Excerpt from Michael Baden's piece on the Psychology Today website:
"There's only one legitimate reason to be upset with Anthony Weiner, and that's because his behavior and its discovery has taken away a bold and effective voice in the Democratic party. Everything else you think and feel about him is bull.
"By bullshit, I mean it has nothing to do with him, and also little to do with broad generalizations made nowadays about the sex and powerful men. The first is too personal and private for anyone to ever know. And the second is so abstract as to be useless in understanding any individual situation. What it does have to do with is you and me, with all of us, who are repeatedly enticed to either buy-in to or create fictive stories about sexual scandals that are little more than projections of our own forbidden or feared desires..."
For more go to: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-is-he-thinking/201106/everything-said-about-anthony-weiner-is-wrong
So, the question is, is it?
Rep Weiner made a mistake by using his public Twitter account to Tweet photos of his body to strangers. I'll betcha a majority of computer literate guys of all ages, socioeconomic levels, career types; relationship statuses have done the same thing. It isn't news for them to be watched, followed and published but with Rep. Weiner it is.
ReplyDeleteWatch what has happened to others caught in the same way but with more egregious sexual misconduct? If you're Republican the brouhaha isn't as intense. Your fellow GOP guys back you up, warn you quietly and try to figure out how to pay off your mistress.
It's ok to be sexually sleazy if you're a Republican. - Charlene
The Weiner affair annoys the hell out of me. It annoys me whenever I see an articulate spokesperson commit seppuku, blow up a career and sabotage family life. It annoys me when we allow hypocritical and predatory Republicans to exploit a minor scandal for maximum political advantage. It annoys me when the news media slavers over bullshit and hands a distraction to demagogues and scoundrels just when they need it most.
ReplyDeleteAgain, here we are, the public, deprived of real news that will impact our lives. News accounts of the Florida and Tennessee legislatures, dominated by rightwing Teahoos, that have just passed bills making unlimited corporate contributions to political slush funds legal for the first time (while prohibiting public sector unions from contributing to candidates of their choice).
Sucker bait! This is what we deserve to call ourselves for paying attention to bullshit when we should be focusing on proto-fascists taking over our state governments, forcing odious legislation down our throats, and slowly eroding our civil liberties.
This damn Weiner scandal annoys me on just about every level I can think of.
Edge and all,
ReplyDeleteI hear the Beltway motormouths ratcheting up the pressure daily, but Weiner knows something they don't: they're just talking about this constantly because they're waiting for "the next big thing" (pun intended) to come along so they can yap about that instead. All the congressman needs to do is stay quiet for a week or two and the news cycle moves forwards -- if it did that regarding the earthquake in Japan and a number of other real catastrophes, it will do that about "Weinergate." So long as there's been no law-breaking here, he'll be able to stay on. And I don't think he's been "silenced" at all: after a brief shut-up time, he will again be able to speak out strongly on various issues -- Weiner couldn't function any other way, that's his style, and it would be pointless for him to remain in Congress without his usual enthusiasm for liberal causes.
Agree with all POVs here. Annoying, hell yes. Sucker bait, yeah. Media flavour of the month, yep again. As stupidly obvious as it seems, the most unfortunate thing about Weiner is his name. How could anyone with that name get caught in that trap? Wouldn't ya think he'd...?
ReplyDeleteThinking back to my misspent internet youth. And by youth, I mean that I was not, technically, young, but definitely young-at-heart, or young-at-[other body part]. Wondering if there was any amount of knowing I shouldn't that would have resulted in actually not doing any of those things. Concluding, probably no.
ReplyDeleteBack in the Tequila Webcam Days (as I call them, fondly) I have a distinct recollection of knowing full well there was no way I should be doing any of the things I was doing, and doing them anyway. These behaviors are inherently compulsive; at least, mine were, and I imagine they are in others as well.
The number of unwise sexual indiscretions we know about is probably quite small in comparison to the ones we don't know. The fact that we, as a society, continue to be shocked and dismayed by these things is a reflection on our collective inability to recognize that this behavior is common enough to be considered normal. Almost Diamonds has a great post describing how it is the atmosphere of prudishness, rather than Weiner's actions, that made this into the scandalous consumer of news cycles that it is.
I've gone through several different phases of opinion on Rep. Weiner's actions, because my first reaction of shock and dismay has gradually been replaced by the realization that the whole media cluster**ck is what's really wrong here.
I purchased my first computer in 1997. It came equipped with AOL and I quickly discovered the chat rooms. I'm shy in person but the anonymity offered by the computer turned me into loquacious Lulu, a flirt and a tease. Lulu had adventures online that I was way too introverted to have in the real world.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Weiner is a deviant and I don't find his behavior repulsive. No doubt, the danger of discovery added to his thrills. I suspect that plenty of his colleagues have their own sexual secrets and their maintaining a distance from Weiner probably has a lot to do with the fear that any understanding shown to Weiner may bring attention to be paid to their private lives.
The feeding frenzy is way too much ado about nothing of significance to the public at large.
The frenzy has everything to do with that old game of finding equivalences even if they have to make anthills into mountains. It's retribution for everything they've been rightly accused of.
ReplyDeleteAs to his name - why the hell can't he pronounces it the way it's spelled? It's Vye-ner not weener.
But no, he's not a deviant, but he is a randy goat and an idiot for not knowing it would blow up on him or what that would do to his party.
Of course the Republibrats are already calling him a sexual predator and they've got Mark Foley out of mothballs to advise him to resign (while saying that sending sexy messages to teenagers should be legal)
Here's the thing that really pisses me off about all these politicians and their sleasy sexual escapades - the country is in deep trouble and in danger of total collapse. People are homeless, jobless and hungry. We need leaders to put all their thoughts and efforts into finding solutions and what are they doing?
ReplyDeleteBurning the midnight oil and wracking their brains for brilliant ideas?
Hell no! They are showing off their wankers or diddling the hired help or running off to Thailand to fulfill their perverted sexual fantasies.
My problem is these people are getting paid to be in service to the people not service their own desires.
They have far too much time to waste and little desire to attend to their duties.
Sheria, candid admission; that's an honest assessment of the usual reaction to virtual emotion. Capt., he is an idiot and should be pronouncing his own name properly. Rocky, agreed, given the media climate you'd think they know better.
ReplyDeleteOf course these are all details that form a part of that larger picture: distracting the American public. As Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau once famously said: "the government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation." In today's parlance, that would extend to any sexual hijacking of the process of governance.