Matt Damon Finally Shuts Up — and We Can Thank the #MeToo Crowd

Have you ever wanted Hollywood star and liberal activist Matt Damon to put a cork in it? Ever wanted to tell him to shut his big fat mouth? Sure, we all have. Whether he’s scolding us for killing the planet with our SUVs (while he jets all over the world), or scolding us for not paying teachers enough (while he makes millions of dollars playing make-believe), or any of the other reasons he scolds us, he really is a bit much.

Advertisement

Yet he’s applauded for his finger-wagging lectures, as long as he’s shooting his mouth off in service of liberal agenda items. For decades now, he’s been celebrated for his thoughtfulness and bravery. He’s considered woke.

What happens, though, when he expresses an opinion that’s unpopular among his peers? What happens when he breaks from liberal orthodoxy? How well does he stand up for himself then?

Not very well at all. Here he is on the Today show this morning, being forced to share physical space with Kathie Lee Gifford while he grovels to feminists everywhere for their forgiveness:

Keep in mind that Damon is begging for women’s forgiveness in the very same building where, up until two months ago, Matt Lauer had an office with a secret button to lock women inside so he could attack them. And somehow, none of Lauer’s co-workers knew anything about it? Yeah, right. Maybe the Today show isn’t the best venue for Matt Damon’s struggle session on sexual assault.

Advertisement

If you’ve forgotten, here’s the awful, terrible thing that Damon now regrets saying. It was last month, when he was talking to Peter Travers of ABC News about everything that’s happened in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall:

I do believe that there’s a spectrum of behavior, right? And we’re going to have to figure — you know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?

All he said was that Al Franken’s actions weren’t as bad as Harvey Weinstein’s actions. Running around grabbing women’s butts is bad and you shouldn’t do it, but it’s not the same thing as serially raping women and threatening to ruin their careers if they talk. That’s all Matt Damon was saying. He was appealing for calm. He was calling for a bit of sanity.

So, of course, everyone went even more insane. Hollywood feminists and other professional victims screamed at him. It was unacceptable to assert that not all sexual misbehavior is rape, they informed us. He was dismissing the concerns of women. He was perpetuating rape culture, etc.

For the first time in his life, Matt Damon wasn’t spouting nonsense. And he was excoriated for it. Pointing out a self-evident truth was a crime against women.

Advertisement

Damon has certainly learned his lesson. He’s been suitably chastised and now he’s buttoning up his lip. Sexual assault is whatever an accuser says it is, and if you’ve got a problem with that, you’d better keep it to yourself or you could get Damoned.

(And don’t even think about defending Aziz Ansari. He’s not a typical white male, but he’s still a typical male, and that’s bad enough.)

Look on the bright side, though: For the first time in 20 years, Matt Damon is closing his yap! It’s sort of like Al Capone getting nabbed for tax evasion. It’s a relatively minor infraction, and it doesn’t make up for all those years of wrongdoing, but at least it’s something.

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement