#MeToo? It’s time for #MeNeither
Social justice warriors and feminists have ruined #MeToo with baseless accusations of sexual abuse
I wrote a long, detailed, well-documented piece in 2016 that never saw the light of day because a social justice warrior editor couldn’t stand to see someone get in the way of ad hominem attacks being lobbed at Donald Trump. While I am no Trump fan, because I hate censorship and cowardice, I’ve now published it retroactively. Jessica Leeds, Rachael Crooks, and Mindy McGillivray accused candidate Trump of sexual indiscretions, and my piece focuses on the many flaws and inconsistencies in the accusations, giving the impression to any who would look more closely than the tantrums of the liberal mainstream media that Trump was being smeared. Now it’s 2018 (ugh), and this #MeToo nonsense has gotten way out of hand. Have you ever sexually assaulted someone? Yeah, #MeNeither.
Eventually, no one believed the boy who cried wolf because they all learned that he was just completely full of shit. And after a certain amount of hollering, no one believed Chicken Little, either … although I don’t know why they would have believed him in the first place since … well, he’s a chicken with a medieval — at best — grasp of elementary physics.
The #MeToo movement has taken the third wave of feminism even further down the toilet bowl while simultaneously providing a lesson on the idiocy and inevitable injustice of “social justice.” And I can summarize that argument succinctly by pointing out that real justice has no modifier. Justice is just justice, and referring to “social” justice is dumb, because if what is being discussed can’t be referred to simply as “justice,” is it really justice? At least lately, “social” justice usually ends up manifesting as gender or racial bias, both of which are often unjust. (I would refer simply to the deleterious effects of Affirmative Action and rest my case.)
There’s nothing just about ruining someone’s life with mere accusations.
I should pause and say that I stopped identifying as a feminist publicly when the third wave — the cresting movement that has been rightfully described as cancer — reached a certain height of hysteria. (See the messes left behind by the recent Women’s Marches and tell me that the third wave of feminism is about social responsibility.) I still identify as a first- and second-wave feminist. But most people don’t know what that means, and being a first- or second-wave feminist in 2018 really just means that you believe in basic standards of equality that are fairly unanimously accepted. In other words, with the exception of outright misogynists, pretty much everyone in the West is a first- and second-wave feminist, even a lot of conservatives.
But to return to the #MeToo movement, there is nothing feminist about it in the classical sense of the word. It has devolved into the Spanish Inquisition 2.0, or as Liam Neeson aptly described it, a witch hunt.
I think that actual sexual predators, molesters, rapists, etc. should be castrated and/or imprisoned. But I thought that there was this thing called due process and this concept called innocence until proven guilt.
Imagine a man. Okay, we’ll make it an old rich white man so you can hate his guts. (Ageism, classism, and racism: the holy trinity of identity politics.)
So you want to ruin his life because he deserves it since he’s like part of the patriarchy or whatever? Great! All you have to do, thanks to the social deterioration brought about by gibbering swarms of social justice warriors, is publicly accuse him of a sexually related crime.
Easy peasy, diarrheasy.
You don’t have to prove anything.
You don’t need evidence.
You can appeal purely to emotion with zero facts to back up your claim, and from Aziz Ansari to Garrison Keillor, recent history has shown that that’s literally all you need to do.
Before Harvey Weinstein went down in flames, I watched the tentacles of this shambolic movement crack the pavement and slither upwards towards our collective throats when Milo Yiannopoulos resigned as an editor at Breitbart after being accused of endorsing pedophilia (which he did not do). It’s the oldest trick in the book of dirty politics to accuse someone of sexual indiscretions — and the more taboo, the better.
All someone had to do was smear Yiannopoulos with this accusation and he was done — although it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to him seeing where he has ended up.
