People are realizing they’re going to be held accountable for their past actions. No one knows when someone is going to speak up and say #MeToo. We’re all left with the same choices we had six months ago, but now it’s with a fuller realization of the consequences to ourselves and the people we interact with.
If you did commit sexual misconduct in the past, or if you witness someone else’s misconduct, you have choices. When you’re called out you can apologize and admit to it right away and make as many concessions as possible. If you witness someone else’s misconduct, you can call them out.
Roy Moore has done everything he can to shrink away from what he is being accused of – no matter how many times it’s presented to him. He’s being encouraged to pull out of the Senate race, but he hasn’t. And it’s proven to be a far-reaching problem for him. Not being allowed in shopping malls anymore means you have a problem, a BIG problem.
Louis C.K. had previous chances to come clean and didn’t. He denied all since 2012 and as recently as this September. He had numerous opportunities to come clean. He chose to only do it once he was removed from all active projects and had nothing else left to lose.
Sen. Al Franken has now been called out for trying to force a woman to kiss him and for touching her breasts in a photo while she was sleeping. And this was recent, just over a decade ago.
But he didn’t deny it. He doesn’t remember the kissing, yet he still apologized and believed his accuser’s version of events. He took all the blame and said he’d like an ethics investigation to be launched. Before he was in danger of losing anything, he admitted all and even encouraged an investigation.
Also this week Drake was performing and noticed a man groping women in the audience. He stopped the concert, pointed at the guy, called him out, and threatened to personally come out there and “fuck you up.”
So not only do you have choices whether to participate in sexual misconduct or not, but you also have choices on what to do after you’re caught.
You can deny, deny, deny, but it may not help.
You can wait until you truly lose everything and only then come clean.
Or you can just be open and honest from the very start, apologize, and accept the blame.
And if you witness someone else doing an unthinkable act, you can either ignore it and stay out of it and leave the victim in the situation, or you can call out the aggressor and stop them in the act.
We all have choices.