Patterico's Pontifications

9/30/2009

Leftists and Conservatives Can Agree: Polanski Is a Child Rapist Who Should Face Justice

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:17 am



Amongst all the appalling clap-trap and stunning misinformation about Roman Polanski, I have found myself heartened (and slightly discombobulated) by one simple and jarring fact: plenty of left-leaning folks have laid into Polanski with gusto.

Why, if the propriety of punishing child rapists were the only issue in the country, I do believe we could hold hands with the left and sing Kumbayah.

Witness: the center-right (so I am told) Anne Applebaum has revealed herself to be a dishonest, slippery sort prone to blaming the (13-year-old) victim and her mom, while the voice of reason at the Washington Post has proved to be . . . Eugene Robinson?? Yes, Eugene Robinson, and a damn well-written piece it is.

On the blog front, we have numerous excellent pieces from Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns, and Money. Folks, “numerous excellent pieces from Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns, and Money” is just not a phrase I ever envisioned myself tapping out on a keyboard. And, in another unlikely phrase at the Patterico blog, there was “good stuff from Kieran Healy at Crooked Timber.” (Man, this is weird.)

Sanity and honesty from Jason Linkins? Bastions of common sense at Nick Denton blogs and at Salon.com?

I don’t mean to portray the left as monolithically sane in this episode. The Hollywood types who have supported Polanski en masse all lean left politically. But this seems less about politics and more about the preservation of what Glenn Reynolds calls “a sort of droit de seigneur” — a reminder that artistes are different from the rabble and not subject to the same pedestrian laws against anal sex with children and such.

But as for these Internet lefties . . . I will lose my bearings if I start to think of these people as sensible. Please, someone mention Obama and Bush, so we can get them frothing at the mouth again.*

51 Responses to “Leftists and Conservatives Can Agree: Polanski Is a Child Rapist Who Should Face Justice”

  1. What heartens me is that the liberal elite (including the sainted French) have drawn back the curtain to let us see the beating of their vile blackened hearts, and it is so appalling a sight that even dedicated liberal rank and file are disgusted by what they see.

    Yesterday I saw a PJTV piece by Bill Whittle about iconography. In Roman Polanski, conservatives and Republicans may have found the icon that will pull together all the misgivings about Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. and turn back the tide. If they are smart enough to use it.

    tim maguire (03a75b)

  2. […] Pontifications: Leftists and Conservatives Can Agree: Polanski Is a Child Rapist Who Should Face Justice and Applebaum Demands Correction From […]

    Hollywood to host 2014 Pedophilia Olympics to honor Polanski? « VotingFemale Speaks! (3e3c2f)

  3. P.: Thanks for this post. This defense of Polanski is not about the left but is truly a “Hollywood thing.”

    To me, the issue is pretty cut and dry: The guy raped the girl, pleaded to it, fled and should face justice.

    Myron (6a93dd)

  4. The world is coming to the end!!! Myron is making sense!

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  5. “…a reminder that artistes are different from the rabble…”

    They are. All they are is jumped-up court jesters, and amongst the least valuable members of society.

    All they do is entertain.

    Any carpenter, doctor, school teacher, lawyer, farmer, or even a lowly telecommunications field engineer (that’s me) is worth a hundred times what a movie director is worth.

    Because they make lots of money (well, the successful ones do), they think they’re valuable, but just because you make lots of money, it doesn’t really mean you’re valuable.

    International jewel thieves or despotic Lain American dictators can make lots of money too, but they don’t exactly contribute anything of value to society.

    Dave Surls (719891)

  6. Seriously this is an “elite” thing. It’s united all sorts of people as I noted in my blog post today. Even here in France hoi polloi want the scumbag to serve his time as witness the figaro poll where 70% of some 30,000 internet viwers wanted him to face justice

    FrancisT (5a221a)

  7. “…plenty of left-leaning folks have laid into Polanski with gusto.”

    Good for them, btw. There is always hope that someday they’ll wake up on other issues.

    Dave Surls (719891)

  8. Up is down! Left is Right! Cats are sleeping with dogs!

    Scott Jacobs (445f98)

  9. Scott, turn off the Ghostbusters movie.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  10. Anyone think this is the ONLY underage child he has raped?
    Because pedophiles are SO famous for Just Doing It One Time, right? /sarc

    Polanski is on record as saying that he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he did. So it is pretty reasonable to guess that he did it with others, isn’t it?

