#MeToo Tackles Jason Bourne

Don't get me wrong. I am all for letting the #MeToo fires rage for as long as possible. #MeToo offers proof of life in an otherwise moribund plutocratic society that needs to hurry up and disintegrate.

I must say though that I feel some sympathy for Hollywood leading man Matt Damon (a.k.a., Jason Bourne, and earlier in his career, "Good Will Hunting"). Damon, a thinking man, had the temerity to question #MeToo's conflation of an ass slap with pedophilia, which set off a row online, with his Good Will Hunting costar and former girlfriend Minnie Driver telling The Guardian that men “simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level.”

Patrick Martin of the World Socialist Web Site summarizes in "More sexual harassment allegations hit congressmen, media and entertainment figures":

Actor Matt Damon drew fire for an interview with ABC in which he sought to differentiate between the conduct of Senator Franken and the comedian Louis C. K. and more serious allegations. “There’s a spectrum of behavior,” he said. “There’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?”

“You have rape and child molestation,” he continued. “That’s criminal behavior, and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross.”

For these comments, Damon has been denounced by some of the high-profile advocates of the sex witch hunt in Hollywood, including Alyssa Milano and Damon’s former costar in Good Will Hunting, Minnie Driver. Milano wrote on Twitter that Damon’s reference to a “spectrum of behavior” was wrong. These were “different stages of cancer. Some more treatable than others. But it’s still cancer.”

Driver is on thin ice when she says that men cannot fathom daily abuse. Aren't men also the victims of sexual abuse? Weren't the victims of Kevin Spacey and James Levine young men?

#MeToo should avoid gender Manichaeism and keep its eye on the prize, a radical leveling. Most of these #MeToo stories are about abuse of power; most happen to be about men because it is still "a man's world." Men -- men with lots of money -- are in control.

My last job was working with and for young women. In the spring of 2016 I noted on this page that

Women are definitely on the ascent. And let me tell you, they are not particularly gracious to a brother on his way down. Women feel a lot of pent up disdain and resentment, if not outright hatred and anger, towards men. "Loathing" might be the best term. I can bear witness as the only man at many a behind-closed-doors staff meeting.

Cry no tears for men though. We deserve every bit of bad news coming our way. There will be no Donald Trump helicopter rescue touching down in a green field to lift us off to safety as the boreal forest burns all around. No, it is all hellfire and sinks of sulfurous acid for us.

A good reason to let the #MeToo fires burn is that in the light produced Russiagate is exposed for what it is -- a ridiculous piece of deep state drivel (see the latest Robert Parry summary, "Protecting the Shaky Russia-gate Narrative"). #MeToo has coherence -- abuse of power -- and a string of journalistic delicacies -- the details that accompany predatory sexual behavior -- followed by results -- no more shit-sniffing Charlie Rose on PBS or CBS. Russiagate has none of the above..