As I've pointed out before, the #metoo movement was a total failure. Not only did it achieve none of its goals, it actually moved the needle backwards on most of those, reinforcing the requirement for due process and benefit of the doubt going against the accuser. But at least they brought down a whole bunch of sexist men, right?
No, actually. Only a handful were ever brought down and from the sound of it they should have been brought down apart from any movement. But little by little, they've almost all managed to return to what they were doing pre-accusation. Indeed, the only ones who really went down were about three or four top names or the ones who voluntarily stepped down (less than 100 total out of 150 million). Anyone who fought back or learned the #metoo sidestep ("I'm glad you've accused me, because it's good that women can now make these allegations //pats on head, but I'm not leaving.") just kept right on going... not to mention people like Biden or Bill Clinton who get a pass for political reasons.
Well, this week brings us two more high profile examples of #metoo's failure. The first failure involves one of the big two trophies of the #metoo movement: Kevin Spacey. Spacey's "crimes" were so bad that they expunged him from films, literally -- they reshot all the scenes he did in "All the Money in the World," replacing him with Christopher Plummer, and kicked him off of other projects. He was fired from a theater position and became persona non grata. They even put him on trial, like Harvey Weinstein, the other trophy. Personally, I've always considered it ironic that one of the biggest catches of the #metoo movement was a man who sexually harassed and assaulted young boys -- not women, but so be it. When your movement is desperate for trophies, you take what you can get.
The problem is that Spacey hired lawyers and fought back. And now the primary charges against him have been dismissed when it turns out that the accuser was basically shaking him down after a voluntary encounter. Stick another very big fork in the #metoo fantasy. When Weinstein wins, the total legacy of the #metoo movement will be bringing down MEGA a-ole Matt Lauer, at the cost of (1) undoing the college rape hysteria and strengthening due process for men, (2) increasing doubt for claims of harassment and rape, and (3) creating a backlash that makes it harder for women to succeed in the workplace. It might even end up exposing the actresses who invented #metoo in an effort hide the fact they slept with Weinstein to make their careers. Hello Ms. Hayek... and so many more. Ironically, this last one was forgotten or not generally known before #metoo.
Then there is this. After the NFL was caught doing nothing to player Ray Rice after he was caught on video knocking his girlfriend unconscious in an elevator, the NFL went hardcore in the other direction: "From this day forward, any player who hits a woman will be banned for at least six games, if not forever, without proof or trial!! Death by accusation!!" This wasn't a result of the #metoo movement, but the #metoo movement came soon after and this all falls into the same context as it quickly blended. Indeed, if the #metoo movement has any influence at all, then things like the NFL change in policy should become the norm and the NFL certainly should not bend its rules. Well, it just bent them beyond the point of breaking.
Kansas City Chief Tyreek Hill beat his girlfriend and got arrested. He then beat her again. Then he got caught on tape threatening her. The NFL swooped into action and... waited to see what the police would do. When the police did nothing, the NFL swooped in and... waited a few months. Now it's announced there will be no punishment. None. The Chiefs didn't even cut Hill, as has been the automatic public relations response for the past two years when domestic violence allegation arise. In other words, the NFL is back to where it was before #metoo, back before Ray Rice, where it should not be if the #metoo movement had any influence whatsoever. Heck, this shouldn't be the rule even without a #metoo movement. But the fact it is, tells us again that #metoo's legacy is dead.
Now, don't get me wrong. Hill is a sh*t and the NFL should have banned him regardless of #metoo. Spacey is a sh*t by all accounts and also should be shunned regardless of #metoo. But neither is or will be. And the fact they aren't speaks volumes as to the influence of #metoo... or its lack.
No, actually. Only a handful were ever brought down and from the sound of it they should have been brought down apart from any movement. But little by little, they've almost all managed to return to what they were doing pre-accusation. Indeed, the only ones who really went down were about three or four top names or the ones who voluntarily stepped down (less than 100 total out of 150 million). Anyone who fought back or learned the #metoo sidestep ("I'm glad you've accused me, because it's good that women can now make these allegations //pats on head, but I'm not leaving.") just kept right on going... not to mention people like Biden or Bill Clinton who get a pass for political reasons.