    Les Nessman (cc0a2e)

  11. tim maquire wrote: “In Roman Polanski, conservatives and Republicans may have found the icon that will pull together all the misgivings about Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. and turn back the tide. If they are smart enough to use it.”

    Exactly. Roman Polanski can be our Terry Schiavo. Tie every Hollywood dimwit who utters a word in support of him and who also appears chanting for The One in the will.i.am video to the Democrat party.

    W4LT (93c0af)

  12. Like I said before, the Polanski PR machine put its pre-prepared bullshit out first, but now honest reporters and commenters on the left, center, and right are catching up.

    nk (df76d4)

  13. Sarcasm on/Hey – it’s not like he doesn’t want to provide free public health insurance to illegal aliens or like he voted GOP/Sarcasm off

    bandit (36701c)

  14. Myron! Welcome to the Dark Side.

    steve miller (c56ca1)

  15. Eugene Robinson’s column was pretty good but one could wish he had not used the phrase, referring to Polanski, “doesn’t deserve a happy ending.” Eurghh.

    Grigor (a24ff8)

  16. You think that giving Kieran Healy is weird? I just approvingly sent a link to Pandagon to a friend. Amanda Marcotte isn’t having any of this “excuse the rape” nonsense.

    physics geek (6669a4)

  17. W4LT isn’t wrong at #12.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  18. Nor is Grigor at #15.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  19. What bothers me is that Anne Applebaum has done some excellent commentary on North Korea, including its expansive system of prison camps in which entire generations are imprisoned. Moreover, her work on the Soviet gulags has been praised, including by National Review’s Michael Ledeen (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmFjNmJiMDZiOTk1YTdlZDgzZTI3ZTM4YmNhMzAwY2Y=).

    So her current stance on Polanski comes as a bit of a surprise.

    Tony (407c7b)

  20. Like it takes moral courage to denounce North Korean prison camps. Way to take a stand. Really groundbreaking stuff.

    The depraved wench seem a lot comfortable with evil at its most cartoonish.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  21. Like it takes moral courage to denounce North Korean prison camps.

    Though really, you’d have thought that denouncing the rapist of a 13 year old girl would be equally easy…

    Scott Jacobs (445f98)

  22. *seems* a lot comfortable I mean

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  23. You know how you keep questioning if other ib=incidents occurred? Natassja Kinski aside, it appears that:

    “I recently read Tatum O’Neil’s autobiography and in it she describes an “uncomfortable” incident she had with Polanski, when she was about the same age as the vic, when she visited him in France with an 18yr old Melanie Griffith where he showed them dirty porn films.”
    http://deceiver.com/2009/09/29/whoopi-explains-the-difference-between-rape-and-rape-rape/comment-page-2/#comment-39273

    CC (d8c88a)

  24. oh. good point… about the equally easy … but her husband is involved there… when a hoochie says that a suggestion that she’s her husband’s chambermaid is equally offensive as a suggestion that her daughter be raped, she’s basically saying hey I’m so totally busted carrying shit for my husband I’m gonna go all out on the how dare you impugn my honor shtick and see if I can bullshit my way through this.

    But everyone knows she’s a lying slattern.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  25. Well, duh. The fundamental disagreements between right and left are over the proper role of government. Hardly anyone disagrees that prosecuting child rapists is a proper role of government. Even Hollywood would agree on this one if they weren’t so busy rallying around one of their own and giving themselves a black eye in the process.
    Unfortunately, regardless of how the extradition plays out, his time in jail in Switzerland is likely to be the most severe punishment Polanski will receive for his crime, since it appears the original judge made a mess of things.
    It appears that if Polanski appears in court in LA, the legal issue will end up being what the judge did, not Polanski. Would be interested in hearing Patterico’s views on this (sorry if I’ve missed it – didn’t read every word of every post).

    Bruce (781db7)

  26. OK. Sentence the rapist to the original 48 days and then sentence him to one day for every day that he evaded his sentence. That would be an additional 30 years.

    Seems fair.

    Sabba Hillel (153338)

  27. Dear Mr. Frey: Yes, up to now Anne Applebaum has been “center right” as an hour’s worth of reading of these pieces will tell you. Too, her book GULAG is worthy of all the praise it has received. She was a great public intellectual.

    This makes her collapse on Polanski really dismaying. She adds to it by shiftily denying that she was working with her hubby to spring Roman, and roaring defiance at all who disagree with her. This collapse ranks high among the evils Polanski has done.

