From the start of the MeToo movement, I have supported the bravery of those coming forward with their experiences of sexual harassment and assault. MeToo has made clear how men, in particular, have misused their power to harm others, and I will continue to support the dramatic changes our nation needs unless they negatively impact me.
We must alter our society and the behavior of men toward women, and we must not stop unless there is a threat to my public reputation, career goals, or behavior.
Changing our society isn’t enough, though. What’s needed is justice, and I will continue to call for justice until I end up on the wrong side of this thing.
This is not just about a few stories. This is about a disturbing pattern of power, abuse, fear, silencing, covering up, and threats, and we need to dismantle this pattern every single time it comes up in a situation that doesn’t involve me, my friends, or the organizations I support.
Take the latest accusations against me. Are they true? Is anything “true” in a world where reality is a collection of perceptions shot through a prism of power and propaganda, producing a spectrum of cognitive opportunities that you choose based on what you assume is best for you?
They’re worse than untrue; they’re flat-out disadvantageous.
My supporters know me. The real me, which is an assemblage of stories and images propagated by national media and filtered through people’s consciousness based on what they want me to be.
My friends know me, too, and they know I would never do this. If you’ve ever studied criminals like I have, you would know that criminals are constantly committing crimes. “How am I doing? Well, I’m currently committing a bunch of crimes, so pretty good,” they’ll say when you try to talk to them. This is one reason why it’s very easy to catch criminals: all they do is commit crimes, and they’re never not committing crimes.
Some people think that those who regularly engage in bad behavior, like unwanted kissing, have probably done something even worse. It makes sense on the surface, but this view is incorrect, because if you don’t know the difference between “want” and “don’t want,” then you can never do anything unwanted.
The timing of this accusation is very fishy, too. Who could have possibly predicted that the closer a person comes to being in charge of our nation’s laws or courts, the more likely someone is to say, “That’s not a good idea”?
This accusation is also completely isolated, in the sense that people are assuming it’s isolated from all the other accusations against me.
If these accusations were actually true, then the accuser would have come forward back when nobody would have listened to her. But she never did, and she never told anyone except for the people she told. Fishy, indeed.
What we really should be doing is investigating the accuser. That’s how our criminal justice system works, ideally: if you accuse someone of a crime, then the cops show up at your house, go through your garbage, and ignore the person you’re accusing until you tell them why you wrote a weird blog post in 2015.
Think about who benefits from these accusations. It’s a bunch of people who aren’t me. Is that fair? Or is that one step away from societal collapse?
My organization could replace me, but what good would that do? Make it better able to succeed? Well, I’d like to see them try to succeed without the leadership of someone mired in scandal.
I have never claimed to be a perfect person, but I have always been moral. And by moral, I mean sympathetic.
Electoral politics always involve arguing, but we don’t want this to turn into a circular firing squad. We want this to be a firing squad targeting one specific person who has been assaulted.
This whole MeToo movement has become a real threat to the MeToo movement. I’m starting to think the biggest barrier to women getting equality is women wanting equality.
The court of public opinion is not a legitimate court. It is based on hearsay, assumptions, and performative fury. Then again, as Senator Kristen Gillibrand has said, “This is not a court of law; this is a job interview.” Adding: “[This process is] telling American women that your voice doesn’t matter. It’s telling survivors everywhere that your experiences don’t count, they’re not important, and they are not to be believed. We are saying that women are worth less than a man’s promotion.”
I have denied these accusations vehemently and will continue to do so until people close to me tell me to stop. But all the people close to me are delusional hypocrites, so that’s probably not going to happen.