Well, this week brings us two more high profile examples of #metoo's failure. The first failure involves one of the big two trophies of the #metoo movement: Kevin Spacey. Spacey's "crimes" were so bad that they expunged him from films, literally -- they reshot all the scenes he did in "All the Money in the World," replacing him with Christopher Plummer, and kicked him off of other projects. He was fired from a theater position and became persona non grata. They even put him on trial, like Harvey Weinstein, the other trophy. Personally, I've always considered it ironic that one of the biggest catches of the #metoo movement was a man who sexually harassed and assaulted young boys -- not women, but so be it. When your movement is desperate for trophies, you take what you can get.
The problem is that Spacey hired lawyers and fought back. And now the primary charges against him have been dismissed when it turns out that the accuser was basically shaking him down after a voluntary encounter. Stick another very big fork in the #metoo fantasy. When Weinstein wins, the total legacy of the #metoo movement will be bringing down MEGA a-ole Matt Lauer, at the cost of (1) undoing the college rape hysteria and strengthening due process for men, (2) increasing doubt for claims of harassment and rape, and (3) creating a backlash that makes it harder for women to succeed in the workplace. It might even end up exposing the actresses who invented #metoo in an effort hide the fact they slept with Weinstein to make their careers. Hello Ms. Hayek... and so many more. Ironically, this last one was forgotten or not generally known before #metoo.
Then there is this. After the NFL was caught doing nothing to player Ray Rice after he was caught on video knocking his girlfriend unconscious in an elevator, the NFL went hardcore in the other direction: "From this day forward, any player who hits a woman will be banned for at least six games, if not forever, without proof or trial!! Death by accusation!!" This wasn't a result of the #metoo movement, but the #metoo movement came soon after and this all falls into the same context as it quickly blended. Indeed, if the #metoo movement has any influence at all, then things like the NFL change in policy should become the norm and the NFL certainly should not bend its rules. Well, it just bent them beyond the point of breaking.
Kansas City Chief Tyreek Hill beat his girlfriend and got arrested. He then beat her again. Then he got caught on tape threatening her. The NFL swooped into action and... waited to see what the police would do. When the police did nothing, the NFL swooped in and... waited a few months. Now it's announced there will be no punishment. None. The Chiefs didn't even cut Hill, as has been the automatic public relations response for the past two years when domestic violence allegation arise. In other words, the NFL is back to where it was before #metoo, back before Ray Rice, where it should not be if the #metoo movement had any influence whatsoever. Heck, this shouldn't be the rule even without a #metoo movement. But the fact it is, tells us again that #metoo's legacy is dead.
Now, don't get me wrong. Hill is a sh*t and the NFL should have banned him regardless of #metoo. Spacey is a sh*t by all accounts and also should be shunned regardless of #metoo. But neither is or will be. And the fact they aren't speaks volumes as to the influence of #metoo... or its lack.
Good summary.
ReplyDeleteGypsyTyger
Thanks GypsyTyger. The #metoo thing is really a study in failure, futility and fantasy.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, Corey Booker called Trump "worse than a racist" today. In leftist speak, I didn't think there was anything worse than a racist. This kind of introduces a new kink in leftist logic. What is more evil than pure evil? Doublebadevil?
ReplyDeleteI think the net result is what we always thought it would be .... male bosses being unwilling to me in private with female employees. My gut has always been that the amount of powerful male bosses who really abused or harrassed female subordinates was a relatively small number. More prevalent were male bosses who took advantage if females who were willing to use sex to advance their careers. If that is curtailed at all, it is at least one small positive. I’d add Bill O’Reilly to the list of deserving guys who probably did abuse their position of power.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, Justice on Trial is a very nice read. I do hope the sick pukes on that committee who are now running for president lose more votes than they gained
Metoo was a reflection of the fact that corporations typically gave special dispensations to their stars and an attempt to end that practice. The law/corporate code of conduct as written has been clear for a long time, but stars were not held to those standards despite abundant evidence of wrongdoing. I honestly thought metoo would stick around a while longer, but its demise makes sense.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, capitalism is a practical system in which consumers don't much care about anything but the product. Corporations are very reluctant to get rid of key people because they are worth millions if not more. Its striking that Pixar founder John Lasseter was quickly rehired after Disney eventually fired him for years of sexual misconduct. Pixar revived a then struggling Disney and turned it into the pop culture force it is today. Somebody's gonna make that money. The key metric to whether something is career ending isn't one's actions per se but how big of a contributor one is. I don't claim to know how their legal trials will end (evidence tampering by the accuser ended Spacey's latest trial) but I suspect Weinstein and Spacey are done because while both are bigger names than Lasseter they are were not as important to their industries at the time of their falls. But I could be wrong. Time will tell.
