In an attempt to make us wish he'd never come back the man who fled the industry after becoming famous is back suggesting victims of Louis CKs harassment have "brittle-ass spirit" Chappelle also defended Spacey because the guy he assaulted "ended up being gay." I wonder how long till accusations come out about Chappelle. Dave Chappelle Says Louis C.K. Accuser Has a ‘Brittle Ass Spirit’ in Netflix Special | Billboard
The Bachelor 2018, the caucasity of choices!
Whatever Lauren... no not that Lauren, the other Lauren.
(Yes this is partly a joke, there are black women on the Bachelor, even one called Lauren, they just don't all look exactly the same).
In an attempt to make us wish he'd never come back the man who fled the industry after becoming famous is back suggesting victims of Louis CKs harassment have "brittle-ass spirit" Chappelle also defended Spacey because the guy he assaulted "ended up being gay." I wonder how long till accusations come out about Chappelle. Dave Chappelle Says Louis C.K. Accuser Has a ‘Brittle Ass Spirit’ in Netflix Special | Billboard
We watched this the other day, and yeah, that Louis CK thing was bad, although I thought the worst aspect was that he grossly exaggerated what she said as a launching point.
BUT he had a point that kind of touches on something that I've been wondering about. I've seen people acting all surprised when new revelations come out, and I kind of wonder if they know that if you're going to go after the men who do this, it's going to be, like, all of them. I mean, obviously not all, but I wouldn't eat my hat if it were most, depending on where you set the bar. Lots of women, too, and I mean lots lots. And there's only a subset of stories being heard, and that subset has been relatively homogeneous and the tip of the iceberg.
In that piece, Chappelle went on to compare it to the end of apartheid in South Africa, how the problem was so systemic that it would have been not just impossible, but counterproductive, to go after everyone who was complicit, so the solution focused more on resolving the issue without excoriating every single person who was complicit.
So this is something I think about a lot: You remember Antoine Dodson, the "hide your kids, hide your wife" guy? Do you remember the full story, that he interrupted and helped chase off a rapist who'd climbed into his sister's bedroom window and assaulted her as her baby daughter was sleeping next to her? The news interviewed his sister, too, and a lot of internet people were climbing way up her ass because her reaction was apparently not 'traumatized' enough for a lot of people. There were people speculating that she invited the guy in because she was mad instead of cowering in fear or blubbering incoherently. But she was acting relatively normal because, for her, it was relatively normal. It's something that women deal with all the time, and yet, in the coverage now,the media is focusing largely on some of the subsets of women who don't encounter it as regularly. It's focusing on these already pretty wealthy, successful women's stories, including stories about a guy jacking off on the phone.
(Again, that woman's issue with Louis CK is 100% legitimate, Chappelle misrepresented what she said, and the fact that it was Louis CK and not just some rando is a really important part.)
I have no idea if this is what Chappelle had in mind, of course, but I can't help but think that there are probably a lot of women working as motel maids and store clerks and waitresses who have similar reactions to Chappelle's.
In theory, I'm not against the notion of rooting out all the abusive, misogynistic men, and tossing them out of whatever system they've been corrupting. That would actually be pretty cool, at least on paper or in a vacuum. But I don't think a lot of people realize the depth and breadth and height of the problem. That would not be easy, and importantly, it would not work.
Anyway, it was the wrong thing to say, and he did that woman in particular a great disservice by 'summarizing' her position for her. But Dave Chappelle is a really smart, really astute guy most of the time, and I think it's does him a disservice to call that part out but leave out his ultimate point, because it is a valid one.
Which again, a known bigot and misogynist suggesting that it would be counter productive to go after all the sexual assaulters really suggests to me that he's one of them. And who is Chappelle to speak on this anyway?
I realized I'm not sure if I've posted about this here, so a bit more of why I'm at the level of burn it all down, if the industry can't survive without the giant swaths of toxic men, fuck that industry.
Obviously TW, Oakland Counseling Guru Accused of Sexual Assault
Interchange counseling leader accused of sexual assault by 8 women. The story is rather long and worth a read if you can stomach it. But basically rich guru who has built a business/cult around alt-counseling and healing sexual trauma targets and rapes multiple women getting help for sexual trauma under the influence of heavy psychedelics. (Being familiar with some of the drugs mentioned like 2C-B I can tell you the large dose he gave to a complete newbie was irresponsibly huge and potentially dangerous, the numbers got a from me).
He ended up hoisting off a lot of the work on a few women who once they found out about the accusations shut down the business and are working with the victims.
The thing is, I've been part of the kink and poly communities (although currently on the outskirts) for a good 10 or so years and the list of people who I now know are predatory rapists and the list of men who wielded power and were thought to be 'revolutionaries' are very similar and I'm fine with burning them down and starting a new as multiple venues and hosts have stated point blank that they don't find harassment a problem and nothing will be done about it without solid evidence and possibly a court case (filing a court case against anyone is a great way to get ousted from the kink community, partly due to fear of police crack downs and partly because assholes run things. Years ago at one local dungeon they had a policy of banning both parties of a restraining order.)
You should really go read the whole thing. I want to think of something insightful to add, but I just keep circling back to the final words of Slaughterhouse-Five: "Poo-tee-weet?" It's not even really directly relevant, other than that it's another subject it might be impossible to say anything intelligent about.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
The Women's March is probably a more *important* story than the shutdown. It involves less drama/unpredictability, however, so news outlets deem it to be less newsworthy. https://t.co/BT8iDU2cfg
Shutdown is obviously huge story. But still striking the major Sunday shows booked more than dozen lawmakers/officials the morning after massive women's march and none were women: https://t.co/FIYkGlFfo9
(I promise it wasn't intentional that all these tweets were dudes. TBH I'm cribbing the ones in this post from BJ, but figured if I just linked some articles, few people would read them.
Also, if you've PMed me recently, I will respond when I'm capable of more coherent thought. These past few days, in most cases, I'm lucky to be able to string together more than a few sentences. Especially today. Spending a couple of hours in a particularly noisy environment last night seriously worsened my depersonalisation/derealisation problems, which had been steadily improving until the past few days.)
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
The media is (belatedly) starting to report about an absolutely repulsive case of systematic abuse and cover-ups in gymnastics, a sport that is apparently rife with them. ESPN has a piece that is evidently very good, but I don't currently have the stomach to read it. TW for all kinds of horrific sexual violence and abuse and apologia and cover-ups therefor and thereof.
__________________
Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith