It’s something I struggle with. Some bad news comes out about some public persona doing something shitty and they get cancelled. But sometimes I really struggle with giving up the things they’ve made because I like them. There are also occasions where the person has been accused of something and it doesn’t seem true to me, or I think they’re genuinely sorry and have been punished enough, and the context isn’t being considered.
What do you think? Who do you feel conflicted about enjoying?
Louis C.K
The reason he got cancelled was so stupid and everyone made it seem like he raped countless women. Also, he asked permission to do what he did. If anyone around him at that time didn’t like the sound of him doing what he asked permission for, they could’ve said ‘No’ and he wouldn’t have done it. I just didn’t see Louis being that kind of unreasonable guy but that’s what they demonized him as. I think it was all a ploy, to trap him to do what he did so they could demonize him that way.
The only reason I don’t care of him that much these days is because I’m being introduced to more comics, that I am finding Louis’ material very samey. Like always going on about his kids, family life .etc
He has even admitted himself that he was in a position of power over those women and that makes it considerably harder to say no when the person asking could make or break your career.
But I don’t see someone like Louis capable of doing that. If he’s about as upfront as he is in his stand-up, I can’t see him swinging his influence around like that.
He actually said he wielded power irresponsibly. In actuality, I think he handled it as well as one could in his situation. He at least asked. Though he could’ve also asked if he could excuse himself or they could excuse themselves so he can have privacy, something. It could’ve totally flipped over on its head if he just went and did it in a way like “ah fuck these women around me, I wanna jerk off”.
There were far more worse offenders that MeToo brought out than him in comparison.
I found this one difficult. Like they were comparing him to all the other MeToo incidents, like Cosby and Weinstein.
Which is like, there is a serious gradient of crime here. And weighing it all equally like it’s black or white is problematic.
My tinfoil hat is all that accusation and black/white style of blame is what led to the manosphere gaining so much power and attention.
There was a period of time when MeToo was at it’s height that there was very little nuance in how people reacted to any abusive behavior. Probably related to a dam bursting releasing emotions that had been pent up with these things going unpunished, and mostly ignored, for so long. And you’re right, during this time people who should have apologized and shown some sort of behavior that made us believe it was sincere should have been able to return to public life after a period in the wilderness instead of being treated the same (socially, obviously they didn’t get the same legal treatment) as Weinstein and Cosby.
I don’t think your theory is tinfoil hat territory at all. I think a majority of people could go either way in life, on a wide range of things. Most people don’t really give anything a lot of thought, they just fall into patterns dictated by their environment. If someone in their formative years is exposed to something that tickles their sense of unfairness and that leads them into shittier areas of the Internet, a person that could have ended up a nice, normal, boring person can be turned into a piece of shit.