So the open secret that Harvey Weinstein is a vile swine and sex predator is out.\u00a0 He\u2019s been doing it for decades, lots of people knew it, and lots of people worked to cover it up. He was, says the Kansas Star<\/em>, the Democrat Roger Ailes<\/a>: a powerful bully people were terrified to cross, a rapist and a perv.\u00a0 The people who protected and sucked up to him were largely on the Left.\u00a0 Media types from the NY Times<\/em> on down.\u00a0 Matt Damon did his bit to silence incorrect thought.\u00a0 So did Russell Crowe.\u00a0 Bill and Hill and Barack all kept mum and showered him with encomiums as he showered them with money. Only now are the Streeps, Winslets, and Closes plucking up the guts to say something.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s not like they didn\u2019t know. Lots of people knew:<\/p>\n Manhattan\u2019s district attorney knew, too. In 2015, Weinstein\u2019s lawyer\u00a0donated<\/a>\u00a0$10,000 to the campaign of Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance after he declined to file sexual assault charges against the producer. Given the number of stories that have circulated for so long, Weinstein must have spread millions around New York, Los Angeles, and Europe to pay off lawyers and buy silence, including the silence of his victims. But he had something else going for him, too. He knew his victims would be reluctant to go public because it might suggest that some of their success, their fame even, was a function of their inability to protect themselves from being humiliated by a man who set the bar for humiliating others at the precise level of his own self-loathing.<\/p>\n One of the refrains you hear today from media experts and journalists is that they\u2019d known about Weinstein\u2019s transgressions for a long time. The problem, they say, was that no one was able to nail down the story.<\/p>\n Nonsense. Everyone had it, not just Waxman. Sure, reporters hadn\u2019t been able to get any stars to go on the record. But that means the story journalists were pursuing wasn\u2019t really about Weinstein\u2019s sexual depredations. It means that what they wanted was a story about actresses, junior executives, or assistants who had been humiliated, maybe raped, and chose to remain quiet in exchange for money and\/or a shot at fame.<\/p>\n Of course no one was going to get that on the record\u2014very few journalists would even want to publish a story like that. But journalists always had the actual story of how a Hollywood producer humiliated and sexually assaulted women. How? Because he victimized journalists.<\/p>\n Fox News reporter Lauren Sivan\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Huffington Post that a decade ago, Weinstein masturbated in front of her. She says she didn\u2019t say anything at the time, when she was an anchor on a local cable show, because she was \u201cfearful of the power that Weinstein wielded in the media.\u201d She was right and her fear was understandable.<\/p>\n Writing in\u00a0New York Magazine<\/em><\/a>, Rebecca Traister remembers the time when she asked Weinstein an interview question at a book party, he screamed at her, spit in her face, called her a \u201cc\u2014t,\u201d and then put her boyfriend in a headlock and dragged him to the street. Traister said nothing at the time because she figured she had little chance against \u201cthat kind of force.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t blame her or Sivan for not saying anything, never mind reporting the story. Weinstein is violent, vindictive, and litigious\u2014as well as sexually abusive\u2014facts that the entertainment and political media knew for years. No one wanted to publish that story. But that\u2019s not the same thing as \u201cnot being able to nail it down.\u201d \u201cNailing it down\u201d would have amounted to nothing more than printing a collection of facts under a byline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Violent, vindictive, litigious.\u00a0 And so people kept their mouths shut out of terror for their careers.\u00a0 What changed was not a sudden burst of courage (though some people, like Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd had the stones to say something) but the fact that Weinstein lost his grip on his power to hurt people who said something.\u00a0 The media he controlled got away from him as the internet gutted his financial power and he lost the ability to twist nipples and grab groins, both literally and financially.\u00a0 Loss of power meant loss of power to hurt <\/em>and that meant people started speaking.<\/p>\n Some people at least.\u00a0 As the Babylon Bee<\/em> has noted, some voice have been remarkably mute in all this:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Late Night Hosts So Disgusted By Harvey Weinstein Scandal They Refuse To Even Mention His Name<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This has, I repeat, been going on for decades. One editor at the NY Times did not see it as newsworthy because \u201che\u2019s not a publicly elected official.