# Biggest fall from grace

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 30, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806 "2018-01-30T14:57:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806/81 "2018-02-02T14:30:57Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Weinstein, no doubt. First of all, he’s been the patient zero for sexual harassment with plenty of high-profile victims. Few people knew Cosby’s victims before the word got out, but names like Selma Hayak, Darryl Hannah, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, and Rose McGowan were well known, which meant sympathized with them (we always feel more sympathy for victims if we feel we know them). His methods were especially disgusting, going so far as hiring people to discredit anyone he harassed. There were a lot of victims.
> 
> Second, he’s no entertainer. The public has no fond memories of him (of his movies, yes, but not of him).
> 
> Third, the description of what he was doing it both disgusting and completely beyond the pale.
> 
> Finally, he’s 65. That doesn’t give him a lot of time to be rehabilitated.
> 
> Assuming he goes to jail, he’ll go from being a multimillionaire to living in a cell with a cellmate. That’s a hell of a drop.

Other than O.J. who actually killed people, Weinstein has been exposed as having done the worst things, no doubt about it.

My argument would be that he started lower than most of them. Sure, he was a multimillionaire, but so were all the others. (Though Pete Rose probably wasn’t a multimillionaire for very long before he gambled it all away.) And six months ago, I doubt that more than 5% of Americans could have told you who he was (I’d have been ‘I know I’ve heard the name before, but no idea where’), while most of the others are or were household names. He was a mover and shaker in Hollywood, but AFAIK he wasn’t famous outside the industry.

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**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806/82 "2018-02-06T11:49:18Z")

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> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> I’m not saying ‘he’s great’, but I don’t think he’s had the kind of fall that OJ Simpson or Bill Cosby did.

There’s also the fact that, for a lot of younger people, Richard Nixon is best known for being President of Earth in _Futurama_ (Aroo, Hippies!) - so in that sense he’s probably better thought of than by people who were around when he was US President IRL.

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**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806/83 "2018-02-07T00:47:07Z")

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Tom Brady?

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806/84 "2018-02-07T01:16:03Z")

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> [@Johanna](#):
>
> I still don’t know WTF was the deal with that '72 election, especially since Watergate had already been in the news for several months.

Law And Order, and Ending The Damned Sixties.

McGovern was legitimately leftist. He wanted an immediate end to Vietnam, he had wanted it for years, and he wanted a basic income system or similar. Think Bernie Sanders, is my point here. It was the easiest thing in the world for Nixon to paint him and his insane VP as, well, nutcase, the lunatic fringe which is responsible for… _gesture vaguely towards sit-ins and riots and Blacks acting like human beings_… this gigantic mess we’re all in now.

My point is, Nixon’s Silent Majority was real, and it was a majority, and it did more than just take up seats at movie theaters and watch Ronald Reagan flicks on the TV.

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**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-fall-from-grace/807806/85 "2018-02-07T01:39:17Z")

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> [@Quercus](#):
>
> Though I might add, say Cardinal Law or some other Catholic authority as having even a bigger fall from grace.

That Polish guy was in his mid 50’s when he too office. In 3 decades, the child abuse throughout the church never caught his attention? That is some damn weak sauce.

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