So each morning now we rise and ask two questions…
- What horrible thing has Donald Trump done to try and enrich wealthy people, pander to his base and/or just plain expunge something the Obama administration did?
- What prominent person has been fired or forced to resign because of complaints of improper sexual behavior?
This morning, the answers seem to be "Retweeting Anti-Muslim videos" and "Matt Lauer."
On the second question, people are asking, "Where does it end?" I dunno. It will end if and when people in power stop thinking they can get away with it so they stop doing it. Doubtlessly today, a lot of human beings who might have committed assaults and infringements are looking at what's going on and deciding not to do what they might otherwise have done. Good for them…but there are still a lot of past misdeeds that cannot be erased. I wonder how many people, out of fear and/or guilt, are quietly apologizing or offering financial consideration to past victims to keep quiet about interactions in days gone by.
I do have a hunch that before we get to the point where the flood narrows to a trickle, we're going to see three things happen. We're going to see at least one prominent, powerful woman accused of sexual harassment by a male. We're going to see one prominent, powerful man who no one suspected was gay accused of sexual harassment by a male. And we're going to see at least one prominent, powerful man accused of sexual harassment by several people, some of whom are male and some of whom are female.
Oh, and I suppose there'll be a transgender case in there, eventually. I don't even want to think how that will work.
I still don't believe this is a bad trend, even if some of the accusations turn out to be false or way overstated. Everyone just needs to remember that punishments should fit crimes and that every crime exists in various degrees. Patting the butt of an adult who does not want you doing that is not the same wrong as rape or pedophilia or sexual extortion. It also helps to keep in mind that much of this is not about sex or only about sex. Much of this is about abuse of power.