NYT: Movie business is corrupt & depraved & still morally superior to Republican Party under Trump

[kpete]

Save the Phony Weinstein Outrage, Republicans
Michelle Goldberg OCT. 16, 2017



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Bad faith on the right does not mitigate the deep, perverse cruelty of Weinstein’s alleged crimes. If anything, it makes the fallout more painful. For the past 11 months, many feminists have been reeling from the defeat of the first female major-party presidential candidate by a predatory misogynist. The confirmation that a hugely powerful man who is supposed to be on our side is just as bad as Trump is shattering. While many women are showing defiance — outing the Weinstein types in their industries, using hashtags like #MeToo to demonstrate the ubiquity of abuse — it’s hard not to feel crushed wondering how many men really see us as full human beings.

Still, Weinstein’s disgrace is a sign that even if patriarchal sociopathy is more pervasive than we like to imagine, it can be defeated when a culture adopts other values and is forced to live up to them. After decades in which Weinstein cavalierly destroyed women’s lives, his impunity has come to an end. He has lost his job and been expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. France has taken steps to strip him of his Legion of Honor award, the country’s highest civilian distinction. He is being repudiated for violating progressive ideals about sexual consent, workers’ rights and the fundamental equality of men and women.

The people now ruling this country don’t share those ideals. Yes, Ailes had to leave Fox News after charges that he’d demanded sexual favors from women in exchange for professional opportunities. But in the aftermath, conservatives did not ostracize him. Instead, Trump defended Ailes and defamed his accusers, then brought him on as an adviser. Most Republican voters and officeholders, in turn, implicitly condone Trump’s treatment of women.

Now that Weinstein has been exposed, conservatives are jeering that Hollywood has lost the right to lecture anyone about sexism. “Liberals love to be so sanctimonious, holier than thou, but they’re really hypocrites,” said Fox’s Sean Hannity on Oct. 10. Perhaps, but Trump supporters acting shocked by sexual harassment are in no position to complain about hypocrisy. The movie business is corrupt, depraved and iniquitous — and still morally superior to the Republican Party under Trump. Betraying the principle of gender equality is bad. Rejecting it is worse.


the rest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/opinion/columnists/weinstein-sexual-harassment-republicans.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

[Caliman73]

1. Progressives are always fighting to improve, conservatives fight for stagnation.

We may not always succeed and our ambitions may even take us down wrong headed paths, but progressives are always looking to improve. Conservatives fight for the status quo. They are for some mythical time "when everything was better", which is a very privileged way of thinking.

Weinstein should have been taken down a long time ago, to be certain, as should have Cosby, and many others who have used their power to abuse others. The difference is that we eventually get there whereas conservatives still defend Trump, Vitter, and others who have done the same. They never admit wrongdoing and they always blame the victims.