I have had this happen to me, although it didn’t ruin my life. I had a person, who shall remain nameless, formally accuse me of sexual and physical abuse, which I didn’t commit, as an attempt at revenge. (I’m about as much as a sexual predator as Ben Shapiro.) I’ve read the accusations, photocopied and sent to me by the court. They were immediately thrown out, of course, but I now know what it’s like to have someone in my past — someone who has no scruples whatsoever and believes that retribution is an endeavor worth sinking to slander for — make a lunge for the jugular.
Do you know what that’s like?
This hasn’t stopped her from trying to ruin my life in other ways, but she didn’t succeed along the sexual-accusation route.
Furthermore, I myself been sexually harassed plenty of times. In my bartending days, I had some extremely aggressive waitresses suggest a few fairly imaginative on-the-clock activities, and their attempts at coercion didn’t exclude … well, physical persuasion. Since I don’t cheat on my partners — never have and never will — their endeavors were frustrated.
I’m not going to get into my musical theater days, my gigging days, or all the shit that happened in my apartment, but it illustrates that unrequited sexual advances are not solely the bailiwick of the male species.
And hey, it does illustrate to a degree the extent to which the first and second waves of feminism were successful. I mean what better evidence that the playing field has been leveled somewhat that women are now sexually harassing men? Should I link to one of the gorillions of stories about schoolteacher X fired for banging high school student Y?
So I, too, have every right to go on Twitter and start boo-hooing about how I’m a victim and slap yet another #MeToo on the asscheeks of the internet followed by Instagramming pics of avocado toast sprinkled with my hot, wet tears.
I’m not going to, partly because the victim card sucks … and admittedly also because while it may have been uncomfortable at the moment, I can’t say that I have entirely negative memories about handsy waitresses.
But moreover, the reason not to flippantly misuse #MeToo is because it can dilute the importance of actual sexual abuse. There are real rapists out there, and all this #MeToo stuff is creating a social white noise that acts as camouflage for the real monsters. Some of the stories are true, but the rest of it is crying wolf, and I think that some are already starting to tune it out.
I allege that someone who uses #MeToo for attention is an antifeminist, and here’s why: Sooner or later, Americans are sure to realize that some of those men are innocent. Sooner or later, people will start wondering where the actual evidence is. Eventually, people are going to start tuning out at least some of these accusations — both the baseless and the legitimate. This will render the real victims voiceless.
What I’m afraid is going to start happening, if it hasn’t already, is that everyone is going to start accusing everyone else of sexual assault, and not only will it damage a lot of innocent people but it will create a social callous against actual sexual abuse.
Sooner or later, women who have actually been raped, molested, or attacked but do not have evidence are going to bravely try to speak up. Maybe a friend, a classmate, your sister, your niece, your daughter … who knows? And it’s troubling to imagine that they might be ignored because their wolf-crying SJW sisters decided that smashing the patriarchy or whatever they imagine they’re doing was more important than actual justice.
Anyone who has legitimately been abused should hate the #MeToo movement. Americans nearly unanimously decry sexual abuse, and I number among them. It should be reported immediately and punished harshly, and victims should be forthcoming with any damning evidence they have about their own abuse or that of others immediately — not years later when it’s safe and cool and trendy and politically fashionable to pin a hashtag to it. Do you see any honor or justice in that? #MeNeither.
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“It should be reported immediately and punished harshly, and victims should be forthcoming with any damning evidence they have about their own abuse or that of others immediately — not years later when it’s safe…”
Jason, with all due respect, real victims (as you suggest not everyone voicing their experience is), don’t just “report immediately” nor do they bring forth any “damning evidence” because the reality of sexual violation is a horrifying experience that MOST victims want to forget and hide. This type of victimization comes with an enormous amount of shame. It is paralyzing and debilitating. I hope you never have the experience to relate firsthand, but I don’t think you have to in order to respect the reality of a survivor. You speak intelligently on the topic of feminism; however, there is a lack of sensitivity for the dignity of those true victims, most of whom are women — as is the product of our patriarchal culture that still exists today… shall I state the obvious that Utah is a prime example? I encourage you to remember these survivors (and the vulnerable young girls here in our family-friendly state) in your frustration with false accusations. Statistically, false reports account for approximately 6% of all reports of sexual assault, making 94% accurate. And do you know how many “real” assaults go unreported?
