That “hundreds of athletes” is actually more like thousands.
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I need something to believe in. I’m giving up on all manner of someones. But something would be nice.
ETA: I swear that reads like an Onion article.
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Where “This Crazy Thing” represents this entire world.
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Closing ranks…
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So, there’s this guy.
Not the first one, the second. Turns out he’s a complete asshole.
https://twitter.com/DoctorMeowskis/status/1016508630642905088
Dear men, quit being assholes. We’d like to be able to trust you, but shit like this doesn’t help.
And don’t #notallmen me on this. The point is the very fact that we don’t know which category someone’s in, just from what they claim to be in.
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A bit of background I have managed to glean:
Leonard Lopate was fired from another station after an investigation revealed years of sexual harrassment.
WBAI just hired him. Jay Smooth quit WBAI in protest. This was WBAI’s response.
For those not familiar with Twitter, there is a term called “being ratioed”. It means when the responses:retweets/likes ratio is tilted heavily in favour of responses. It usually means that the poster fucked up, bad.
The nice thing is that WBAI is getting ratioed bad. The screaming part is, there’s no punishment for old white men. And no justice for anybody else.
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But this is an FM radio station. Most FM radio stations are struggling as people switch to streaming, satellite radio, and just plain playing stuff off their phones.
If it gets picked up by other media outlets in their area, it could blow up pretty bad on them.
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Let’s hope so. And let’s hope for a smooth landing for Jay, for doing the principled thing.
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I could never stand Leonard Lopate. I don’t miss him. He always came across as someone with limited knowledge who presented himself as a smarmy intellectual.
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on the structures that enable rape.
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God it’s disturbing how long this thread is becoming.
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Not sure what’s more horrifying.
This:
One of the class-action lawsuits estimates that during his time at OSU, Strauss “sexually assaulted, abused, battered, molested, and/or harassed 1,500 to 2,500 male students.” That is an absolutely staggering number.
Or this:
One of the most horrifying “defenses” of Jordan came from his colleague Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who said that, “Unlike the Olympians who were minor children at the time they were abused, these former wrestlers were adults at the time they claim they were sexually abused by the Ohio State team doctor.”
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Insert “why not both?” gif here.
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The new trend in private schools is to go back to historic abuse and dig it all up. There are companies that work with the schools to investigate all the claims.
So, this will be interesting. I grew up on the campus of a private school. Yep, I know some things about 3 of the teachers, and at the urging of a friend, I decided to get in touch with the company to report it.
AND all of these teachers are also my childhood friends’ dads, now in their 70’s and 80’s. Some dead. One of them, my mom traveled with his wife several times on trips abroad (My mom went through a travel kick. She and this lady would work with a travel agency to put together tour groups, then get their own travel for half price.)
So, this is going to be a total shitshow.
But also, it needs to happen to keep the students today safe, and I’m done lying for men.
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I talk to them today. Nervous.
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Talked to the investigator. She didn’t have much info to share but it does sound like my little morsels are contributing to information already known. I think she thought I’d know more than I did from being a kid on campus, but I was so little, really didn’t know much about any misdoings at that time. Was glad to hear the one guy got fired by previous headmaster after a report was made against him, and it sounds like quite a lot of info is building about him.
And phew, sounds like my dad is not someone they are investigating anything about.
This is very anxiety producing.
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Of course. You’re so meshed into the whole thing by your childhood friends, friends of your mother and father, and just by growing up at the ‘scene of the crime’. But you’re also empathetic and caring, and know that the investigation and its outcome will have effects on more than just the perpetrator/s. So I think I understand why it’s causing you anxiety, but salute you for doing the right thing. It’s easy to say, often not-so-easy to do: continue to be brave.
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I got five bucks for the first person who can find a legitimately non-horrifying, caring, thoughtful, well-considered, reasonable, and honorable thing Louie Gohmert has ever said in public.
I suspect my lunch money is safe.
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I can imagine. Good for you though.
Forgive me if I’ve shared this already.
50 years ago, I had some minor surgery by a doctor who didn’t use enough local anesthetic, and told me off when I screamed. He yelled, “You’ll scare your mother!” (she was in the corridor). At some point (a follow-up appointment maybe?) the surgeon showed some anonymous doctor into the examining room, then left. The doctor proceeded to stick his hand down my pants. It took five years before I realized what it was. I wish I’d done something. Now it’s too late. They’re probably both dead. And I never got the guy’s name.
I wonder how many other kids were assaulted by that asshole, enabled by the second (I wonder if they traded places, to keep the anonymity). And this was a children’s hospital in a big city.
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