Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/14/morgan-spurlock-comes-out-as-a.html
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Interesting, i wonder what women in his past have to say about him because i believe them more than Spurlock. However not knowing more than what i just read on his confession and apology it does seem quite heartfelt want i want to believe he really does realize he’s done wrong and really does want to better himself. But like i said, we’ll see.
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Playing the very long con for a new documentary? You know, after possible jail time?
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“He then goes on to catalog his history of sexual misconduct from alleged rape”
If he’s alleging he committed rape isn’t that called a confession?
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At least he realizes he’s an asshole? Announcing it so publicly instead of just apologizing privately to everyone involved seems kind of self serving though. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised though he just admitted to being a colossal asshole.
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He provides context to it in his letter. Hard to tell what happened with the bare amount of details he gives.
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Super Sized
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I do think he gets some credit for admitting to things that could destroy his career without waiting for someone to first accuse him.
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I’ll give him credit for good timing, and a reasonable sense of how to build a defensive posture before the shitstorm. Like a pre-emptive Louis CK
I give him the same amount of credit I give to any criminal who pleads guilty. “If it please the court of public opinion, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be convicted, so please give me a light sentence” isn’t the moral high ground
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I’ve been wondering if someone would decide to come forward before their victims do.
I think it’s a little different. For all of the people who have been outed as sexual harrassers and abusers over the past couple of months, it’s still a tiny minority of the people who have actually done it. Probably 5-10% of men have a history of repeated sexual harassment and abuse. How many have been called out in the media, 100?
So while I’m sure some people’s fear is real, if your goal is purely to escape punishment, not coming forward still seems like a better policy.
Also, coming forward is difficult for victims for a lot of reasons. Even if they think they will be believed and supported it’s still difficult. By doing this he may have saved someone agonizing over whether to come forward about him (he may not have).
Louis CK pled guilty. This is turning yourself in when they aren’t investigating you yet.
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But why? What caused me to act this way? Is it all ego? Or was it the sexual abuse I suffered as a boy and as a young man in my teens? Abuse that I only ever told to my first wife, for fear of being seen as weak or less than a man?
Is it because my father left my mother when I was child? Or that she believed he never respected her, so that disrespect carried over into their son?
Or is it because I’ve consistently been drinking since the age of 13? I haven’t been sober for more than a week in 30 years, something our society doesn’t shun or condemn but which only served to fill the emotional hole inside me and the daily depression I coped with. Depression we can’t talk about, because its wrong and makes you less of a person.
Let me help you out there. The answer is NO. Why is because you made a choice.
Plenty of men cope with abuse, abandonment and depression without becoming predators. As a survivor of clinical depression, I find that excuse deeply offensive, and I’m sure the survivors of his other excuses are equally offended. Trauma doesn’t make you do anything. How you react to it is a choice.
Before I started to grow taller than my classmates, I was bullied a lot as a child. It didn’t force me to become a bully.
I don’t know. None of these things matter when you chip away at someone and consistently make them feel like less of a person.
Then why bring them up? You’re obviously seeking sympathy.
I am part of the problem. We all are.
But I am also part of the solution. By recognizing and openly admitting what I’ve done to further this terrible situation, I hope to empower the change within myself. We should all find the courage to admit we’re at fault.
More than anything, I’m hopeful that I can start to rebuild the trust and the respect of those I love most. I’m not sure I deserve it, but I will work everyday to earn it back.
I will do better. I will be better. I believe we all can.
I can’t say I’m surprised that coward seeks cover behind the flippant excuse that “everyone does it”.
Also your implied equivalence between infidelity and rape/sexual abuse is an attempt to minimize the latter. Infidelity is duplicitous and puts your sexual partners at risk, and spouses who cheat are immature lowlifes. But the only thing infidelity has in common with sexual predators is the unwillingness to take responsibility for their actions and choices. Though in that sense it’s unsurprising you do both.
The only individual I have control over is me. So starting today, I’m going to be more honest with you and myself. I’m going to lay it all out in the open. Maybe that will be a start. Who knows. But I do know I’ve talked enough in my life … I’m finally ready to listen
Mm hmm…So which of your victims told you they were going to come forward?
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Sweet baby Jesus, thank you for using this TwitLonger thing. THANK YOU! Seriously. Thank you.
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Not sure if I would call this “weird”. It seemed rather open, honest, and self aware. Openly acknowledge they are part of the problem and perhaps making other people reflect on themselves.
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I kinda feel a bit dismayed at some of the responses already, that this is nothing but a self serving, preemptive stunt. I guess it could be. It could also be an honest evaluation that I thought people were asking others in society to make. To look at their behavior, acknowledge it, own it, and move forward to be better. Is crucifying the truly repentant what we should be going for? Because if so, the others who are guilty will take note and you can forget about any self reflection or acknowledgement from anyone else.
If it turns out I am being duped, then shame on him.
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Eh. sort of, kind of, maybe. If Spurlock were in any other gig then I’d agree with you, but the current day of reckoning has hit an awful lot of well known media personalities.
@Mister44 my impression of his twitter was that he seemed to be really basking in the admiration of the people who were telling him how awesome he is for this. Like, liking / thanking / retweeting people who were telling him how great this is. It kind of felt like the wrong posture for someone who is pondering the damage he’s done to the people around him
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In this day and age i would say its possible, my first response encapsulates my thoughts. I want to believe him and for now i’m willing to give him kudos for coming forward but do not mistake it as accepting the apology because it is not me who he has to apologize to. Its his victims, and ultimately i side with them even if they had not spoken yet.
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Christ, what a (self-aware) asshole?
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There are a ton of people saying to themselves (about the full spectrum of wrongdoing) “I don’t want to confess because people will be mad at me.”
They are right. If they confess people will be mad at them.
I don’t think the world would actually be a better place if we acted in Machiavellian ways to try to shape other people’s behaviour for the better. If people are genuinely angry about his confession, I’d rather they express that anger than try to be his kindergarten teacher.
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So it turns out that a woman is safer around a Big Mac and a large Coke than she is around Morgan Spurlock? Color me supersized!
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Serious question based on this. How many of you really believe this was some sort of eureka moment after a lifetime of denial, hiding, paying victims off and obfuscation?
By his own admission, he’s left a long trail of traumatized victims including his wife and the people he calls friends. Occam’s Razor suggests someone told him they were going to out him. In which case all he gets credit for is being smart enough not to double down and make it worse for himself like so many have in the Great Reckoning. And he still minimized, excused and sought cover. It was still a heaping fetid pile of nopology.
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In this case it may be more analogous to a criminal who turns himself in because he’s pretty sure there’s going to be a warrant for his arrest sooner or later.
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About his confession? No. About his nopology with it’s attempt to throw trauma victims under the bus? Angry might be a strong word, but I see no reason not to call him on it. If that means that I sound like I’m talking down to him, so be it.
Are we supposed to coddle predators who are smart enough to get out in front of the shitstorm they sowed?
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