I have to say that it's been fascinating watching this #HarassMeToo "movement". They started out by seizing the moral high ground and destroying a handful of genuine predators. But then they blew it... badly. They decided to copy the Cultural Revolution. Now it's all falling apart as leftists are shocked to find themselves needing to defend their friends from the Trumped up charges (see what I did there?) of other leftists.
Some thoughts...
It's starting to look like a civil war to me. A group of French actresses have condemned the Metooers for overshooting and trying to create a sexless world. The chick who invented the Shitty Media Men list is under fire for irresponsibly ruining the careers of innocent men. Andrew Sullivan called the Metooers McCarthyites for their damnation by rumor and secret evidence... and he's right. Ashley Banfield blasted a woman for whining about a bad date on the #Harassmetoo list. She's worried that women like this are ruining whatever the Metooers have won (spoiler alert: they've won nothing). Others have noticed this too that women are complaining about things as minor as guys seeming "creepy." This is now a culture crime. Lots of people are complaining about the lack of due process. Alec Baldwin is blasting the attacks on Woody Allen for allegations that were investigated but never became criminal charges.
Basically, these Metooers have adopted the rules of the Cultural Revolution. Anyone can accuse anyone and they are instantly judged guilty by the mob. And those who speak against this star chamber justice are instantly labeled as standing in the way of the "culture" change. They become enemies of the new order. They must be made to grovel. Women who didn't wear black to the awards show found themselves attacked by Metooers. Seal attacked Oprah for being complicit in Weinstein's sexual assault and promptly found himself accused of sexual assault.
America Ferrara was upset that Oprah was concerned with the accused. She said that the ultimate punishment for these men should not be disclosed yet:
Even more shameful is how these little fascists pretend that they bear no responsibility for their actions. Oprah asked an interesting question. She assembled a panel ofidiots celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and America Ferrera. She pointed out that the Metooers had managed to bag a couple penisers, but then she asked,
You see the same thing from the Shitty Media Men list creator. We'll call her "Shitty Girl." Shitty Girl asks women to accuse men but then disclaims that she has any responsibility for what happens after the allegations are taken seriously. Basically, she's the secret policeman who pretends it's not her responsibility that the people she accuses are killed on the evidence she presents. Interestingly, her list also ranges from rapes to consensual affairs to "acting creepy."
I'm really struck how fascist this "movement" is behaving. These are not good or noble women. They are little Hitlers. They are the accusers of Salem, the secret police of every fascist regime, McCarthyites, Chinese mobs killing their betters, and... apparently... good liberals.
Anyways, consider this timeline:
Some thoughts...
It's starting to look like a civil war to me. A group of French actresses have condemned the Metooers for overshooting and trying to create a sexless world. The chick who invented the Shitty Media Men list is under fire for irresponsibly ruining the careers of innocent men. Andrew Sullivan called the Metooers McCarthyites for their damnation by rumor and secret evidence... and he's right. Ashley Banfield blasted a woman for whining about a bad date on the #Harassmetoo list. She's worried that women like this are ruining whatever the Metooers have won (spoiler alert: they've won nothing). Others have noticed this too that women are complaining about things as minor as guys seeming "creepy." This is now a culture crime. Lots of people are complaining about the lack of due process. Alec Baldwin is blasting the attacks on Woody Allen for allegations that were investigated but never became criminal charges.
Basically, these Metooers have adopted the rules of the Cultural Revolution. Anyone can accuse anyone and they are instantly judged guilty by the mob. And those who speak against this star chamber justice are instantly labeled as standing in the way of the "culture" change. They become enemies of the new order. They must be made to grovel. Women who didn't wear black to the awards show found themselves attacked by Metooers. Seal attacked Oprah for being complicit in Weinstein's sexual assault and promptly found himself accused of sexual assault.
America Ferrara was upset that Oprah was concerned with the accused. She said that the ultimate punishment for these men should not be disclosed yet:
“Can’t we live in that space where it’s OK for perpetrators to be a little bit uncomfortable with what the consequences will be?”How very Nazi-like. We'll tell you your fate after we have our fun making you sweat. Shameful.
Even more shameful is how these little fascists pretend that they bear no responsibility for their actions. Oprah asked an interesting question. She assembled a panel of
“When somebody’s been accused of sexual harassment and loses their job, should they ever work again?”Witherspoon rather pathetically responded, “I’m not here to make that decision.” Really? You appoint yourself judge and jury. You convict on secret evidence with no allowance for the accused to offer a defense. And then you pretend that you have no say in the lives being destroyed? Welcome to the Great Leap Forward.
You see the same thing from the Shitty Media Men list creator. We'll call her "Shitty Girl." Shitty Girl asks women to accuse men but then disclaims that she has any responsibility for what happens after the allegations are taken seriously. Basically, she's the secret policeman who pretends it's not her responsibility that the people she accuses are killed on the evidence she presents. Interestingly, her list also ranges from rapes to consensual affairs to "acting creepy."
I'm really struck how fascist this "movement" is behaving. These are not good or noble women. They are little Hitlers. They are the accusers of Salem, the secret police of every fascist regime, McCarthyites, Chinese mobs killing their betters, and... apparently... good liberals.
Anyways, consider this timeline:
1. Rose McGowan outs Weinstien... everyone tries to ignore it.This is not a noble enterprise or moral cause.
2. With it not going away, the enablers "bravely" attack the mortally wounded Weinstein and smear anyone who points out that they enabled him.
