Guest post: Let’s start by not being that “they”
Guest post by Bruce Gorton.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it”.
This is a man who has bragged about committing sexual assault and getting away with it – because he was famous.
That is infuriating in and of itself, but do you know what is worse?
Trump was right.
People knew Bill Cosby was a date rapist for years before finally the scandal exploded, and you can’t say nobody knew about Jimmy Saville, but “when you’re a star, they let you do it”.
Within atheism there is a tendency by some to defend sleazy actions by big names. There is an urge to forgive things in one that we would condemn in another, to keep this big ol’ tent open to harassers, abusers and other scuzzballs because they’re popular.
Well Trump just pulled the rug right out from under all of that. His words to me resonate beyond him, beyond his campaign.
His words weren’t simply the words of a man who should never be president, they were the words of a man who felt, by virtue of his celebrity, that he could get away with it.
And he was right.
Not being president is no punishment, I’m not president, chances are you’re not president, no, Trump got away with it, he made money as a reality TV star, still gets to claim to be super-rich, because “when you’re a star, they let you do it”.
Something needs to change, let’s start by not being that “they”.
I thought the “they” referred to the victims themselves, not rape apologists.
Good Day, you must be new here?
Yeah, I’m pretty new here.
The victims are under more direct and intimidating pressure. They may have much less chance to effectively oppose Trump than the men he boasts to. That’s the point about power and status.
Billy Bush is morally tainted by his ‘go along,’ or even ‘participate’ policy. I wish we were giving more thought to the unfortunate actress who walked into the two of them later in the tape. She hadn’t heard any of their degrading chatter, but she was behaving as a professional ‘hawt chick.’ Keeping her face blank, smiling and nodding along with Trumps chatter. How could she be expected to smack down his behavior when he hadn’t shown her his real face yet?
Billy Bush is especially tainted by the skeevy way he invited Arianne Zucker to give nice Donald a hug.