“Men are garbage.”
That was the social justice meme that swept through the culture as the #MeToo movement brought down a horde of famous men. The bigoted idea that certain groups (e.g. heterosexual white men) are inherently evil or privileged is a central creed of the racist, sexist and heterophobic church of the left).
Like so many of the left’s other beliefs, this was a reversion to pagan tribalism. Religious civilization taught us that all people are potentially “garbage” when they lack values and give in to their impulses.
No gender, race or identity politics group is inherently a victim. None is inherently a perpetrator. We are measured by our values.
And so the #MeToo scandal reached Asia Argento, one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers.
Argento is accused of plying a 17-year-old boy with alcohol and then pressuring him into sex. It’s not quite up there with Harvey’s track record.
But that’s not really the point.
Harvey Weinstein’s defense was that it was the industry. And there’s a certain truth to that. A truth that does not exculpate him in any way.
But it took so long to expose Harvey’s open secret because while he was Caligula, he was doing business in Rome. His crime was to be far more of a glutton than average, but his behavior wasn’t out of step, only its extremity was.
The problem wasn’t that Harvey Weinstein was a white heterosexual man. Kevin Spacey was a gay man. Bill Cosby was a black man. Asia Argento is a woman. If we dig deep enough, there will be scandals covering the whole constellation of identities.
It’s a values problem.
Values apply to everyone. They transcend identity politics. And they define the choices you make. In America, no one is inherently a victim or a perpetrator. That’s a choice we all make. And a member of any identity politics group has the power to make that choice.
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