\u201d<\/a> And of course, he has purchased some of the best feminist cred money can buy. So the correct thing was to ignore\u2013and intimidate\u2013the victims.<\/p>\n Indeed, in a thoroughly Clintonian move, Weinstein has wheeled out Authentic Female Donna Karan to perform the tried and true stunt of accusing his victims of being nuts and sluts<\/a>\u2013gold-digging liars who are just after the Great Man\u2019s money and their 15 minutes of fame.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all a bit a late for that given that his wife has dumped him and expressed pity for his victims <\/a>and his former properties are erasing his memory faster than a Stalinist could airbrush Trotsky out of every photo with the Dear Leader<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nope. The creepy old predator is toast. As somebody said, they are not erasing him from existence because they <\/em>found out he was a sex predator. They are erasing his memory because we <\/em>found out he was a sex predator. And the Hollywood culture that protected him for years is left trying to explain their cowardice and, worse still, their active cooperation in adding a second layer of victimization to each and every one of his victim\u2019s lives. It\u2019s much of a muchness with the year\u2019s long protection of Bill Cosby and the vile persecution of his fifty plus victims.<\/p>\n What drove it? Money and power, of course. Weinstein could destroy your career and ruin you financially. So victims kept their mouths shut, bystanders looked the other way, and those with vest interests actively helped out in silencing those who might have an over-active conscience. Nothing personal. Strictly business. And besides, look at all the good he does for the arts, for sundry Correct Causes, and for the Right Sort of People. So shut up.<\/p>\n Filthy. Ugly. Dirty. Cowardly. What I expect from fallen man.<\/p>\n And then I turn to the response of the Christian Right and the Party of God and what do I find? Not empathy for the victims but elation at the hypocrisy of the Left. Turn to right wing site after right wing site and the festive atmosphere and fake dudgeon are everywhere Ho! Ho! Hillary? Busted<\/a>! Obama? Busted<\/a>! SNL? Busted<\/a>! It\u2019s Christmas in October! What a great day! Why? Because at long last we can deflect from the fact that the Leader of the Party of God, Family, and Life\u2013our God-Anointed Constantine Donald Trump is a documented and self-confessed sex predator and let fly with some good fake outrage at Weinstein. His victims? Who cares? Let\u2019s focus on some really good gloating at his enablers, our culture war enemies.<\/p>\n Now here\u2019s the thing: I don\u2019t expect people who profess no adherence to Christian morals to observe Christian morals. The servant who does not know his master\u2019s will and does not do it will be beaten with few blows. But I do expect those who not only profess Christian morals but profess to represent them better than anybody on earth to observe Christian morals.<\/p>\n So the scandal to me is not that pagans have behaved like pagans, but that Super Christian Trump supporters have staunchly defended their fave sex predator for a year and are now greeting this story, not with outrage for the victims, but with delight <\/em>that they finally have a Culture War enemy who can take the heat off Their Guy.<\/p>\n And they are busy doing exactly that and have done so since he confessed himself\u00a0 a sex predator.\u00a0 Recall, for instance, how\u00a0Raymond Arroyo did a complete softball interview with our future Sex Predator-in-Chief<\/a>\u00a0a year ago and gave him a complete forum to lie through his teeth about his documented confession of sexual assault\u2013sexual assault then confirmed by multiple victims:<\/p>\n Last night, EWTN aired\u00a0an interview with Donald Trump,<\/a>\u00a0conducted by Raymond Arroyo, the host of their weekly news magazine show. The whole thing was not exactly surreal, but it was closer to that than to a standard journalistic interview. It had the feel of an audition: Not for Trump to be president, but for Arroyo to work at FOX News.<\/p>\n It is important to keep in mind that during the primaries, Trump showed up for interviews anywhere and anytime. Since the Republican convention and the arrival of Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager, Trump mostly has limited his interviews to friendly hosts on FOX. Certainly, since the Billy Bush video leaked, Trump has not been available to do an interview on, say, \u201cThe Rachel Maddow Show\u201d or even \u201cGood Morning America.\u201d So, last night\u2019s interview on EWTN tells us something about how Republican operatives view Arroyo and EWTN: It is Catholic FOX, a place where you can pretend to ask the tough questions, but where the winking and nodding is almost palpable.<\/p>\n Arroyo opened the interview with a question about the women who have accused Trump of sexually assaulting them. \u201cIt\u2019s all made up!