Assessing #MeToo, Five Years On

Plus, We Figured Out How to Beat the Authoritarian Censors.

Nov 29, 2022

CHARLIE SYKES: "I really like this guy. He gets me."
JVL: We Made It All the Way Back to Normal 🙄 🔐
ATMA: Favorite Film Feasts 🔐
FOCUS GROUP: Thankful for Swing Voters (with Amy Walter)🔐

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CATHY YOUNG: Assessing #MeToo, Five Years On.

The new film She Said—based on the nonfiction book of the same name by two New York Times reporters about their investigation into the sexual depredations of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein—marks a milestone that has gone almost unnoticed amid the frenzy of other news: the five-year anniversary of the #MeToo movement sparked by Weinstein’s downfall. Several articles marking the anniversary have revisited the movement and explored its current status and cultural and legal impact. But these retrospectives almost universally left out #MeToo critiques and complications, such as the plight of the unfairly or dubiously accused. A more balanced overview is in order.
The #MeToo hashtag was born on October 15, 2017 from a tweet by actress Alyssa Milano in response to the revelations of multiple accusations against Weinstein in the New York Times and the New Yorker.

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STEPHEN PETER ROSEN: Winning Without Fighting.

Sun Tzu wrote that the acme of strategy is to win without fighting. It is worth gaming out how Xi Jinping, the head of the Communist Party of China (CCP), might contemplate trying to win Taiwan without fighting for it.
Xi has not hidden his ambitions with regard to Taiwan, but a war would be costly for China and risky for him. What he would need to do, in order to fulfill Sun Tzu’s maxim, would be to create a situation in which, confronted with Chinese pressure on Taiwan, an American president would calculate that the use of force was not an option.

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Trump had to know of Nick Fuentes before they sat down to dinner — he regards openly racist and antisemitic trolls as a fundamental part of his base. And now Kevin McCarthy needs allies of Fuentes to be speaker. Will Saletan’s back with Charlie Sykes for Charlie and Will Monday.

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YEVGENY SIMKIN: Compassion, Forgiveness, and Love.

This Thanksgiving, with the backdrop of the war raging in Ukraine and the women of Iran demanding changes to how they are treated, and the relentless message from the media of just how much we all hate each other, I wanted to share the following thought.
You are an ape.
I’m not saying that to upset or insult you—it’s just a statement of fact.
As it happens you’re extremely similar to gorillas and chimpanzees. Again—not an insult—I’m not picking on you, it’s just the cost of doing business as a human. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re human.

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YEVGENY SIMKIN: We Figured Out How to Beat the Authoritarian Censors.

Elon Musk—and many others—seem to think that “free speech” means the right to have a privately owned platform publish you when you say mean things about trans people.
And that’s fine, so far as it goes. There you are one day saying stuff and the next day you go to say more stuff and the platform says “no thanks.” That’s definitely the kind of thing that can ruin your morning.

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