No, he didn’t rape anyone. He didn’t even grope anyone, as far as I can tell. His involvement with Sarah Silverman was entirely consensual, at least as far as she was concerned. Jimmy Kimmel? Who cares. He’s privileged. And he is a true believer in doing good for others.

Damon offered some advice to MIT’s 2016 graduating class: “The world wants to hear your ideas — good and bad. But today’s not the day you switch from ‘receive’ to ‘transmit.’ Once you do that, your education is over. And your education should never be over. Even outside your work, there are ways to keep challenging yourself. … Whatever you do, just keep listening. Even to people you don’t agree with at all.”

As the graduates go out to tackle the world’s problems, he said, “There are potentially trillions of human beings who will someday exist whose fate, in large part, depends on the choices you make … on your ideas … on your grit and persistence and willingness to engage.”

He seemed nice. He’s clearly dedicated to the welfare of others. So what could he do that’s so horrifying that he would be burned at the stake?

“You know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” he told Peter Travers of ABC. “Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”

Okay, so he’s not really a math wiz, and this isn’t exactly an epiphany. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an outrage.

Those comments were met with anger and frustration online, where many women, including the actress Alyssa Milano, rejected attempts to categorize various forms of sexual misconduct.

“They all hurt,” Ms. Milano wrote on Twitter on Friday. “And they are all connected to a patriarchy intertwined with normalized, accepted — even welcomed — misogyny.”

Yes, Milano, the adorable little girl from Who’s the Boss?, where Tony Danza played the maid. She, along with the other TV giant, George Takei, whose own allegations of sexual impropriety miraculously disappeared, are leading voices of social justice intellectuals. Then again, since Matt Damon is an actor, it’s only fair that he be subject to the scrutiny of his colleagues.

That groundswell of testimony that has empowered women to speak publicly about sexual harassment and abuse is posing challenges about how best to have a national conversation about a subject that previously lingered in the shadows.

That paragraph, however, doesn’t come from Milano. That was written by New York Times reporter Christina Caron, who apparently fails to distinguish her role as a reporter from regurgitating the advocate’s ideology. More to the point, her irony meter is broken when she writes “how best to have a national conversation” in the same article where Matt Damon is castigated for suggesting that “patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation” aren’t the same thing. “Right?”

“None of us came here perfect,” he said. “What’s the point of us being here other than to improve?”

Ms. Milano responded: “We are in a ‘culture of outrage’ because the magnitude of rage is, in fact, overtly outrageous. And it is righteous.”

Would this be a good time for a “not the Onion” joke? Or should that wait until after Damon’s former girlfriend, Minnie Driver, gets in a punch?

God God, SERIOUSLY? https://t.co/NDZFrLDXil

— Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) December 15, 2017

But she had more to say about Damon having less to say.

In an interview with The Guardian on Saturday, Ms. Driver said men “simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level.”

“I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse,” she said. “A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.”

This theme, that “good men” will remain silent, except for the occasional “hallelujah” after a woman gives testimony, is an article of faith. The oppressor doesn’t get to tell the oppressed what they think.

So does this squabbling matter to anyone outside of the Hollywood elite? It does, even if it doesn’t rise to the nosebleed heights of the New York Times’ attention. It has become the force behind the woke lawyer scolds swarming on their colleagues who espouse entirely reasonable views, as did Matt Damon.

The old “we need to have a conversation” trope, provided you “shut the fuck up you sexist shitlord,” is pervasive among some of the least accomplished, yet most strident, intellectual gnats of the law. No one would care but for the fact that they convey the impression to lawyers new to social media that this is a place no rational person would want to be. Who needs to put up with these delusional nutjobs?

The other day, Ta-Nehisi Coates left twitter. His account is gone.

You don’t have to like him or agree with him, but if you are even a tiny bit honest, you must acknowledge that his is a voice of significance. And was pushed to quit. But it’s mentioned here not just because a valuable voice was lost because of the swarm of social justice, but because of the reaction to Coates’ decision.

Extensive list of #blackwomen writers with similar (and even better) critiques of @tanehisicoates as @CornelWest. However, these #scholars and #activists aren’t getting the same attention as #CornelWest. Problematic because #womenalsoknowstuff. https://t.co/hzRYDuffla

— Kelebogile Zvobgo (@kelly_zvobgo) December 19, 2017

The complaint wasn’t the loss of Coates’ voice, but that his decision to quit came after he was attacked by Cornel West, rather than after attacks by a list of women. The complaint was that his quitting was sexist because he didn’t quit until a man attacked him.

What does Matt Damon have to say about that?