#MeToo

I don't feel like a genius because of it, but I don't think I ever especially liked the work of any of the people exposed by the #MeToo movement. And even if I did like their work, I don't expect much of celebrities. It doesn't surprise me when they turn out to be horrible people.

When I was a kid, they'd show the movie Compulsion on TV a couple of times a year, the movie based on the Leopold & Loeb case in the 1920's. Nathan Leopold seemed pitiful. But he was still a child killer and a would-be rapist. It taught me that even pathetic people had sinister urges, something not obvious to children.

Then there was the wave of scandals involving TV evangelists. I don't remember how old I was when that was going on. I was actually surprised that those guys were so depraved. Jimmy Swaggart was very cheap. He drove around in a Lincoln Town Car offering prostitutes too little money, then he didn't even tip them.

I was already disillusioned when the #MeToo thing started. It still surprises me that people with so much to lose do things like this. In Oregon, we had Neil Goldschmidt---he had been governor of the state, Secretary of Transportation under Jimmy Carter (twelfth in line for the presidency). For years he remained a powerbroker in the state Democratic Party. It turned out that when he was mayor of Portland, he was molesting a fourteen-year-old girl. People working with him including police officers knew about it and did nothing.

In a different matter, I liked the work of Werner Herzog, most of it, but I don't want to watch his movies anymore after finding out about his horrible, sadistic acts of animal abuse. He's a monster.

I liked Klaus Kinski, but look at him. I'd never want to be around that guy. It turned out he raped his daughter for years. Even if he hadn't, it had to have been a nightmare for any child forced to live with him.

I admire the work of Charles Bukowski, but I'd never go near him, either.