As an academic (at USC, one of your old haunts!) doing research on "second chances" in business and society, I found this piece fascinating and illuminating. Any interest in joining an academic conversation about this? Academic researchers like myself could learn a lot from your experiences (and maybe help us nudge the world in better directions). No matter what, thank you for writing this piece, and I hope you continue to share your thoughts on this!
A Very interesting, and brave piece on the injustice of the me too movement. I hope your instincts are right and The Rage! has exhausted itself. Write the book!
Thank you for sharing your story! I'm glad I bumped into your Substack.
I think your guestimate of 400 is off by an order of magnitude, at least. Unfortunately, the low value targets will greatly outnumber the high value targets, and nobody is counting. No academic in their right mind would dare get into the business of documenting false accusations. There's one Youtuber, Aydin Paladin, who made a video on the subject generally, especially concerning the frequently circulated and completely fictional "2%" number floated around as the percentage of accusations which are false.
Turns out that number was taken from a range and rounded down, and IIRC it was specific to the estimates of a single Australian police department. Other, similar studies reporting officer-reported estimates report higher numbers. For some reason, the media went with the rounded down number from the lowest-end estimates, all while neglecting to note that even then, the context would be restricted to false accusations taken to the police and in which the police could immediately disprove the claim.
Of those heady days, especially around the Kavanaugh hearings, I remember one thing in particular: a lot of women projecting their own, likely real experiences onto the accused. One acquaintance of mine suggested I had skeletons in my closet for pointing out, correctly, that Kavanaugh had one accuser who, for all I knew, could be telling the truth, but her story was missing crucial details (where and when it happened) and lacked corroboration (including from her friend), while the other accusers were clearly lying. It broke something in her, and she went into a rage, hurtling this nonsense at me while ranting about some scumbag who was abusive to her in college. That kind of person was the fuel for #MeToo. The rage was also a sort of toxic group therapy session for both survivors and the politically resentful. Cooler heads largely kept themselves down, because who looks good contradicting a "survivor"?
I'm from Tennessee. During the 2018 midterms, we had a very popular former governor running for senate as a Democrat, Doug Overbey, who I knew by acquaintance from my hometown. While he was the underdog, he was the last chance Tennessee had of sending a Democrat to the Senate for the foreseeable future. At the time I felt it best to send more moderates to the Senate, like Manchin. But Democrats determined that he really, really needed to answer the hypothetical "would you confirm Kavanaugh" question, a definite political lose-lose question running as a Democrat from Tennessee. He demurred pending the FBI Investigation, and once it had concluded without substantiating any allegation, said that he would view his role as a senator to confirm based on qualifications, not on ideology. For this crime, progressive groups pulled all support.
Susan Collins was a perceived moderate Republican from Maine who they hoped they could turn on the confirmation vote. She took a similar position to Overbey's and came to the same conclusion. Democrats dumped several million dollars into a campaign fund for whoever would run against her in the future. She wasn't up for re-election.
Anyways, that was the last time I'll ever punch a ticket for the Democrats.
As an academic (at USC, one of your old haunts!) doing research on "second chances" in business and society, I found this piece fascinating and illuminating. Any interest in joining an academic conversation about this? Academic researchers like myself could learn a lot from your experiences (and maybe help us nudge the world in better directions). No matter what, thank you for writing this piece, and I hope you continue to share your thoughts on this!
Wow. Fascinating piece! I have a (minor/major?) quibble. Ghosting in lieu of "no" is VERY much alive and well in Hollywood, my friend.
Ha! I stand corrected. But it’s not supposed to be that way.
Do you plan on publishing this in other places? Shocking on many levels...
Thinking about a book...
Love.
A Very interesting, and brave piece on the injustice of the me too movement. I hope your instincts are right and The Rage! has exhausted itself. Write the book!
Wow! Great article
This is excellent 👏🏻👏🏻🙌🏻
Thank you for sharing your story! I'm glad I bumped into your Substack.
I think your guestimate of 400 is off by an order of magnitude, at least. Unfortunately, the low value targets will greatly outnumber the high value targets, and nobody is counting. No academic in their right mind would dare get into the business of documenting false accusations. There's one Youtuber, Aydin Paladin, who made a video on the subject generally, especially concerning the frequently circulated and completely fictional "2%" number floated around as the percentage of accusations which are false.
Turns out that number was taken from a range and rounded down, and IIRC it was specific to the estimates of a single Australian police department. Other, similar studies reporting officer-reported estimates report higher numbers. For some reason, the media went with the rounded down number from the lowest-end estimates, all while neglecting to note that even then, the context would be restricted to false accusations taken to the police and in which the police could immediately disprove the claim.
Of those heady days, especially around the Kavanaugh hearings, I remember one thing in particular: a lot of women projecting their own, likely real experiences onto the accused. One acquaintance of mine suggested I had skeletons in my closet for pointing out, correctly, that Kavanaugh had one accuser who, for all I knew, could be telling the truth, but her story was missing crucial details (where and when it happened) and lacked corroboration (including from her friend), while the other accusers were clearly lying. It broke something in her, and she went into a rage, hurtling this nonsense at me while ranting about some scumbag who was abusive to her in college. That kind of person was the fuel for #MeToo. The rage was also a sort of toxic group therapy session for both survivors and the politically resentful. Cooler heads largely kept themselves down, because who looks good contradicting a "survivor"?
I'm from Tennessee. During the 2018 midterms, we had a very popular former governor running for senate as a Democrat, Doug Overbey, who I knew by acquaintance from my hometown. While he was the underdog, he was the last chance Tennessee had of sending a Democrat to the Senate for the foreseeable future. At the time I felt it best to send more moderates to the Senate, like Manchin. But Democrats determined that he really, really needed to answer the hypothetical "would you confirm Kavanaugh" question, a definite political lose-lose question running as a Democrat from Tennessee. He demurred pending the FBI Investigation, and once it had concluded without substantiating any allegation, said that he would view his role as a senator to confirm based on qualifications, not on ideology. For this crime, progressive groups pulled all support.
Susan Collins was a perceived moderate Republican from Maine who they hoped they could turn on the confirmation vote. She took a similar position to Overbey's and came to the same conclusion. Democrats dumped several million dollars into a campaign fund for whoever would run against her in the future. She wasn't up for re-election.
Anyways, that was the last time I'll ever punch a ticket for the Democrats.