Ethan Klein is not involved in the allegations. Ethan contacted Andrew Callaghan by text message.
Andrew told Ethan that he is currently in a psychiatric ward. Andrew confirmed that he knew the two women who made the allegation videos. Andrew confirmed that the events did happen.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen a celebrity admit to allegations since “cancel culture” become a political talking point. I was expecting the more common right wing shift to grift that most of them do
I think Andrew is rather intelligent and probably quite aware that it’s possible to recover from this by disappearing for a bit, then reappearing and being openly sorry, showing sincere growth.
Whether that’s actually sincere or not who knows. Impossible to tell. I don’t think this will “cancel” him in the longterm.
EDIT: Ultimately being “cancelled” simply relies on a person disappearing permanently out of shame. I suspect that he’s not going to permanently disappear.
How do you “recover” from sexually assaulting women? You don’t “show sincere growth”, you go to prison and have your career permanently crushed. Just like Harvey Weinstein.
I don’t know the answer, but I’ll point out that there is a huge contradiction between this and everything else the left says about criminal justice reform. What would a prison abolitionist think of that approach?
I’m not defending him. This is just how it goes with “influencer” careers on the internet. Step away for awhile, then apologise and show contrition, then continue what you were doing and it all sorta just gets left behind in internet history.
I don’t really think it should be that way, but it is that way. The only people that actually get cancelled are probably the people that learned the most from it and feel real shame enough to not come back to any kind of content-creating or “influencer” role in society anymore.
Right on the edge time wise, but Louis C.K. tried it in 2017:
These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.
He went full grift a few months later, starting with transphobia.
I mean he literally just released a documentary largely about making fun of right wingers. I doubt he would have an audience there
Dan Harmon is still Dan Harmon but I think his apology and admission of fault with his situation a few years back is the template for people who do actually want to atone. Idk if harmons was that or hes just smart enough to say the right words but once you do something fucked up its about as good as you can do as a response. (I dont remember if harmons stuff was sexual also or if it was more about his abuse of power that he used on a female writer. )
cw sv
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So I know its fucked and all, but as a victim I do like seeing people own what they have done. It takes some of the anguish away from the victims. People always act like we’re lying and its good to be vindicated. Probably will help the victims in a small way. It at least shows the guy is somewhat remorseful and empathetic, here’s hoping he is capable of making things right in some way, whether thats a criminal case or whatever.
edit
spoiler
Also, for real, I don’t even know what a proper punishment for my rapist would even be. Like I don’t really even care about punishment 95% of the time. Sometimes I do want him to be punished severely, maybe even die, when I’m in the throes of a very bad PTSD attack. It feels like its happening again, RIGHT NOW, when PTSD is happening so its sort of a self defense response. But most the time I think that maybe just having him not ever be able to do that again, whether that is imprisonment or rehab, is fine. But another consideration is how badly it mires the thoughts of someone. Its basically torture for the rest of your life. It can cause you a loss in productivity, jobs, etc. A payout would be good too. But in a socialist society you would be covered regardless, so I dont know. Kinda spacing out at this point, had a bad day, so yeah.
I don’t know how to word this well, so: thanks for sharing your perspective, it is important and I found it insightful.
“Surely the writer of my favourite eldritch horror books will never be problematic!”
