The stream of accusations of misbehavior by disgraced creep Harvey Weinstein has turned into a deluge, with actress after actress coming forth with allegations of, to put it mildly, sleazy behavior. In classic emperor-has-no-clothes style, the overwhelming consensus is “of course the powerful movie mogul took advantage of young, pretty actresses desperate for success and fearful of his power.” In what is amounting to a group catharsis, women young and old are also coming forth about misbehaviors by other powerful Hollywood men.

Many are those who claim utter ignorance of all this sordidness prior to the expose in the New York Times that started it all, but many others have averred the equivalent of “everybody knew it was going on.” The old stereotypes, including the proverbial “casting couch” and the classic Jack Woltz scene from The Godfather (the book’s version is much creepier, by the way), strain the credulity of those who’ve asserted ignorance.

There are also a few who tried, at least in the early stages of revelation, to downplay (that would be you, Donna Karan), mealy-mouth (yes, you, Hillary Clinton), or otherwise parse Weinstein’s atrocities, for various reasons I’d presume to be of the selfish sort. Weinstein is (was) obviously powerful, and is alleged to be quite vindictive, so I can understand some reticence to join the j’accuse! bandwagon, but that’s exactly the sort of thing that allows such behavior to go on.

There’s also a deeply unsettling history of look-the-other-way tolerance in cases where the accused is of exalted stature. Roman Polanski, who fled the country to avoid punishment for raping a 13 year old girl, has for decades had Hollywood’s elite defending him. Woody Allen took up with and later married the adopted teenage daughter of his long-time companion Mia Farrow. John F. Kennedy was a notorious lothario, but was and continues to be exalted as royalty, especially by the aforementioned Hollywood elite. There are more, of course.

The Weinstein scandal has also emboldened women to come forth with allegations of other powerful mens’ bad behaviors. Amazon recently suspended studio head Roy Price over such an allegation. Ben Affleck has been accused of groping at least one woman, and of running interference for Weinstein in the past. Oliver Stone has reportedly been accused of misdeeds, as has Steven Seagal, and now it seems that everyone is saying what a cynic would have suspected all along: that Hollywood preys on young women.

Weinstein is, I feel confident in saying, done. Even in a town and industry famous for second chances and “redemption” of the once-exalted, the scope and breadth of the accusations against him – so large that a half-hearted initial defense by his lawyers quickly morphed into a “please, I’ll get therapy, don’t hate me forever” sniveling – have turned him into plutonium. He’s not coming back from this. But, no one believes his is a one-off story. The curtain has been pulled back on Hollywood sleaze.

A person with inclination to rational moderation can easily see the risk of an over-swinging pendulum, where accusations start flying around like bullets in a John Woo movie, and where any accusation will be tantamount to a scarlet-letter conviction in the court of public opinion. This moderate person has, as a precedent, the Left’s position on the campus rape issue. Despite several high-publicity cases where accusations proved false, many on the Left maintain the position that any woman’s assertion that she was raped must be treated as unassailable gospel-truth, to the point where many schools deny some or all of the elements of due process to the accused. This curtailment of due process was a result of Obama-era policies that issued from the Office For Civil Rights, and the initiative being taken by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to undo this has sent the Left into spluttering outrage.

Will Hollywood live up to the “an accuser cannot be doubted” paradigm it demands on college campuses? Will Ben Affleck, Oliver Stone, and others, accused or to be accused, be defenestrated because “an accuser cannot be doubted?” Will they be given the chance to defend themselves? Will they be able to go through the usual self-flagellation, conspicuous atonement, etc, and resume their careers? Will the allegations be waved off due to their status?

Will the Left demand that the powerful men of Hollywood be subject to the same rules that it expects young college men of little means and no power to face?

Yeah, right.

• About the Author

About Peter Venetoklis

I am twice-retired, a former rocket engineer and a former small business owner. At the very least, it makes for interesting party conversation. I'm also a life-long libertarian, I engage in an expanse of entertainments, and I squabble for sport.

Nowadays, I spend a good bit of my time arguing politics and editing this website.

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