One of the tricks liberals love most is taking something that is as close to universally despised as humanly possible, like racism, police shooting innocent people, or rape, and then declaring that they are bravely against it while their opponents are for it.

To provide evidence for their gaslighting, they redefine the terms they’re discussing in the most dubious and polarizing ways imaginable. “Oh, you’re against disrespecting the flag?” Then you must want black men to be shot by the police! “Oh, you’re not in favor of tearing down historical statues because the owners had slaves?” Then you must hate black people! “Oh, you don’t believe EVERY rape accusation made against a man?” Then you must be pro-rape.

This last one is the bizarre juncture that the borderline hysterical #MeToo movement has now reached. To the #MeToo movement, no evidence seems to be required other than an accusation.

We saw this with Aziz Ansari. He was expected to retire from public life based on nothing more than an anonymous account of a bad date where he was pushy about having sex after a woman he just met gave him oral sex five minutes after she walked into his apartment for the first time.

I’m not crying any tears over Al Franken being pushed out of the Senate by Democrats, but resigning from his seat because he pretended to grope a woman’s breasts as a bad joke is ridiculous.

However, the latest debacle with Brett Kavanaugh is the worst nightmare of men who are concerned about the #MeToo movement.

Here we have Brett Kavanaugh, an extremely well-qualified judge with an impeccable reputation who has been vetted by the FBI six times. You don’t get any more squeaky clean than Kavanaugh.

Then, at the last minute, after his hearing was over and as he was about to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Bernie Sanders donor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Kavanagh had sexually assaulted her.

To begin with, Ford says Kavanaugh attempted to attack her 36 YEARS AGO — when he was 17 and she was 15. When Ford talked to a therapist about the incident in 2012, it’s notable that Kavanaugh’s name was in the news back then. Could she have gotten it from a press report, noted that he went to the same school as her “attacker” and then just assumed, guessed, or subconsciously decided he was responsible? Maybe. But, in any case, although Kavanaugh’s name does not appear in her therapist’s notes, those notes do say she claimed four men were in the room. Ford now says two men were in the room and one of them was Kavanaugh’s friend, Mark Judge. Judge categorically denies it, which is probably what you’d expect.

At first glance, Ford’s account of the event seems unlikely. On the one hand, she describes 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh acting like a hardened sexual predator. According to Ford, he physically forced her into another room, turned the music up so no one could hear her scream, covered her mouth, pinned her down as she tried to get away, and treated her so roughly she feared he was going to kill her. On the other hand, that’s mixed in with what sounds like playful, drunken horseplay between Kavanaugh and Judge. Here’s her account of what happened.

Is it impossible that it happened like this? No, but it’s worth noting that her description of the event does seem very unusual. Additionally, a lot of questions immediately come to mind. Ford says she was 15 when this party happened. So, someone had to drive her to the party, right? Who was it? Who invited her? Did anybody notice when she “ran” outside of the house? Who drove her home? If there were only four people there, was it an intimate gathering at the end of the night or the beginning of the night? Who threw the party? Where was it located? What was the date? Since she didn’t file a police report or tell anyone when it happened, even if she’s sincere — which is a big “if” — how can we be sure her memory can be trusted 36 years after the fact? That’s doubly so since Patrick Smyth, the only other person she has apparently named as a party guest, said, “I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh.”

In other words, we have three people categorically denying Ford’s account and she doesn’t seem to know a lot of the basics of her own story. So, it’s an unreliable 36-year-old he said/she said allegation about something that happened between teenagers. Surely, no one could think that an accusation this flimsy should be enough to ruin a man’s life? Right? WRONG.

Note that what we’re talking about here is publicly branding Kavanaugh as an attempted rapist and denying him a seat on the Supreme Court based on a completely unsubstantiated 36-year-old allegation. Ford can’t even come up with a specific place or date the attack supposedly happened.

In response to these allegations, Republicans in the Senate have offered to let Ford talk to them publicly or privately, by herself —not at the same table as Kavanaugh, as her lawyer claimed. At this point, she appears poised to turn them down. Before she talks to them, she’s demanding an FBI investigation which she and her lawyer know will never happen because no federal crime was committed. Even if the FBI were to look into it, how is it supposed to pin down what happened 36 years ago given that Ford doesn’t know the most basic details of her own story?

In other words, Ford apparently intends to offer up nothing but her word that something happened 36 years ago, exactly as she described it, and many people seem to believe that Kavanaugh’s life should be wrecked as a result.

This is insanity, but it is what the #MeToo movement has wrought. Forget innocent until proven guilty. If you’re a man, it’s innocent until accused.

If something bad happened to Christine Blasey Ford 36 years ago, that is terrible. However, the time to investigate those allegations was 36 years ago and the people to do it were the police. Allegations made long after the fact in the court of public opinion instead of a court of law should be assumed to be false as a matter of course unless there is extensive evidence that convinces people of a “there” there (see Bill Cosby). No woman should ever be sexually assaulted and no man should ever be falsely accused of sexual assault. Because we don’t live in a world where all of us get what we deserve, the rights of both the woman AND the man need to be treated as important in situations like this one. The #MeToo movement may not believe in innocent until proven guilty for men, but the rest of us should.