As I skimmed through it, the word "gamergate" jumped out at me and I knew I must post it. RIP text posts.

You and I both know what you're doing, but for the youngsters who read this shit I want to provide a bit of a lay-history of the talking point you're using:

The poster is raising the issue of false accusation, strategically ignoring that it is already adequately addressed by the criminal justice system (and not to mention a slam-dunk civil suit) in an attempt obfuscate any actual dialogue about sexual violence against women. He's becoming a downvote sponge because I think a lot of people can see it for the jazzed up "women lie" canard that it is, but it was surprisingly effective at circulating online spaces in the past.

Sexual violence against women is a problem that is so endemic in our society that I guarantee the reader of this comment knows a victim of it; probably more than one. I can link statistics and sources, but you need look no further than the bestof comment section of this post. It is full of women sharing their own stories of sexual abuse. Despite the fact that it is so common, very few rapists and sex offenders are actually tried and convicted for it. So if the data suggests that the real problem is all the assaults where did the "false allegation" meme/talking point come from?

The short answer is its an anti-feminist reactionary dog-whistle and rhetorical game that probably became most prominent in the immediate aftermath of gamergate in 2014, a time in which reddit went from being just casually misogynist to hosting communities of virulently anti-feminist commenters. It was (and likely continues to be) all over the MGTOW, and "mens rights activist" scene. Since then its festered as a pan-reactionary talking point in response to #MeToo, the campus rape exposes, the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, all that shit. These people apply it whenever the discussion of rape and sexual violence is raised in the common discourse.

The reason that it's so popular and useful with misogynist trolls is because it can accomplish 2 argumentative goals at once. Firstly, it immediately shifts the discourse to men's safety and reputation. Even if a liberal comment section starts debating the frequency of these allegations, it's now not talking about violence against women. You'll note that in doing so it's elevated a perceived threat to a man's reputation above a real threat to a woman's body in the discourse.

Simultaneously, it reframes the issue to one of male victimhood due to female duplicity while co-opting the language of social justice movements. Now men are being maligned and threatened with social harm (even though the real issue is girls and women getting raped), and clumsy interlocuteurs can give the impression that they're arguing against "the victims" (even though in reality that's nonsense- this isn't about truth, its about rhetoric). In this way it flows directly into the "so much for the tolerant left" meme, where misogynists who receive push-back against this shit can turn around and say "see, they don't actually care about victims, they just want women to be superior", or something to that effect.

So what can we do about it? Well, this thread is a good example. The posters who use it get downvoted and derided as fools. Replies to these comments are better served either mocking them, or simply talking to the audience (like the comment I'm making now does), rather than attempt to argue with them directly. Direct argumentation is a waste of time because they're arguing in bad faith. They don't need to believe or prove their point to accomplish the rhetorical goals of their "argument", they just need liberals to talk about it. So mock them, downvote them, take the piss, and educate others on where this shit comes from, so we can all be better at spotting it and stamping it out in the future.