\u201d Trump asserted, explaining that many media outlets had definitively disproven the claims made by the accusers, although this claim is demonstrably untrue. Arroyo did not challenge him on the untruth he had just spoken, but he did ask a follow-up about people who still have doubts, and he referenced the Billy Bush video in his question. \u201cLocker room talk\u201d said Trump, an answer which has not satisfied many Americans these past couple of weeks but which apparently satisfied Arroyo. He moved on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That was a year ago and there is no word for it then but \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.\u00a0 But nothing has changed.\u00a0 Trump\u2019s \u201cgrab \u2019em by the pussy\u201d remarks were not \u201clocker room talk\u201d.\u00a0 They were a confession of what he has done<\/em> and the term for it is \u201csexual assault\u201d just like Weinstein\u2019s sexual assaults.\u00a0 And yet by winks and nods and unchallenged lies, Arroyo very clearly conveyed to his audience that Trump\u2019s behavior, while rascally, is perfectly fine and he wilfully gave them moral permission, not only to forget it, but to approve it as roguish and charming and (mark this) as proof that Trump\u2019s\u00a0 victims are liars.\u00a0 And that programming delivered to Catholic Trump supporters, they have simply continued parroting it ever since.\u00a0 You can go all over St. Blog\u2019s to this day and hear the same tired rubbish that, while Trump is \u201cflawed\u201d (that\u2019s the euphemism for \u201csex predator\u201d) we have to support him because\u00a0look at all the good he does for sundry Correct Causes, and for the Right Sort of People. So shut up.\u00a0 In other words, opposition to abortion (or at least blabbering about it while his party refunds Planned Parenthood<\/a>) taketh away the sins of the rapist.<\/p>\n The servant who knows his Master\u2019s will and does not do it will be beaten with many blows. The one to whom much is given, much will be required. Weinstein is a swine and his silent defenders and open bullies are doing what I expect pagans to do: saving their miserable skins at the expense of victims.<\/p>\n But what conceivable defense can Christian Trump defenders\u2013who most of them have no skins to lose and instead freely<\/em> prostitute themselves to this predator\u2013offer for joining in with the \u201cnuts and sluts\u201d attacks on his victims and with affirming his lies in denial of his sexual assaults?<\/p>\n I do not think Weinstein\u2019s defenders helpless moral ciphers. I think them gutless cowards and\/or victims (especially the women in the industry who stayed silent out of fear of destruction). But in the end, I don\u2019t expect pagans to act out of noble self-sacrifice except in really exceptional cases. I expect, at most, some pagan virtues with a huge admixture of venal selfishness. That\u2019s what I see in the Weinstein story and, while appalling, it is not surprising. Cowards bowed to a vicious bully and either kept quiet or played the party of the active toady, as you would expect.<\/p>\n What I never expected was the spectacle of the Religious Right, who I took seriously 20 years ago as disciples of Jesus, to lie their heads off for our Sex Predator-in-Chief and to greet this story with barely concealed delight since its victims are so useful<\/em>, but with not actual interest in the victims beyond their utility in the Culture war.<\/p>\n Russell Moore is right: The Religious Right are the people the Religious Right warned us about 20 years ago. They could not care less about the victims of either Trump or Weinstein, nor of Clinton, except insofar as they are useful tools in a struggle for power. The stench of antichrist hangs around the whole thing and is nowhere more pungent than in the precincts of the Religious Power Broker in the court of Trump, trying to parlay this into a win for their favorite rapist. The victims, the only people who really matter in all this, are nothing but pawns in this spectacle.<\/p>\n In conclusion, here is my suggestion for making all this a little less disgusting and directing our gaze to where it belongs: Here is the Donor Page of Feminists for Life<\/a> who, among other things, provide support for victims of sexual assault<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Instead of setting our eyes on earthly things, like the stupid contest of \u201cwhich culture war hero is less rapey?\u201d why not instead focus our energies on the victims of these creeps? Instead of rooting for either of the elephants, why not help the grass they trample instead?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So the open secret that Harvey Weinstein is a vile swine and sex predator is out.\u00a0 He\u2019s been doing it for decades, lots of people knew it, and lots of people worked to cover it up. He was, says the Kansas Star, the Democrat Roger Ailes: a powerful bully people were terrified to cross, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[715],"class_list":["post-101306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-consistent-life-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\n