When Al Franken finally made the announcement that his wokiosity compelled him to plan to resign in the future, after the 328th woman came forward to allege they were inappropriately touched by this former TV-star-cum-senator they so desperately sought to be near, he was smart enough to leave himself a gap. He could have resigned. He didn’t.
When the news broke, I misunderstood and thought he had, in fact, announced his resignation. In response, I twitted:
Regardless of my views toward
@alfranken as senator, he should not have resigned. His conduct did not rise to that level of impropriety.
In response came a twit that reflected the times as clearly as possible.
Unfollow
— Jamie Lynn “Cunty McCuntface” Crofts (@jamielynncrofts) December 7, 2017
In its one-word simplicity, the mass psychosis permeating discourse was as clear as possible.
At the New York Times, Michelle Goldberg gave thousands of young ladies whiplash, going from Franken must be executed to maybe Franken’s allyhood to the cause of her vapid feelings entitles him to survive, provided he does her vacuuming and dusting from now on.
Fordham lawprof Zephyr Teachout leaps onto the Franken caboose today because “she’s not convinced,” for all those who sat awake at night wondering, “how does Zephyr Teachout feel about Al Franken?”
I care passionately about #MeToo. Women are routinely demeaned, dismissed, discouraged and assaulted. Too many women’s careers are stymied or ended because of harassment and abuse. In politics, where I have worked much of my adult life, this behavior is rampant.
Stop sniveling. Wipe that tear from your eye. There’s more.
I also believe in zero tolerance. And yet, a lot of women I know — myself included — were left with a sense that something went wrong last week with the effective ouster of Al Franken from the United States Senate. He resigned after a groundswell of his own Democratic colleagues called for him to step down.
Every time you think “zero tolerance” is dead and buried, a new panic brings it back. It really ought to be called “zombie tolerance” given how many times it’s come back from the dead.
Zero tolerance should go hand in hand with two other things: due process and proportionality. As citizens, we need a way to make sense of accusations that does not depend only on what we read or see in the news or on social media.
What a wonderful sentiment. And so…
Both were missing in the hasty call for Senator Franken’s resignation.
Indeed, they were. But why does it apply to Al Franken and not, say, Harvey Weinstein? Or if I were going to be particularly snarky, Roy Moore. Or dare I say it, Donald Trump?
Does it matter what the unproved allegations are? Were the very serious, criminal in fact? Does it matter that they violate the hourly norms of female feelings of unpleasantness, even if they weren’t horrible enough at the time that their “survivors” lost a minute of sleep?
Is there a sliding scale between the degree of offense accused and the degree of proof?
Should “leading legal scholar” Al Franken resign for being too Al Franken?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
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Ms. Crofts could give name-calling lessons to Ginger Breitzman.
Cunty McCuntface. That’s outstanding work.
Some people wear their hearts on their sleeve. Others, in their twitter handle.
The English, it hurts: “Zero tolerance should go hand in hand with…proportionality”. Prof. T, you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.
Stringing together words to produce a general sense of meaningfulness despite impossible conflicts is a respected scholarly endeavor.
We should borrow from Stephen Colbert: meaninginess.
I’ve always wondered why truthiness isn’t more widely used.
One-eighth times zero yields the desired result, as does 15/16 times zero. Pro-portion, Al.
I noticed immediately that the announcement was only intent “to resign in the coming weeks.” Like much of everything that is going on, this is the attempt to game today’s special election in Alabama without actually resigning. If Moore gets elected (certainly possible) and Trump declines to resign due to the media regurgitation of his “accusers'” story yesterday (almost a given) Franken will probably “reconsider” and stay.
Progressives love draconian punishment in this arena. It’s death regardless of offense. We’re better off fighting to make proof a thing first before talking about proportionality. Taking baby steps with the brainwashed is important. It can’t be death regardless of accusation. It just can’t.
Franken doesn’t deserved to be sacrificed, but he seems to be taking it alright. There’s no good reason to impose on the senator’s decision. Al will be the willing lamb. Fine.
Of course zero tolerance sucks and proportionality matters. There isn’t enough calm for the message to get through in the feeding frenzy. Maybe calmer heads will prevail and everyone will remember the shades of grey and complicated nuance that dominate personal relationships require some tolerance or room for correction. That’s heretical and reason enough to keep a pseudonym. Scary stuff.
Are you sure you’re reading her message, or reinterpreting it into what you would like her message to be? Gestalt is a bitch.
I was reinterpreting nonsense into something that made some sort of sense, yes. I’m an advocate, after all. It’s habit.
You’ve got to interpret it into something, on it’s own it’s gibberish.
Gibberish would be more understandable.
Zephyr Teachout’s article appears to make no sense. This means that it is successfully serving its purpose.
For decades, the “Left” has decried the use of right-wing dog whistles, in which politicians say things to reassure their base that they support an unpalatable cause while maintaining plausible deniability. They have now invented a new version of this technique and it is very simple and effective. Write an article full of meaningless and contradictory garbage, salted with phrases that will provide a crystal clear meaning to the “woke” while sailing over the heads of those who think in terms of logic and reason. Those who would normally respond to calls for the creation of a new star chamber to judge and punish insufficiently woke senators and congressmen are left scratching their heads and wondering what she is talking about. Meanwhile the “Left” marches forward as one at the sound of the dog whistle.
The Workforce is a dogie dog world, if you don’t like having your butt sniffed, you’re in the wrong place.
“Dogie dog”? smh. No, you don’t have to let anyone sniff your butt.
They have to pay extra for that.
Don’t worry the government has flash cards.
https://www.std-gov.org/images/gonorrhea-the-clap-1.jpg
And If the government printing and distributing flash cards won’t save us…
Merriam-Webster will, by naming “Feminism” 2017’s word of the year seeing as how everybody forgot what that word “meant” and searches for the definition were up over 70% this year.
Which brings us to Linda Napikoski a J.D., in International Law, via Hofstra, whom I discovered via a random clicking to prevent a complete short circuting of my mouse after a drop or two of Glenfiddich missed the coffe cup.
Anyway Lind decided to stop shaving her legs in highschool for eight months which led to the realization over time that, “…whether or not a woman shaves her legs has little to do with whether she is a feminist.”
So when random clicking begets more random clicking I found this paragraph also by Linda, which I modified by pulling one word:
♤But what is Feminist ____*? ____* historians and theorists debate whether Feminist _____* was a stage in ____* history, a movement, or a wholesale shift in ways of doing things. Some have compared it to Surrealism, describing Feminist _____* not as a style of ____* that can be seen but rather a way of making ____*.♧
Anyway who fucking knew feminism could be such a cool descriptive?
Which suddenly made me realize…..that’s it, that’s it…. “Descriptive”, I’ll tell ya that’s where it is at!
So just hold on and enjoy the ride already, won’t ya?!
*The missing word is Art if surrealism didn’t make that clear. Yes Art. You know what art is right?
Is the missing word “sex?”
Guess we’re living through the 21st century equivalent of the Salem Witch Trials
I’m very confused. When did zero tolerance ever die in the first place?
Also, grizzly bears should be hooved, woolly creatures that eat grass and go “baaaa!”