Michael Hobbes: Is there a single man 'canceled' by MeToo who has not either returned to public life or been convicted of rape? www.nytimes.com/2024/06/10/o...

Is there a single man 'canceled' by MeToo who has not either returned to public life or been convicted of rape? www.nytimes.com/2024/06/10/o...

Well, I don't anticipate Spurlock returning to public life

AI Spurlock

She specifically held off writing this article until he died because she didn't believe he deserved to return to public life.

or any kind of life

That would be a comeback I’d be willing to take

This author did Spurlock or men like him no favors. In life or afterlife

The Walking Dead, Season Nine.

Never underestimate the dedication of wannabe Frankensteins with perverse senses of humor.

Gott sei dank

Good one. I read that he owned up to it all. That true?

Yes, but it's hard to separate his "fall from grace" based on #MeToo from the fact that "Super Size Me" was a lie. He never disclosed until much later that he was a raging alcoholic the entire time he was supposedly eating nothing but McDonald's. The man was a fraud.

Didn't know the movie was a lie. 🤔

He made it seem as though his health was impacted by the food, without mentioning that he was a heavy drinker for decades, which undoubtedly impacted his health more. Here's a good overview: consumerfreedom.com/2018/05/is-s...

Is Super Size Me a Big Fat Lie?consumerfreedom.com The 2004 schlock-umentary Super Size Me, starring Morgan Spurlock, launched fast-food and nutrition to the front of the public’s mind. In the flick, Spurlock films himself—supposedly—eating nothing bu...

Basically, the only reason why anybody knows who Spurlock was is that documentary. That's the basis of his fame and subsequent notoriety. It was all a sham.

Morgan Spurlock, the guy whose lying about his health in his health documentary overshadowed his actual sexual predation but who never stopped working in filmmaking, is such a weird poster boy for this piece.

Correcting myself after checking: He did stop working in filmmaking for the most part, voluntarily. A few things he'd already completed at the time of his own (again: voluntary) statement were released later.

Sure you can forgive them, but "forgive" means something different from protecting them from consequences or giving them back all the stuff they lost because of their actions

It's also really important to understand that forgiveness doesn't, or isn't supposed to, repair the reputation they lost when they did bad stuff. Asking people to pretend they never did anything bad is not forgiveness. I feel like this type of peice never seriously engages with "forgiveness"

Also, what did they do for forgiveness? Because if the answer is nothing that’s not forgiving, that’s forgetting…

I have no idea why the public should "forgive" or accept harassers back into public life anyway. Forgiveness is a matter for those injured.

Yes! Most of these articles are written by someone other than the person behaving badly, and are directed the general public. What's actually the ask for me, someone who's unconnected to his bad behavior? Force myself to change my opinion of his work?

Harassers and rapists leave a giant trail of damage behind them, in lives and careers damaged or wrecked and ongoing trauma. I have no forgiveness in me and I have no idea what a rapist or harasser could do to merit acceptance back into public life.

They call it "forgiveness", an almost universally perceived good thing, because saying out loud that they need for you to collude with predators to rewrite history, gaslight victims, and discourage future victims from coming forward, that sounds like a bad thing. But regardless, that's the ask.

I also find it so gross that there's this presumption that it's our place to forgive them at all. If you're* not the one hurt by someone, it's not you who can declare them forgiven on the victims' behalf. * you in the general way, not you, person I'm replying to specifically.

also, all of this is aside from a obvious, normal response people have to creeps and jerks, it's not my problem I don't want to hear from, say, Morgan Spurlock anymore because I found out he was an abusive jerk. Him being an abusive jerk negatively affects my opinion of his work. Tough luck!

Also, forgiveness for a man's vile acts isn't mine to give. It can only be extended by his victims. Not other women he knows. Not professional colleagues. Not opinion piece writers. And certainly not one single man gets to even THINK about "forgiving" a man for what he does to women. Fuck that. 👿

I think it’s telling that the author a) asserts that Morgan Spurlock was trying to “make reparations” without any detail of what specifically he was doing and b) asks what sort of reparations might need to be made in general without any attempt to answer that question.

Like, if you don’t answer those questions, what is the point of the article?

I mean, it's an opinion piece in the New York Times. It doesn't need to be thought through, it just needs to represent a position the Times would like to publish. Most of them fall flat in the slightest breeze.

I think it's worse than that - considering the amount of space dedicated to it in the piece, I think the op ed author genuinely thinks Spurlock's PR statement itself was a revelatory piece of accountability

This sentence omfg

Some of us remember finding Bin Laden.

NYT seems addicted to these L takes guest essay and opinion pieces

Louis CK’s career hasn’t really recovered but I think he was on the way out when it landed. Haven’t heard much from Aziz Ansari lately.

Louis CK won a Grammy in 2022 for best comedy album, and it included jokes about him being “cancelled” + the actions that led to it so

...and his story of the events has morphed from "I did this and it was wrong" to "Zany misunderstanding."

Yeah it’s Bad, do not recommend looking up the special for anyone reading this lmao

I liked it.

His non-apology apology was the last word from him as far as I’m concerned.

Yeah, but this is also a dude who used to have a TV show and regular movie appearances; he was a rising star in the teens. I realize he’s still kicking around but I would not say his career has recovered.

He's still cashing cheques bigger than I'll ever see

What about the careers of the women he mistreated? How are they doing?

I am not defending Louis CK here

Sure sounds like you are

He's a multi millionaire.

Zero repentance. No use for these guys who disappear for a year and come back, having not changed a thing, going “why y’all still mad??” Never going to support that Jack wagon

The "cancellation" of Aziz was weird because he basically went on a date with someone, made sure his behavior was consensual, and then she got upset later and tried to cancel him because she felt like he was famous enough to do it??

I wish we didn't so often characterize a woman telling the truth about something that happened to her as "trying to cancel" someone. I don't remember her calling for the end of his career or anything.

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