    Sincerely yours,
    Gregory Koster

    Gregory Koster (a5486a)

  28. It does appear to be a Hollywood/Real World split rather than a right-left one. Roger SImon of PJM, hardly a man of the left, defends the Polish Pedo Perv in a column that’s heavy with name-dropping even for a Hollywood assclown:

    http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2009/09/28/romans-arrest-a-view-from-los-angeles/.

    “Look, Polanski is weak like the rest of us. But in the end, there is something about him that is a metaphor for Hollywood – despite that he has been exiled from here these many years. A tremendously talented man, he is the emblem of special pleading.”

    (I see today that Roger has updated the post to say he isn’t defending Polanski. OK then, what’s the thesis of his essay?)

    Kevin R.C. O'Brien (f90602)

  29. It’s been brought to my attention that Roger has a new post much more clearly critical of Mr Polanski. One hopes some of our friends on the left will reconsider their positions and change them, or clarify their positions as Roger did so as not to be misunderstood as supporting an admitted pedophile.

    http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2009/09/30/hollywood-self-implodes-over-polanski/.

    Here’s hoping that the time this scrote spends in Swiss jail fighting extradition isn’t deducted as time-served from his sentence. Dunno what CA law says about that. Judge’s discretion I would think.

    Kevin R.C. O'Brien (f90602)

  30. It’s been brought to my attention that Roger has a new post much more clearly critical of Mr Polanski. One hopes some of our friends on the left will reconsider their positions and change them, or clarify their positions as Roger did so as not to be misunderstood as supporting an admitted pedophile.

    http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2009/09/30/hollywood-self-implodes-over-polanski/.

    Kevin R.C. O'Brien (f90602)

  31. (I see today that Roger has updated the post to say he isn’t defending Polanski. OK then, what’s the thesis of his essay?)

    I think it means that Polanski is symbolic of a group of people (Hollywood Elite) who belief that they are different from and somehow better than the rest of us. That he is the poster-child of a class that is above the laws and rules that us mere mortals must abide by.

    If that is indeed his contention, then I must admit that I quite agree with him.

    Scott Jacobs (9b5ed3)

  32. I’d been waiting for Roger Simon to weigh in. He’s definitely pushed me off the fence into the “child rape is bad” camp.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  33. The division is between folks who can see themselves in Polanski’s place, and those who can’t. One suspects that many in Hollywood have spent some time on the “casting couch”, top or bottom.

    Out in the real world, where no one is likely to bed a movie star, we have less sympathy …

    SamA (c3f91d)

  34. that’s a very defeatist attitude I think

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  35. LOL

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    JD (c3a7b7)

  36. Roger SImon of PJM, hardly a man of the left ..

    You’re joking, right? Roger Simon of PJM is a man of the left.

    Subotai (3aa9ff)

  37. You’re joking, right? Roger Simon of PJM is a man of the left.

    He’s in remission. Looks like Polanski caused a slight flair up of his lib cancer.
    He’s back on his chemo now.

    papertiger (c4b55b)

  38. Witness: the center-right (so I am told) Anne Applebaum has revealed herself to be a dishonest, slippery sort prone to blaming the (13-year-old) victim and her mom,

    I’m aware of a peculiar strain of rightism, if not ultra-rightism — and certainly male chauvinism gone beserk — that has led to the flip comment that when a woman is being raped, she should just lie back and enjoy it.

    There also is a part of the right that has shrugged off the concept of meritocracy on certain occasions and deemed it perfectly fine if the wages of an employee or manager, etc, are based NOT on his or her level of talent and skill but on extraneous factors, such as whether he’s the stereotypical breadwinner (ie, the head of the household, and therefore, by definition, automatically male) with 5 kids to feed and clothe.

    And I’d guess quite a few of the infamous murders or beatings in societies like India of brides for their dowry, or in the Middle East of women merely being seen with a male not related to her involves people suffering from a perverse form of socio-politics, which perhaps can be labeled as Islamo-Hindu-fascist rightism.

    Mark (411533)

  39. Mark: proof please.

    And don’t use terms you don’t know the meaning of. Fascism is a lefty governing strategy, which calls for private ownership but government control.

    Gee, that sounds familiar. I wonder which prominent groups advocate increased government regulation (read: control) over the private sector…

    Gregory (f7735e)

  40. Mark, you’re rambling and incoherent… and you’re trying to link the backwards practices of Islamofascist places to American conservatives by throwing in the word ‘fascist’.

    Anyway, that’s obviously pretty stupid.

