The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Death of #MeToo: ‘To Be Fair, It Was Never Actually About Helping Women’

Posted on | September 1, 2023 | Comments Off on The Death of #MeToo: ‘To Be Fair, It Was Never Actually About Helping Women’

The headline quote is Professor Glenn Reynolds’ reaction to a post by Jazz Shaw about how “the #MeToo movement abandoned women.”

The thought occurs to me, “Is Jazz Shaw really so naïve as to believe the liberals were arguing in good faith?” And this in turn reminds me of something I once remarked about Conor Friedersdorf, namely that his basic problem seemed to be insufficient cynicism. If your beginning assumption about politics is that everybody actually believes what they say — if you grant them the benefit of the doubt as regards sincerity and their professed ideals — then you are, to paraphrase W.C. Fields, the kind of sucker who should never get an even break. If it weren’t for the ample supply of fools, however, the Democratic Party would have been out of business long ago, and one of the ways that Democrats keep their scam going is by manfacturing “spontaneous grassroots movements” like #OccupyWallStreet, #BlackLivesMatter and, of course, #MeToo.

Hey, does anyone remember “No Nukes”? Back in the 1980s, this allegedly “grassroots” protest movement emerged as a not-very-well-disguised propaganda campaign by Democrats to hype the idea that Ronald Reagan was a dangerous warmonger who was going to provoke World War III and destroy the world in a nuclear Armageddon. To this day, there are still people who haven’t realized how fundamentally bogus the “No Nukes” movement was, because aging celebrities — Jackson Browne, Don Henley, et al. — don’t want to admit that they were 100% wrong about everything (as liberals generally are).

Excuse that trip down Memory Lane, but my point is that if you pay attention long enough, certain patterns become obvious. Democrats are always trying to figure out ways to mobilize and energize their grassroots “base,” and even if one can point to a genuine organic beginning to any particular “progressive” movement, by the time it makes national headlines, the Democrats are already busy exploiting it as a propaganda operation, and thus you can never assume that the arguments of movement activists are made in sincerity. Always suspect a scam.

When did we know that #MeToo was a fraud? As a thoroughgoing cynic, I figured it was a scam all along, but the conclusive proof of its fraudulence came in early 2020, when Tara Reade attracted attention by accusing Joe Biden of sexual assault. The feminist response included this headline from Monica Hesse of the Washington Post:

‘Believe Women’ was a slogan.
‘Believe All Women’ is a strawman.

Six days later, Susan Faludi echoed the message in the New York Times:

‘Believe All Women’
Is a Right-Wing Trap

In other words, #BelieveWomen, unless a woman makes an accusation that could keep Democrats from winning the White House, in which case, the hashtag will be instantly converted to #ThatBitchIsLying.

The same basic rule applies to every “progressive” movement. The raison d’être of such movements is to promote the interests of the Democratic Party, to help elect Democrats and advance their policy agenda. Whatever “cause” or “ideal” or “principle” any progressive movement may claim to hold dear, will be cast aside without hesitation if, in any way, it should become harmful to Democrats, collectively or individually. You think Democrats really care about women? If so, you are a damned fool.

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!



 

Category: Feminism

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