The Deadliest Poison, 2018 Edition

     “A lie will go halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on.” – Originator unknown.

     “Faster than a nasty rumor” – one of my favorite comparisons.

     It was only a few days ago that I wrote this:

     I got a particularly vicious laugh out of this piece. After haranguing us for decades that men are predators, that women don’t make false accusations about sexual assault, that even sex consented to at the time is rape if she regrets it afterward, et cetera ad nauseam infinitam, women are discovering the secondary consequences: that men no longer trust them. Quite a lot of men have institutionalized that distrust. Wall Street executives, sensing the rich possibilities for false claims against them, have adopted a “never be alone with an unchaperoned woman” attitude. No one is laughing at Mike Pence now.

     But it was obvious from the start that that would follow! What man in his right mind would leave himself open to attack by the less ethical and more vicious female sex? And of course, the more he has to lose, the more likely it is that he’ll understand the importance of taking precautions, so America’s “top catches” are insisting upon indisputable pre-recorded consent.

     A decade or two ago, men determined not to be mulcted for babies not of their seed started requesting certificates attesting to having been vasectomized. Anyone with three functioning brain cells should have expected further deteriorations in the degree of trust between the sexes. And here they are.

     That piece concisely expresses my attitude toward those who deplore the trend it describes as somehow “men’s fault.” An old supervisor from my salaried days predicted it in all its details. He sketched out the double-bind in which “always believe the woman” pseudo-jurisprudence would leave men: vulnerable to charges of harassment and assault if we interact with women; vulnerable to charges of discrimination and exclusion if we don’t. The latter course is the one most men in white-collar situations deem the less hazardous. As it happens, a few people still need to be laughed at:

     I read in Bloomberg News the latest in what is now a series of articles detailing all of the absurd strategies men are using, ostensibly to protect themselves from accusations of harassment or assault in the #MeToo era.

     Some steps seem calculated to protect from false accusations, such as “the man in infrastructure investing [who] said he won’t meet with female employees in rooms without windows anymore.” Other steps, such as “no business dinner with a woman 35 or younger,” seem to reflect men’s distrust of their own ability to do something pretty simple: share a meal with a young woman without harassing her. In all cases, these self-instituted rules are deeply gendered, suggesting that the men suspect women are likely to fabricate harassment or assault allegations, and implying that the men do trust themselves not to sexually harass other men. Neither reflects well on them.

     It is maddening to watch adult men respond to revelations of endemic sexual harassment in the workplace by instituting a series of ludicrous personal codes, rather than by learning the relatively straightforward lesson on offer: Don’t sexually assault or harass anyone.

     To my great surprise, the author of that article, Tahir Duckett, is a young black man. Well, he’s allowed to take what chances he likes with his own career and reputation, but in the virulent “#MeToo” era, to call other men who might have more to lose “childish” and “cowardly” strikes me as supremely arrogant. Though I must admit, there are other possible explanations:

• He’s a homosexual and senses no risk to himself;
• He’s trying to impress the women around him;
• He’s simply stupid.

     Arrogant; homosexual; on the make; stupid: take your pick. Any of those four explanations will suffice to encompass Duckett’s inability to grasp the real threat the “#MeToo” era poses to men: the power of the lie when granted the presumption of validity.

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     There’s a war on. Indeed, there’s more than one. The one of interest to me today is the war feminists and their allies are waging against men.

     Men, in the feminist theology of today, are inherently the enemies of women. The feminist does not desire that women see men as individuals, for that would blunt their chief thrust. No, men as a class must be regarded as predatory and exploitative. A man with the opportunity to commit sexual assault should be regarded as one who would do so if he thought he would get away with it. In the men-as-enemies view, that is sufficient justification for an accusation of sexual assault even if nothing of the sort has occurred.

     Wait, what? How can that be a justification for a false accusation? Quite simply: There’s a war on. Men are the enemy and always have been. Even a man who has committed no offense is part of the oppressive “patriarchy” that stands in the way of women getting what they’re due. Therefore any blow struck against a man is a blow in the war, and is justified by the exigencies of war. As we mathematical types like to say, quod erat demonstrandum.

     A cultural presumption that when a woman lodges an accusation against the man, the man is therefore guilty, is an unstoppable superweapon in women’s hands. Men are defenseless against it. Indeed, even impossibility is no defense, unless he has video-recorded every instant of his life. Consider the slander by which Christine Blasey Ford attempted to torpedo the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. Consider that even though she could produce absolutely no evidence that he had ever so much as touched her, and had no corroborating witnesses willing to confirm her accusation or supply the circumstantial details she claimed to lack, millions claimed (and still claim) to believe her.

     Christine Blasey Ford is either deluded or lying. She appears competent enough to support herself and to cross the country unaccompanied for her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, so the presumption must be that she’s lying...yet millions claim to believe her.

     Tahir Duckett should shove that up his ass and sit on it awhile.

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     Nothing is more deadly, whether to individuals or to a society, than a lie accepted without question. Lies have always been the favorite weapons of evil men – and so much more so with evil women. There’s certainly enough fiction on the subject. Start with To Kill A Mockingbird. Or if you prefer real life incidents, consider the case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young black men who narrowly escaped execution for a gang rape they didn’t commit, and go on from there to the more recent case of Tawana Brawley.

     There’s an important quote from a historical figure most American youths never encounter, no matter how extensive their educations:

     “Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror.” – Martin Latsis, deputy chief of the Ukrainian Tcheka during the primacy of V. I. Lenin over the U.S.S.R.

     Evidence was unimportant to Martin Latsis. What concerned him was class: whether the accused was part of a demographic or an occupation believed to be “counter-revolutionary.” Such persons were guilty simply because they existed. Any accusation, however farfetched, would suffice to condemn them. Latsis would approve their execution without a qualm. Compare this orientation to the “Always Believe The Woman” attitude of feminists in the “#MeToo” era.

     There’s no need to beat this any further. Either you get it, hate it, and will oppose it with all your powers regardless of the possible consequences, or you’re a misandrist feminist (or one of their political allies) and had better keep your hands where I can see them.