Similarly its worth keeping in mind that with politicians charisma/public image overrides all other factors. What sinks lesser figures who sells themselves as normal does little harm to bigger ones who are known for misconduct. During the eras of Trump and Clinton both men skating on stuff that felled a lot of lesser politicians.
Re: #metoo, I am so over it. Glad to see almost everyone else is, too.
ReplyDeleteRe: Booker, I've dubbed the reactions to everything Trump says as the craziest game of telephone.
Trump says he doesn't believe the Mean Girl Squad love America and Bill de Blasio has a breakdown rambling about beheadings, witch trials, and the Klan. He's just the exemplar of the crazy reactions to things Trump didn't actually say. The whole left may as well be jumping up-and-down in from of Trump shouting "Me next! Pick me! Pick me!"
This goes all the way back to the beginning. How many times have you been told that Trump called every individual Mexican a rapist?
Anthony, I figured that #metoo was doomed the moment it sprung into existence for one simple reason: it was crazy.
ReplyDeleteNow, don't get me wrong. I don't like sexual harassment. I think it's wrong. I think companies should crack down on it. But this wasn't about genuine sexual harassment. Genuine sexual harassment is both men and women behaving in ways that are just beyond the pale, that intimidate, that invade privacy, that at times are genuine crimes.
This started as Rose McGowan, an actress, tried to out a friend who had been harassed. She did it for whatever reason and when people refused to help, she threatened to start outing all the famous actresses who slept with human troll Harvey Weinstein. That caused all these actresses to start claiming they had been victimized, which quickly spread to other actresses making the same claim.
Rather than becoming something mainstream at that point, it went crazy. #metoo was created and it became a platform for (1) fruitcakes who dug up a history of victimization that involved men from decades ago who "looked at them funny" or "were creepy", (2) leftists who hoped this outpouring of victim-whining into turning women into a political block, and (3) opportunists who either saw a chance to sue and make money, hit the papers and get famous, or bring down a man they didn't like or who stood in the way of a promotion.
That makes it a witch hunt, and the history of witch hunts is that they run wild for a few months until people figure out how to break the hysteria and then the whole thing collapses, often with a major backlash.
If they really wanted to succeed, they would have needed to keep out the crazies, make their demands much more reasonable, and not start carving out exceptions for leftist politicians or excluding women from the rules. But that wasn't how this group functioned.
The real irony for them is that they had "more" before they began. Some clever leftists in positions of power at universities and DOJ had severely eroded due process protections at colleges and were working to spread those into the law and the private sector when #metoo hit, and the end result was a return of due process... plus a backlash.
Jed, I think you're right. There are a good number of predators out them, but the vast majority of office "harassment" is two people using each other and when the usefulness ends, the other screams harassment to save face, punish the other, and/or exploit the situation.
ReplyDeleteAs an interesting aside, I saw that only 1 in ten people in relationships now meet in the office. That used to be closer to 4 in 10, which suggests that offices are less "sexed" at this point. Some are attributing this to the #metoo backlash. If so, that's bad for professional women as the office was their primary place to find mates in the 1990s and 2000s.
tryanmax, You may be sick of #metoo and it's influence is zero, but it has incorporated and will exist forever as a leftist fundraising device.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at Booker. He's way outclassed in the "verbal freak-out" game, which seems to be the current style of campaigning on the left.