3. Groupthink sets in and anyone who doesn't blindly accept the group is smeared or accused of #youtoo.
4. The group declares victory and pats themselves on the back for changing the world... without having done anything.
5. All the parasites jump on board. They politicize this. They try to expand it to subjective annoyances. They are opportunists tying to find fame, angry ex-girlfriends trying to settle scores, and women who just like abusing authority.
6. The infighting starts between the McCarthyite/fascists who believe in guilty when accused and abuse of power as justice versus those who believe in due process, proof and redemption.
9 comments:
I'll repost a past argument on the subject and note that crazy talk is par for the course nowadays (Obama is a secret foreign born Muslim who had England wiretap Trump, who watches gorillas punching each other 17 hours a day).
It does damage, but not much.
http://commentaramapolitics.blogspot.com/2017/11/nothing-will-change.html
I think you are using the wrong point of comparison. The movement is more akin to Black Lives Matter (whose fuel was cops walking away unscathed from squirrelly shootings) than the Pussyheads (whose fuel was Trump being in office).
Trump being in office and being in high profile fights with political enemies are core missions for Trump. Squirrelly shootings and sexual harassment are to a degree inevitable but they are not are not core missions for the organizations involved.
As I've noted police departments have changed procedures. Juries still won't convict cops who accidentally or in the heat of the moment kill a guy but such cops are now booted off the force so the public is satisfied cops are doing what they reasonably can. The fact cops have done anything aggravates the fringe on the right ('Police should do what they feel to who they want') and is meaningless to the left's fringe ('Police remain tools of oppression of a racist capitalist state').
As with BLM successfully dealing with the problem doesn't mean eradicating it or giving in to the fringe's demands it means making a reasonable effort. Zero tolerance of misconduct is impossible but less tolerance is certainly possible. In terms of sexual harassment there is a positive correlation between how high up someone is on the corporate ladder and how much wiggle room they get so tightening will only really impact the minority who enjoyed latitude in the past.
Anthony - OWS, the Tea Party and BLM fit right in to Andrew's comparison too. They went from real injustice that needed to be aired to some perceived injustices that a wrong word spoken/look becomes "Burn The Heretics" that we are seeing today. Anyone who even has a superficial knowledge of history has to see this. Some movements become benign and go away like the TP and OWS without causing much real physical damage.
But some take on a life of their own and become destructive not just to property, but hateful/spiteful bent on destroying everything in their path for no other reason other than they they can. And all done under the guise of "Justice". It's very dangerous.
The Gadsden Flag, but with an Ouroboros.
Anthony, Two responses.
First, I don't think this "movement" is at all like BLM. BLM is a small hardcore group of "activists" who are pushing hard on an agenda. A revolution by other means.
By comparison, this "movement" is little more than a cafe klatch, as my mother would say. It is a vast group of women who have no clue what they want and no plan or motivation to get it. To them, this is a talking point that gives them something to whine about at Starbucks with their friends... which is the pussyhead movement all over again: "I am victim, hear me roar as I hope somebody does something!"
Secondly, in terms of change, I was right: nothing has changed. A handful of predators were tossed out as corporate therapeutics, but nothing else changed. No change in laws. No change in attitudes. In fact, look at the last dozen or so guys who have been accused. They denied it, patted the movement on the head ("I didn't do it, but you're so cute I'll let your movement pretend I did") and moved on with their lives without incident. In fact, the last few have resulted in significant blowback on the accusers. What's more the due process people are winning, which is interesting since due process had all but vanished before this movement. So they've gone significantly backwards.
Bev, I think the problem with those movements is that they either begin with the crazies in charge (OWS) or the crazies rush in and take them over (TP). Unfortunately, the crazies have the time and desire to take over any movement that doesn't have massive hurdles to keep them out.
tryanmax, Too phallic. LOL! I would suggest the sign for the women's restroom only scratching her head.
Andrew,
The problem in most recent harassment cases was people abusing their power and corporations or fellow Hollywood stars covering for them even if that meant declining to enforce rules as written because they were deemed too important.
Here are two relevant comments from a prior debate.
http://commentaramapolitics.blogspot.com/2017/11/statistics-prove-you-wrong.html
Last but not least while standards are tightening politicians from the president on down are and will no doubt remain much slower to step down for sexual misconduct than corporations are to fire superstars. If their supporters tolerate it...
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I agree the phenomena will end eventually. Like I said a while ago most of these guys going down are going down for stuff that has long been known. Once they are cleared out big names will no longer be dropping daily.
END QUOTES
I agree none of these changes are forever, but their impact will be measured in years.
Anthony, None of that is accurate. Only a handful of even the sexual predators have been brought down... and the talk now is how to forgive them. No one else has been brought down. Grand total, we're talking less than 100 men out of 150 million.
As for the standards, they've gone the other way, not tightened. Due process is back, which hasn't been there since Obama's DOJ sparked the phony rape epidemic.
The only concrete thing that's been done is the collection of $16 million into some sort of victim's fund with no stated purpose.
So yeah, if you're a rapey celebrity chef, a rapey actor or a shitbag leftist media type, then you need to learn the art of the press release... but for everyone else, it's actually easier now to survive a harassment charge.
Andrew,
I said the people brought down have been powerful members of their organization who had been given special dispensation. 'Few in numbers' was implied.
Due process never left. Fake rape epidemic may be a recent term, but discussion of the problem of rape and fake rape claims stretches back decades and really began in earnest in the 90s.
Given that the phenomena is selective enforcement, concrete gains are going to be hard to come by. One can't completely remove human judgement (and thus error) from the system.
PR has always been key for accused criminals. As for it being easier for ordinary people to survive rape accusations. I'll take your word for it. Crazy talk is in fashion nowadays but evidence is more abundant since people are communicating more via networks and cameras are everywhere.
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