Liberals and Sexual Harassment: Some random thoughts

Sexual abuse is not a monopoly of one group.  We already know about many conservatives accused of sex abuse.  And who can ignore the sex abuse by priests and other ‘holy’ men.  But when the so-called ‘feminists’ perpetrate the act of sexual abuse, one makes you wonder.

Last few months have not been very kind to ‘liberal’ institutions.  The rot in carefully curated façade has exposed the faux liberal ideology that pretends to protect women’ rights, etc.  They crumbed like a house of cards right in front our eyes.  In the last few months some of the most liberal institutions have been rocked by many allegations of sexual exploitation, rapes, etc.  The fact that most of these institutions have been in the forefront of feminism and other women’s rights/equality movements makes their downfall worth attention.

Let’s take Hollywood which started the #MeToo movement.  By all accounts it is one of the most liberal institutions on this planet.  The fact that this sleaze was allowed to exist unabated points to the double standard of such liberal groups.  Not anybody put Hollywood at the top of the morality pantheon, but not much was let out in the open.  Talk of any such sleaze was always immediately dismissed despite what was evident from the life-style of the tinsel-town idols.  Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of the hugely successful company Miramax.  The Academy Award winning producer of ‘Shakespeare in Love’, throughout his career, had championed myriad of ‘feminist; causes including joining the Women’s March, raising money for Planned Parenthood, and promoting ‘older’ actresses like Judi Dench.  The story of his sexual misconduct broke and took the world by storm.  However, as if the ignoring of years of rumors of Weinstein’s predatory conduct wasn’t enough, his defenders from the liberal flock initially made a beeline on social media, etc., vouching for his feminist credentials.  Will Hollywood’s counter part in Mumbai follow the suite? Only time will tell.

Another institution to be plagued with sexual harassment allegation was the National Public Radio (NPR), the upholder of liberal values in America. At last count, at least three women had filed sexual harassment complaint against the former chief news editor David Sweeney.  Former NPR investigative correspondent faced similar charges.  Another NPR icon, author and longtime host of the acclaimed program ‘The Takeaway’ John Hockenberry and ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ host Garrison Keillor were also accused of sexual misconduct.  One can add Matt Lauer and several others to this growing list.

Comedian turned politician and the Democratic Senator from the state of Minnesota had to resign, albeit reluctantly, from his senate seat amidst allegation of sexual indiscretion.  A defiant, but hardly contrite liberal icon scorned more about US President Donald Trump and allegations about his sexual misconduct than showing much remorse for any of his conducts during his resignation speech.  Similarly, John Conyers Jr. (88, Democrat), the longest serving African-American House Representative from Michigan had to quit when many his former employees accused him of sexual harassment.

Raya Sarkar, a law student in California published a crowd-sourced list of professors on Facebook with allegations of sexual misconduct against them.  This list included several high profile academics from renowned institutions including some from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the hotbed of ultra-liberal ideology in India.  A professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California was accused by one of his students for sexual harassment.  Both University and the professor have been subject to a lawsuit.  Students of the prestigious Medill School of Journalist at Northwestern University, in a written letter accused the award-winning journalist and the Medill Justice Project director Alec Klein of sexual misconduct.  These conduct range from inappropriate remarks to unwanted touching.