The last couple of months have been dominated by one story that has blown up far beyond a reasonable level and is seemingly out of control. I'm obviously talking about the #Metoo bandwagon that pretty much everyone seems to be jumping on. Now, I'll start off with the obvious clarification that what some of these guys have allegedly done is reprehensible and I'm not defending them. The problem is that they don't get any chance to defend themselves at all before a Twitter storm announces that they are guilty and ends their careers. How many stories have we heard of a man being fired from his own company, or forced to resign or kicked off a project because someone has accused them of inappropriate behaviour? They key word here is accused because an accusation is not proof and, before Twitter, society generally used to need proof before condemning someone. Now all it takes is a person with a grievance to shout as loud as they can and everyone believes them. That's how the modern world appears to work.
I had thought that a government minister resigning because he once touched a journalist's knee many years ago would be the point that this whole thing ate itself... but it kept going. I thought a man claiming to have PTSD for months because another man touched his crotch once in a club was the point at which this all jumped the shark... but it kept going. Then I thought that a man killing himself because his life had been ruined by accusations, which he was never even given the details of, would be the point that everyone stood back and thought seriously about whether the public domain was the best place for sexual harassment claims to be made... but it kept going. Maybe all of these men did what they are accused of (isn't it odd that it just seems to be men?) but maybe not. The best way to find out is by reporting these things through the proper channels (be that the police for serious cases or employment tribunals for workplace incidents). At the moment, the goal of these people coming forward to scream #Metoo isn't exactly clear. Well, revenge seems to be a lot higher on the list of motivations than justice for many of these cases (Ellen Page). Maybe it's as simple as naming and shaming, which is a very childish tactic that undermines the judicial system and ruins lives without due process.
Perhaps the best thing to come out of this whole mess is that the methods for reporting sexual harassment and abuse will become clearer, simpler and more effective. That's got to be the goal that we strive for rather than making all men fearful of interactions with other people and the next witch hunt.
I think the one aspect that Twitter is actually useful for is exposing how widespread cases of sexual harassment seem to be, but I also think that could have been achieved without attaching names to the accusations. See Terry Crews's story for a perfect example of this. Obviously the New York Times has to take a fair share of blame for the way this has been handled. They set the tone and Twitter has just run with it.
This all makes Mike Pence seem like a genius rather than a dinosaur, which is an interesting side effect.
