to the CPS to consider charging and prosecuting (not even a conviction). These cases border on impossible to get to court let alone a conviction.

I’ve seen cases where the victim has had black bruises from strangulation and the police haven’t taken the case forward because the accused has said it was just ‘rough sex’.

People have a really hard time understanding that victims can do everything right and their case still never gets off the ground. Even if they don’t do everything right, they shouldn’t be berated. These people are still the victim of a horrendous crime, which can completely ruin their life and can be psychologically really hard to report. Edit: I mean 90-95%!

I thought the changes in season one were great. I haven’t really liked the changes in season two.

I do agree!

Tbh, I was speaking more generally. However, I do believe Camila has apologised and contributed to various causes. You can find more information on this thread and online.

The person you are replying to was agreeing with you.

There's a strange phenomenon where certain circles that claim to want society to be less racist, sexist and homophobic etc won't accept people changing and becoming less racist, sexist and homophobic etc. You see this all the time in politics and it's really self-defeating. Isn't the whole point that we want people to change their minds and be better? That's how you go from a minority being more accepting to a majority.

It's like when people changed their minds on gay marriage. Do we reject the support because those people used to be homophobic? Or do we take it as a win that people were convinced to change their minds and became more tolerant?

Now some people are just awful and aren't open to changing, but some people absolutely are.

I 100% agree. I loved season one. The changes to the original story, the pacing, the atmosphere, the characterisation, the character development, and the relationships were all extremely solid. It was very neat and tied together.

I found season two convoluted and lacking pay off. I also thought the pacing was off and I wasn't a fan of some of the creative choices.

And you are entitled to that view. :)

Reform did split the vote but assuming all their votes had gone to the Conservatives instead (which is a huge assumption, there are a lot of traditional Labour voters with strong anti-immigration sentiments who may have gone Reform), the Conservatives would still have not been able to form a majority.

Why are you saying no? Didn’t I just say that you held the opposite view to me?

And yes, I am assessing it’s for different reasons. That’s literally what I wrote in all of my comments. It’s not just based on the fact that I think they hold up, as that’s subjective (as I stated). As I said, it’s the seemingly sudden and abrupt u-turn on previously beloved and bestselling books since people have disagreed with J K Rowling’s political stance over trans rights that is jarring and inclines me to that view. A phenomenon which the comment we are replying to talks about.

I have stated my view and my reasons. I think your hostility is fairly unwarranted. As I said, you are perfectly entitled to hold your own opposing view.

Interesting thread  on Twitter has also broke down the numbers and not all Reform votes would have gone Tory and even if they had, it still would have been a Tory loss.

I think a substantial number of people who are normally Labour voters lent their votes to Lib Dems etc though.

Tactical voting needs to be taken into account. It works the other way of course though.

Clearly from my own perception and assessment, as I laid out in my comment. You have clearly come to the opposite conclusion from your own perception and assessment. You’re entitled to your view, I just disagree.

If you look at my comments, I don’t think it’s all criticism, I just think it’s a good chunk of it. I personally think the books hold up, but opinion is subjective. Edit: comments, not comment.

I know, I’m a PR advocate myself. Strange bedfellows indeed!

That’s a good point. We need more data to make any real conclusions because FPTP does distort the vote and it looks like it has.

Edit to add: it’s also possible/likely people who usually vote Labour voted Reform, potentially as they thought Labour winning was a foregone conclusion, so again it’s hard to tell what the impact is at the moment.

I think especially in this election a lot of people decided to vote ‘efficiently’. I’d imagine in the Tory/Lib Dem marginals, Labour voters ‘lent’ their vote to the Lib Dems. Pretty sure that’s what happened in my area.

I wouldn’t be too worried. A lot of Labour voters lent their vote to the Lib Dems too because in many areas only the Lib Dems are a real challenge to the Tories. The Lib Dems just gained like 50+ seats because of it and really hurt the Tories. (Lib Dems are centre and definitely on the left of most US Democrats.)

Because it’s FPTP, a lot of voters decided to vote efficiently to remove the Conservatives.

Edit to say: actually, I understand why people are very worried about Reform, but I just wanted to point out that if you take into account the effect of Reform splitting the Tory vote, you have to consider the Labour/Liberal Democrat dynamic and tactical voting too. I think on vote share left leaning parties will take it.

Yes, I think a lot of people are ignoring that many people voted tactically. In my constituency, the numbers suggest a lot of Labour voters leant their votes to the Lib Dems because they believed they were the only viable party to win in that area against the Conservatives. That looks to have happened in a lot of constituencies. For those voters, they’re not disaffected from Labour, they just used the system, which has helped Labour get so many seats.

instead of actually writing compelling reasons for Louis to agree with Claudia's plan to kill Lestat -- which they didn't need to overthink, anyway; it's already in the books

I think the issue was that it isn't. In the book, Claudia plots to kill Lestat on her own and pretty much pulls it off. Louis doesn't stop it but he doesn't help either. He also didn't know about the plan beforehand. He only participates in hurting Lestat when Lestat returns from where they chucked his body ostensibly looking for revenge, and Louis and Claudia kill him in a panic. It's implied Louis does so to protect Claudia.

I think they did this because Louis is explicitly in a relationship with Lestat in the show AND Louis helps plot to kill Lestat, which he absolutely doesn't in the book. In the book, Louis doesn't act when Claudia kills Lestat (he doesn't stop it or help) until Lestat returns and Louis helps kill Lestat in panic and self-defence. It's a pretty big change and I think they felt they had to justify it.

I personally really don't like the change with how Lestat was killed and I thought it diminished Claudia's character.

This always happens with rape on Reddit. I've written posts before like "we should treat victims with respect and decency" and got a dozen down votes. It's extremely depressing.