The Fall of Harvey Weinstein

Your story made my skin crawl. I really hope that was not someone hunting young boys, but you never know. I don’t even put my arms around my friends and squeeze… can’t imagine doing that with someone I only kind of know and who I work with. Hell in work photos, hands down and a lot of uncomfortable squirming when the camera person keeps telling us to get closer to be in the shot.

I’ve hugged people I don’t know that well. In almost every case it’s because of some tragic event.

It’s very cultural, which is something I’ve been very aware of in my time in India. For example it has not been uncommon for strangers to want to take photos in what is arms on shoulders squeezed in conditions. Friends holding hands, even if the same sex, is very common, and does not have the same connotations of sexual interest. The level of physical contact is very different than it is in the US.

I also have family members that have very different degrees of physical contact. One aunt in particular will give people she only met recently hugs as if they were a long lost sibling.

Which is not to say the hand on knee thing is normal. Just that the same act can have very different contextual meanings. Something I’ve been acutely aware of these last 8 weeks.

My default state is closer to what @Nesrie describes. So it has been… interesting. I’ve had to let go some of my natural inclination here, it simply isn’t feasible. Especially in a bus.

TIL Craig is probably getting semi- molested on Indian bus rides.

Lol, the act of getting on and off a bus invariably involves, well, pressing the flesh. You’ve seen videos of the people in Chinese train stations pushing people onto the train as ticghtly as possible?

That. Now picture yourself as the guy sitting in the seat away from the doors, and having 1km to go before your stop. It’s like swimming in a ball pit made of people.

Exactly. This is the beginnings of a strategy of deflection and derision in an attempt to undermine what’s coming. They see the Dems expelling Conyers and Franken, big names and party leaders, over accusations like this, and they know the public focus will soon turn to Republicans accused of similar actions, including his Orangeness. They think if they can get out in front of it by saying how outrageous it is that the Democrats are Kangaroo Courting their own, and how it’s all a liberal plot to unseat the President over “baseless accusations from years ago”, they can somehow convince the masses that Trump and Company should stay put.

The sad truth is, they’ll probably succeed, because America has become just that tribal politically. There will even be legions of women who feel it’s better to have a sexual predator in the White House than a Democrat.

If i worked for the Republicans, and i were evil, i would create a false flag operation and hire a bunch of women willing to be caught lying about their accusations about sexual harassment / assault on some public figure.

The only thing that will slow down #metoo is when a high profile case turns out to be false.

Er…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/a-woman-approached-the-post-with-dramatic--and-false--tale-about-roy-moore-sje-appears-to-be-part-of-undercover-sting-operation/2017/11/27/0c2e335a-cfb6-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html

Oh… right. Nice catch. Wow.

It’s not really trial by newspaper.

Yes, the newspaper uncover a story, and they’re clearly doing fact checking, but then come a dozen or more women. It’s not as if these are one-off behaviors. The companies are also investigating.

And let’s be clear here, trial by jury isn’t exactly possible in many of these cases. I thought we already had this discussion on a national level with Cosby. Oh wait. I forgot. That was different. He was black.

There will be legions of women who believe the victim is part of the problem and that the amount of time that has passed in many of these cases voids all concerns.

Franken resigns. Well, he will resign in a few weeks, protesting his innocence all the while, but also saying that women accusing harrassers should be listened to.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?438270-1/senator-al-franken-announces-plan-resign-in-coming-weeks&live=&vod

So he will wait until after any tax cut votes?

Given he’s in the minority, it kind of doesn’t matter, does it?

It’s just a matter of time before people start leveraging this movement for political gain. I fully expect nefarious Republican agents to try to bring down the next big-name Democrat this way. I hope they remain as unsophisticated and obvious as the O’Keefe/WaPo attempt.

I was thinking more that the only way to shut down #metoo, which the Repubicans surely and really want to do, is to have a high-profile case blow up the wrong way. Have a bunch of women accuse… dunno, Rand Paul… some prominent Republican… only to discover that everything they’ve said is a lie. All the people jumping on the Tar-and-Feather train get egg on their face, and #metoo is forced to slow down, and it will then fizzle out and end.

Republicans are going to weaponize #metoo, like they weaponize everything, since they’re operate asymmetrically, that’s a foregone conclusion imo.

Atlhough… maybe not. Maybe i have read this wrong. With so many high profile people in media and entertainment getting pegged - and these disproportionately are liberal leaning persons and industries - maybe they want to keep the #metoo fires burning because they themselves are more fire proof to accusations and they think they can set liberals to sacrificing one another and leaving chaos in their wake. I think they’ll wait and see about the results of the Alabama election before committing to one or another strategy.

Maybe, if there are enough/any GOP No votes or abstentions.

I also got the impression that he still wanted to be examined, and perhaps partially vindicated, by an Ethics Committee investigation.

Good work by WaPo. I recently watched a documentary about Ben Bradlee, WaPo’s legendary editor. I really think that since Jeff Bezo has taken over the Washington Post has been starting to return to their former glory.

Like I’ve said throughout the modern day social mob justice and identity politics nonsense: liberals can sharpen that sword as much as they want, but they can’t choose who picks it up.