A Reckoning for MeToo

By Madeleine Kearns

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

 

Is Elon Musk a sexual predator? Did he, as allegations unveiled by Business Insider suggest, flash his erect penis at a SpaceX flight attendant, asking her for sexual favors in exchange for buying her a horse? Insider’s source, a friend of the accuser, claims that he did. But Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has forcefully denied all allegations, dismissing them as a political attack intended to foil his acquisition of Twitter.

 

Certainly, Musk has his enemies. Not everyone was happy about the billionaire’s $44 billion bid for Twitter and his pledge to uphold the principles of free speech, which he called “the bedrock of a functioning democracy.” Amnesty International warned of “violent and abusive speech against users, particularly those most disproportionately impacted, including women, non-binary persons and others.”

 

Whether the accusations are true, partially true, or “utterly untrue” (as Musk claims) is hard to say. Insider reported that SpaceX paid a flight attendant $250,000 in severance after she complained of Musk’s alleged misconduct. Initially, Musk told Insider that there was “a lot more to the story.” However, he soon decided the piece was just a “hit job” and that no good could come of providing further details.

 

As is usually the case with accusations like these, what it boils down to is he-said–she-said (or, in this case, he-said–she-said–she-said). But that, in a way, is the point in using such allegations as a political weapon. As we’ve seen in the Depp vs. Heard trial, disputes such as these can be mutually damaging. That’s why the accuser often prefers to be anonymous. As for the accused, however, the mud has a way of sticking, regardless of the facts.

 

For example, in the past, Business Insider published a piece alleging sexual misconduct by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. Portnoy disregarded the advice of his lawyers and, believing the attacks on him to be politically motivated, made a video with his side of the story. Portnoy’s account of his behavior is very unflattering — though, of course, that’s not the same as pressuring someone into sex. As with the controversial piece about comedian Aziz Ansari, it seemed that the women he’d tactlessly hooked up with felt degraded and regretful. That’s sad, bad even, but is it predatory?

 

In some cases, the court of public opinion descends into mob justice with real-life consequences. Consider the treatment of Cardinal George Pell of Australia, criminally prosecuted on dubious “historic sexual abuse” charges. Pell spent a year in prison before the Australian High Court granted him a full acquittal, entering the belated judgment of “innocent.” Though he has now had his name cleared, Pell will forever be associated with accusations of one of the worst crimes possible (sexually abusing a child), even though there was never any solid evidence to back up those claims.

 

A similar injustice occurred when Justice Brett Kavanaugh was subjected to a congressional kangaroo trial concerning allegations that, more than 30 years earlier, at age 17, he had drunkenly pinned Christine Blasey (then age 15) to a bed, covered her mouth, and groped her. This was the beginning of the “believe all women” phase of MeToo which, oddly, Democrats did not apply to Joe Biden’s accuser Tara Reade during his 2020 run for president.

 

Using allegations of sexual misconduct to attack one’s opponents may be politically effective, but it also does little to protect or empower women.

 

Consider the recent case of Princeton professor Joshua Katz, whom the university fired after receiving a “detailed written complaint from an alumna who had a consensual relationship with Dr. Katz while she was an undergraduate under his academic supervision.” Once again, the timing of the complaint appears to be political. The relationship was in 2006 and 2007, but the complaint was made in 2021 after Katz had publicly criticized the antics of social-justice warriors on campus in an article for Quillette.

 

Due to its politicization, the cynicism of MeToo is transparent. Most of us intuit that injustice runs in both directions. Sexual harassment and assault ought to be taken seriously, but so too should the gravity of these accusations. Throwing around serious allegations without respect for objectivity and due process resembles the overuse of the term “racist.” The result has been a cheapening of public discourse, a disregard for the truth, and the undermining of the MeToo movement’s legitimacy. None of this helps actual victims of sexual abuse.