Here’s a brief history of leftist ideas.

1. A radical idea is born

2. A radical idea is mainstreamed

3. The radical idea has become inconvenient and is now reactionary

Here’s the end stage of this thing with a Susan Faludi op-ed in the New York Times headlined, “‘Believe All Women’ Is a Right-Wing Trap”.

Don’t you understand? We have always been at war with women accusing men of things. In the brief period from Kavanaugh to Biden, believing women, formerly a passionate rallying cry and a firm ideological plank, is now a right-wing trap.

Faludi’s thesis is that Believe All Women was invented by David French. She nitpicks over the “all” part. Wherever “Believe All Women” came from, Believe Survivors has been a reliable platform in the Kavanaugh era. And they mean the same thing.

Even in Faludi’s effort to claim that the principle is a right-wing conspiracy, she originates it with a Hillary tweet. “To every survivor of sexual assault … you have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed.” 

Faludi insists that, ““Believe All Women” is not an amplification of “Believe Women,” but its negation.” So which women are we obligated to believe? If “Believe Women” is fundamentally different than believing all women, what does it mean?

From there, Faludi moves into more esoteric gaslighting. “This is what Anita Hill meant when she said in a CNN town hall in 2017, ‘And until we can believe all women, every woman’s voice has value, none of us really will be seen as equal.’ Read her comments in full, and it’s clear she wasn’t giving equal credence to every individual woman, but equal standing to women of “all races, all ages, all sizes, all backgrounds.”

What does “every woman’s voice” mean? According to Faludi it means collective groups of women, rather than all women.

To buy all this, you also have to ignore Susan Faludi’s own history.

As for the feminists, Hill’s backers were silent, except when defending the president. Susan Faludi suggested that all those women actually seduced him; Jane Smiley praised his urge to “connect.” “We need to think of the bigger picture,” Eleanor Smeal admonished. “I simply don’t care,” said Betty Friedan.

Writer Anne Roiphe was perhaps the most honest: “It would be a great pity if the Democratic party is damaged,” she said.

Faludi has never believed women… unless they accuse Republicans.