>>1473>Not like they all abused each other, but they knew that the abuse was going on and purposely covered the abusers tracks or just chose to ignore it.It happens all the time. An individual may not feel close enough to the situation to call judgement, they may think it's rumor, maybe they're afraid of getting blackmailed or fired, or they just think it's none of their business. A lot of complaints and gossip had already happened behind the scenes in Hollywood but people decided to band together and made it a public issue so that predators would be permanently removed. Making something a public issue or an open subject of conversation gives more power to the victim, but could really backfire if the victim is perceived fraudulent. So if someone is asks, "is so-and-so is a rapist?", someone who doesn't really know for sure or doesn't really think it's their business is likely to say, "Uhh, no."
Did these guys deserve to be exiled from Hollywood forever? Hard to say. I wouldn't want a rapist or predator to be part of my creative team, especially since I'm a mediator who likes to bridge people together for the sake of mutual compromise and peace. If a rumored creep or unsociable person is on the team it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, which can cause a myriad of problems: some will react by being avoidant, not wanting to acknowledge the creep unless they have to, some will react by being mean to the creep, often in a passive aggressive or otherwise indirect manner, and some will ignore it but their skin will quietly be crawling. I have a knack for making creepy, antisocial or otherwise unusual people fit in better. I can make everybody see how we're all alike and working as a team, so that even if Tom the autist has, to the average persons standards, absolutely terrible social skills, we can accept that he's in some way a valuable member of the team whom we can all respect and empathize with. There will always be discourse, and although I have an internal instinct to keep peace, I understand that discourse is necessary and helps the team grow. However one of the hardest types of people I've ever tried to make feel mutually accepted are the type of people who are sexual predators. I don't think there are "bad" or "wrong" people but they're usually antisocial manipulators. They are the type to charm people well and appear well adjusted but once they are outed, things can get uncomfortable. Not the type of uncomfortable or awkward feeling the average person will feel when Tom the autist is sperging out, a much more chilling and deep discomfort that creates these awful power dynamics. Sexual predators seem to thrive on power dynamics, not just when it comes to sex but in all social settings, and while they may not be able to achieve a powerful status they will still make everything into some sort of power struggle. It's hard to watch and it drains everyone involved. Again, most will ultimately come to the conclusion that it's not their business and that's why these issues rarely come out into the open, instead everybody is on a different level of knowing who said what and who raped who and it creates a giant mess.
I don't think Louis C.K. is any sort of manipulator. I think he took his stage persona all the way back to the hotel room. I mean the story broke a year ago that he did this, he's just now being caught in the hype storm. It's probably for the best Harvey and Spacey are no longer a part of the industry, even if they're truly sorry. Sexual abuse is the kind of mistake that's really hard to recover from, and in that sense I feel deeply sorry for them. But it's for the best that they're out, I think.
