All i know and all i can know is what i’ve seen, in this case his horny clown-posting on IG stories, and the fact that his bandmates made the decisions and spoke in the way they did. That’s all we’ve got, right?
I thought it was extremely strange, not impossible ofc, but very unexpected for this allegation to appear after his public statement said in no unclear terms he never had relations with a minor. Not that i’m trying to take alleged abusers’ at their words by default, but in this particular case where a statement was crafted by crisis communications with (what i imagine is) a real possibility of litigation; at least a certain internal review - this doesn’t seem the kind of statement one would advise their client make without near 100% certainty it wouldn’t be overturned. So it being challenged just a week after was to me, not an impossibility, but certainly a surprise.
Does it make sense what i’m saying? That’s a real question, not a rhetorical one…
I feel it’s a really tight line to walk where TECHNICALLY we’ve not yet collapsed the possibilities from “abuse to minors happened” all the way down to “late 30s guy made sexual posts in publicly accessible places”. Which isn’t like, good, and i’ve seen them and repeatedly state my dislike
I hesitate to say any of this because the health and safety of Chole/Chloe, provided she exists (what a strange thing to say, am i overly suspicious or is this still undecided?) is more important than a celebrity’s career, i think we can all agree on that. And ditto for other unnamed victims, or interacants(?) if they exist.
Please don’t hear this as me saying i find it more likely these are fabrications than they aren’t.
But look, now i’m spending more words on uncertainty of allegations than i was before, and surely i’m not the only to think it, as a result of this prank. I don’t want to be too harsh in how i say it, as i imagine the nyan person might be a child, but i fear this is an example of trolling directly supporting rape culture by making all allegations less likely to be heard out. Maybe the fakeout was purposeful to intentionally lower credibility to defend Yoshiatsu, maybe it was just a prank with no goals but ragebaiting, but either way the effect is the same.
I return to what i’ve kept on saying; i would be so happy to find nothing more than what i know has occurred, primarily to hear harm wasn’t done, secondarily to not lose an artist i’ve liked despite my complaints.
I wonder if there’s a world in which harms are dealt with with the level of change and attention they require, and not more, and as such can be caught or prevented earlier on.
I’m gonna have to change a lot of how i sound once credible facts come out, provided they do, bc i’m hedging hard in both directions at once, straining my ethics and morals trying to figure what fair and responsible mean, still keeping health and safety higher in priority than artistic expression ofc, but newly doubting my faith in myself to see through to what health and safety really are and mean. I think that’s why this one in particular has been such a stressor when others like Kyouka and Kisaki are so simple open and shut.