George Will proves he's still every bit as clueless as to why what he wrote in last month's column on sexual assault was so very offensive during an interview this week with C-SPAN's Brian Lamb.
Rather than admit that what he wrote was disturbing on so many levels that it's hard to even know where to begin with the criticism of his piece, he decided to double down on the stupidity instead.
George Will Stands By His Incendiary Sexual Assault Column:
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch subsequently dropped Will's syndicated column, and the Chicago Tribune revealed that they had passed on the piece.
In the interview, Will refused to take back any of his comments. Instead, he repeated the thrust of his initial message, worrying about the damage that sexual assault allegations would have on college men:
"A lot of young men and young women in this sea of hormones and alcohol...you're going to have charges of sexual assault. You're going to have young men disciplined, their lives often permanently and seriously blighted by this, don't get into medical school, don't get into law school, all the rest, and you're going to have litigation of tremendous expense."
He also said that, in his view, the definition of sexual assault has become dangerously broad.
"Remarks become sexual assault," he said. "Improper touching: bad, shouldn't be done, but it's not sexual assault."
He also responded to the senators who objected to his column last week, saying, "I take sexual assault more seriously than they do."
Here's more from The Washington Post: George Will to C-SPAN on sexual-assault backlash: ‘Indignation is the default position of certain people’:
In a discussion on C-SPAN taped yesterday, George Will responded at length to the condemnation that met his column addressing campus sexual assault, a piece in which he wrote that when colleges “make victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges, victims proliferate.” Asked about the backlash, Will said, “Indignation is the default position of certain people in civic discourse. They go from a standing start to fury in about 30 seconds.”
What could possibly be responsible for this default position? The Internet!
Will: “I think it has something to do with the Internet, a wonderful thing. It has lowered, indeed erased, the barriers to entry into public discourse. That’s a good thing. Unfortunately, the downside to this, and there’s a downside to everything, is that among the barriers to entry that have been reduced is you don’t have to be able to read, write or think. You can just come in and shout and call names and carry on.”
On the substance of his controversial column, Will deplored the “preponderance of evidence” standard that universities are to use in sexual assault cases. The columnist told C-SPAN: “You’re going to have charges of sexual assault and you’re going to have young men disciplined, their lives often permanently and seriously blighted by this — don’t get into medical school, don’t get to law school, all the rest — and you’re going to have litigation of tremendous expense as young men sue the colleges for damages done to them by abandonment of the rules of due process that we have as a society evolved over many centuries and are now in danger of casually shoving aside,” he said.
It's so good to see that George has got his priorities in line worrying about the "real victims" here... the men accused of sexual assault.
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