    You noted “the flip comment that when a woman is being raped, she should just lie back and enjoy it. ”

    Clayton Williams was ‘overheard’ saying this by some reporter. Who knows just how accurate that quote is, but it’s just an example of some guy who makes a lot of Joe Biden type jokes. He lost that election because he didn’t shake Ann Richard’s hand… not because of this joke (which I agree was awful if it was actually told).

    anyway, your problem is that you are an idiot. You want very badly to hate Republicans, conservatives, and love Democrats. So you try to rank everything from good to bad on a linear line. Politics are not really on a left to right line. It’s not ‘more conservative’ to be hitler and ‘more liberal’ to be Mao… which is why those two were pretty similar.

    You don’t get to blame conservatives for every backwards practice in the world. You have to take each and every person and policy and consider them on their own merit. I know it’s more effort and that you are probably very, very lazy, but tough shit.

    Dustin (0bdb72)

  41. anyway, your problem is that you are an idiot. You want very badly to hate Republicans, conservatives, and love Democrats.

    LOL. You are obviously a newbie here, since you aren’t aware of the ideological/political slant of virtually any and every post I’ve ever made to this blog. However, if I really did want to hate Republicans/conservatives and love Democrats/liberals, I’d agree 100% with you. Yea, in that case I’d be an idiot.

    Mark (411533)

  42. Mark, my apologies for being rude. That was lame of me.

    However, you did invent the label of ‘Islamo-Hindu-fascist rightism’

    And I’m sorry, but that’s just plain idiotic to me. Call it what it is… it is not right or left, and some things, like Nazis, are so extreme they completely defy being put on a linear scale along with Democrats and Republicans. There is not some easy scale.

    Dustin (0bdb72)

  43. If you were being satirical, then it just went over my head. Twice.

    Dustin (0bdb72)

  44. Hollywood elites have long since revealed themselves to be depraved and morally repugnant, so I don’t understand the surprise now. Many (certainly not all) are by any definition hyper-promiscuous and in a semi-incestuous way with each other over and over. Tabloid cover proof. These people grow up selling themselves physically to get acting jobs. They pretend to be other people and cavort nude and simulate sex and get paid millions of dollars for doing so. We are to think they as a class would be offended by child-rape? Are you kidding? Most have long since lost the ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality and live in echo chamber cocoons to boot.

    I grew up with these people and their children. One of the reasons so many of them struggle with addictions and rehab (besides the obvious narcissistic and other personality disorders that draw them to their industry to begin with) is the utter lack of a sense of moral order or responsibility in their heads. They utterly lack it to the point where many objectively are sociopaths. Of course they defend Polanski. Half of them may BE him.

    One of the many reasons Hollywood loved Bill Clinton was that he embodied their own disorders and peccadilloes, and gave them sanction and a powerful sheen. “One of us, in the White House!” The Lewinsky scandal and impeachment episode was a particular slap at Hollywood, who, if they defend a child rapist, most certainly could find no fault with anything Clinton did! He was their affirmation.

    So is Polanski. They literally do not comprehend why the rest of the world might be appalled and revulsed by this man.

    Peg C. (48175e)

  45. Meanwhile on the right you can find Roger Simon triangulating over at Pajamas media. Just check out his last two pieces to see what I mean.

    aloysiusmiller (cf879d)

  46. When I was a graduate student, some of the professors cavorted with the students. Some of them even got married. I found this creepy and still find it creepy although they were over the age of 18. It is as if they saw the students as part of their harem to which they were entitled. There was little if any indignation over it. Now, what would have happened had a female professor dated a male grad student? I can imagine the rage.

    Alexandra (2a0104)

  47. […] support and defense of Roman Polanski.  For the update from Patterico’s Pontifications click here. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Roman Polanski arrested on arrival in […]

    Roman Polanski, Hollywood, and Moral Values « The American Catholic (1b3ee0)

  48. Celebrity is like the catholic priesthood. Wagon’s circling to protect their own.

    Judson (7e914c)

  49. […] Meanwhile, as the story rages on, a few links: Ed Morrissey is flabbergasted by Anne Applebaum; I confess, I am surprised, too. I’ve always found her to be pretty sensible, but her defense is not making sense to me, today. The Rhetorician: Some are more equal than others Get Religion: Roman Polanksi and Roman Catholics (H/T Julie) Big Hollywood: Even NY Times Knows Hollywood is on the wrong side of this issue. Patterico: Left and Right should be able to agree on this […]

    Ancora Imparo; 2 Thoughts » The Anchoress | A First Things Blog (f2568a)


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