I never mentioned the Harvey Weinstein story here, mainly because I generally try to avoid the minefield known as gender topics. But I wasn’t surprised. It’s Hollywood. Stories about sleazy executives go way back, plus we all know that most people are monsters.
That’s not an excuse or a defense. It’s just, “Oh, of course Hollywood is like that. Everybody knows it.” It’s why sane people don’t exactly celebrate when their loved ones run off to Hollywood. I’m not blaming the victim, I’m just saying people who try to “make it” in Hollywood should go in with their eyes fully open, and be prepared. You *will* be entering a sleazy industry, and you *will* encounter sleazy situations and sleazy people. It’s a high risk, high reward kind of industry.
Still, I fully support Weinstein’s arrest, downfall, whatever.
#MeToo
I didn’t say anything about the #MeToo campaign either, when many, many women started using it on social media around me. I thought about it, but to be honest, as a dude, I’m not at all clear how to react in a way that won’t draw criticism.
“There’s a lot of #MeToo tweets.” How could you not know!?
“I’m sorry about all these #MeToo tweets.” We don’t need your pity!
“I’ve never seen anything.” Just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen!
“As a husband/father/brother/son, I’m outraged.” It doesn’t matter whether or not you have a wife/daughter/sister/mother!
“I’m really angry about this!” Spare us your fake outrage! See also, “how could you not know!”
“I’ll just keep quiet.” Then you’re complicit and part of the problem!
I’ve seen all of the above responses either implied or spelled right out on Twitter. So as you can see, as a dude, I just have to pick my poison.
I am genuinely sorry that these things happen, and I would like to think I would intervene in a positive way if something like it ever happened around me.
But I’m aware that trying to write something like that on Twitter is likely to make people mad at me, even if I’m completely and utterly sincere. It’s why I generally try to avoid gender issues. But hey, this is a controversial blog, and nobody reads it anyway, so here goes!
Mark Halperin
Last week we heard an avalanche of sexual misconduct allegations toward NBC contributor Mark Halperin, which started from a CNN article. I watched Halperin a lot on Morning Joe, and I always thought he was a smart contributor to the show. It’s weird to think of him now as “that creepy guy from Morning Joe.”
Am I surprised? Yes and no. I haven’t read every single detail of the allegations but my first impression was that they didn’t quite cross the line from creepy to criminal. That line is extremely fuzzy. Is it a crime to be creepy? It shouldn’t be. But I fully support his removal from the show and NBC, because it sends the clear message that while it may not be a crime to be creepy, it certainly isn’t acceptable in polite society. Will criminal charges be filed? I don’t know enough about the law to answer that. My hunch is no unless it happened recently, and the allegations appear to go back some ten or more years.
I’ll be honest, my very first thought was: Oh, this is retribution for Morning Joe’s coverage of the president, and part of the White House’s passive war on journalists. That’s just a wild conspiracy theory with no basis in fact, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to learn someday that forces sympathetic to the White House had some hand in exposing Halperin’s misdeeds to the public.
Kevin Spacey
We learned from BuzzFeed that Kevin Spacey allegedly assaulted 14-year-old Anthony Rapp in 1986. (I link to BuzzFeed only for historical context. That is not a credible news source.) Again, it’s Hollywood, so not a huge surprise that potentially unpleasant things happen at Hollywood parties.
I’m aware that putting “allegedly” into that sentence up there somehow makes *me* the bad guy, but I don’t like to try people too much in the court of public opinion based on one BuzzFeed article. BuzzFeed, if I haven’t been clear, is a gossip rag, and nobody should read it.
I’ll be perfectly honest, I find it a bit suspicious. If Rapp wanted to file charges against Kevin Spacey for committing a crime, it’s one thing, but making an allegation like that to BuzzFeed? It doesn’t make much sense. Rapp clearly wants to destroy Spacey’s career without having to go through the bother of a trial. It seems highly unlikely that charges could even be brought for something that happened in 1986. It’s not at all clear that it would have been legally considered as sexual assault, pedophilia, or any variation thereof, and no doubt someone told Rapp that he didn’t have a case, so he went to BuzzFeed instead.
Far more disturbing to me than the alleged crime is the fact that Kevin Spacey’s career is probably over now based on one BuzzFeed article, and nobody is giving it a second thought. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not crying over Kevin Spacey, he’s going to be fine. He’s not going to jail, and if we never see or hear from him again, he’s going to have a far better retirement than I ever will. But what if it had been an actor who was just starting his career?
Netflix announced House of Cards will end after season 6, so at least a fictional President can be destroyed by sexual assault allegations.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) October 30, 2017
Exhibit A. Mr. @Pappiness is celebrating that *allegations* can destroy someone. Literally celebrating it, right there in black and white. He’s apparently quite happy that there is a way to circumvent the rule of law in this country, throw out “presumed innocent until proven guilty”–the basis of protecting the rights of citizens from tyrants for hundreds of years–and destroy anyone at will for any reason.
Forget nuclear war and guns, social media is the biggest danger to the world. Nobody has to pass a background check to get on Twitter or Facebook.