Please consider this in your reaction to the voice these survivors are finding. Not all are false accusations and by highlighting the unfair experience you had, inevitably you run the risk of further silencing a “real” victim. Please be cautious with your words. I send you love and hope for healing from your own difficult exploitation.
Thanks for your comment.
Regardless of how horrifying the experience may be or how much victims may want to forget about it, nothing can be done to pursue justice if the victims do not speak up. I cannot speak to the paralysis or shame, although I would not minimize them. My thinking is that speaking up despite those influences requires both courage and training. This is why we should enable our young women to be courageous rather than enabling them to constantly feel victimized. It seems that every young woman should know what to do if she has been the victim of, god forbid, the unspeakable — just as we should all know what to do if there is, god forbid, a tornado.
I can appreciate the perspective that I may seem insensitive. All I can say is that I have four immediate family members who have been raped. I have a seven-year-old daughter. In addition, I am a secular Buddhist, and my main concern in life, besides the promotion of truth, is the reduction of suffering. On the Myers-Briggs scale, I am an INTP. I examine facts and present what I find without compromise. And I will admit that I do enjoy wielding the English language like a rapier, when I can manage it.
Regardless, rest assured that the matter is quite close to my heart. No one wants to ensure a safe country in which to live for my daughter more than I do.
I sincerely doubt that more than half of accusations of sexual abuse are false; however, it seems quite apparent that several of the recent high-profile accusations have been dubious at best. The fact remains that as with all crimes, evidence is necessary to prosecute. Without that, we cannot prosecute, and if we were to begin to prosecute without evidence — as society has begun to do in the public sphere — we risk the erosion of the fundamental liberties that are the glue that binds our country together. When an accusation becomes an indictment, women are ultimately at even greater risk overall, because both sexes can play that game.
I sense the sarcasm in your “family-friendly” comment and can relate. I don’t believe that Utah society is inherently patriarchal; I believe that it is only seemingly so due to the poisonous effect of Mormonism and the totalitarian and quite patriarchal (as well as racist and misogynist) LDS Church upon society here. Eliminate that toxin and the garden of liberty can and will flourish.
I hope you will read my rebuttal to the rebuttal to a related piece that I recently wrote tomorrow morning. We should all do what we can to support the real victims while doing what we can to prevent an atmosphere of witch hunting wherein revenge becomes misandry and justice retreats into the distance.
I think we must all look to the original Star Trek series for an answer. If that doesn’t work, then look at The Orville. Equality is a fine line, and the ultimate answer is respect. However generation gaps exist, and in the past, consensus reality was different. You cannot use today’s standards to judge the past. No doubt many have suffered and if we go back 2000 years, it becomes an even crazier consensus reality. The key is to make adjustments and move in a forward direction. Men and,women are different, and that structure has evolved over time. Let’s not judge, or for that matter prejudge one another. The common ground is understanding our differences. WE NEED to move into the,future, and not let the past get in the way. Otherwise, poor Captain Kirk would have no one to share his life.
I would prefer that we not refer to pop culture and instead fall back on that old stalwart: reason.
Equality is not a fine line. 1=1. There is no fine line to be spoken of. What you appear to be discussing is equity, not equality.
Not only can we use today’s standards to judge the past, we simply must. Otherwise, you would have us descend into medieval morality, which would be tantamount to an abandonment of morality.
We must judge, it is imperative that in a free society we judge, but what I think you are saying is that we must not immediately condemn, at least not in a knee-jerk fashion. If that is the intention behind your words, we agree. Captain Kirk was a bit of a misogynist, and I would prefer not to use him as a yardstick for public policy.
But I will always condemn that which is false.
LOL “a voice for Southern Utah”