# Woody Allen's autobiography cancelled by publisher **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028 "2020-03-06T21:03:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/81 "2020-03-20T10:22:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It would be nice to live in that dream world. But it’s not reality. Any reading of the news over the past few years would reveal numerous people who were not rich and powerful who said the wrong thing and had their careers derailed. There is no reality in which cancel culture affects only the Harvey Weinsteins. Cancel culture is not synonymous with #MeToo. It is utterly arbitrary and depends more on Twitter rages than on evidence. > > It is a parody of itself. I know no better example than [Help Decide the Top 1,000 Comedians of 2019](https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/top-1-000-comedians-of-2019-zach-broussard.html). Comedian Zack Broussard had been issuing comedic listings of the top 1000 comedians for several years, changing the rules constantly. For 2019 he topped himself. > > The result. A list of [1988 canceled comedians](https://cancelcomedians.com/cancelled). And a list of [1000 uncancelled comedians](https://cancelcomedians.com/). I have no idea how the lists are ranked. Nevertheless, I couldn’t identify ten of the top 100 on the cancelled list. You think only the rich and powerful only get cancelled? You think being on that list won’t affect their careers from now on, even if the list was a joke? You really want judgement based on the effort people put into clicking a button on a screen? > > #MeToo changed our world for the better. Cancel culture is a sewer washing over people, the guilty and the innocent alike. Want proof? > > There’s a distinction worth making. How did this affect anyone’s life? Random people clicking “cancel” on a comedian they don’t like on some random website doesn’t harm them. Might as well complain that someone on Twitter said something mean. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/82 "2020-03-20T10:45:24Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s a panic about “cancel culture”. These idiots are afraid it’s going to come for them. But it’s not… not unless they did something awful. That statement is incorrect. The last phrase should read “not unless they’re _ **accused** _ of doing something awful”. I’m registered with the _New York Times_ but I don’t think this NYT magazine article is paywalled. It’s quite long, but insightful and informative: [The Accusations Were Lies. But Could We Prove It?](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/magazine/title-ix-sexual-harassment-accusations.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab) Honesty and justice are two of the essential and fundamental pillars of society, without which it deteriorates into anarchy, mob rule, and sometimes mob hysteria. At the most basic level that’s all I’ve been trying to say in all my posts in your #MeToo thread. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/83 "2020-03-20T11:11:03Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > That statement is incorrect. The last phrase should read “not unless they’re _ **accused** _ of doing something awful”. > > I’m registered with the _New York Times_ but I don’t think this NYT magazine article is paywalled. It’s quite long, but insightful and informative: > [The Accusations Were Lies. But Could We Prove It?](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/magazine/title-ix-sexual-harassment-accusations.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab) > > Honesty and justice are two of the essential and fundamental pillars of society, without which it deteriorates into anarchy, mob rule, and sometimes mob hysteria. At the most basic level that’s all I’ve been trying to say in all my posts in your #MeToo thread. False accusations are possible, and they’re bad. But what do you suggest we do? Ignore accusations because some small but real fraction might be fake? All accusations should be taken seriously. That’s all I, and #MeToo, are suggesting. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/84 "2020-03-20T12:58:20Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I’m sure Al Franken, Garrison Keillor and Neil DeGrasse Tyson don’t want you to feel sorry for them. I suspect they’d all like their careers from three or four years ago back. If they’re not undeserving victims of cancel culture, I don’t know who is. Al Franken and Garrison Keillor are victims of themselves. There was no injustice done to them. They are also doing just fine—better than 99 percent of us—and have plenty of opportunities yo speak to any public who is willing to listen to them. Franken doesn’t have a right to be a senator. Keillor doesn’t have a right to a weekly two-hour public radio program. I don’t know enough about the Tyson situation to comment. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/85 "2020-03-20T13:04:32Z")
And now people will start to learn that if you want to be in a career that depends on people liking you, you should be aware that any time you mistreat someone in private, your audience might decide they don’t like you any more. That’s the first step to eliminating importuning on the part of people holding over others. They will be aware that their privilege doesn’t protect them and they will learn about consent. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/86 "2020-03-20T16:26:59Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > False accusations are possible, and they’re bad. But what do you suggest we do? Ignore accusations because some small but real fraction might be fake? > > All accusations should be taken seriously. That’s all I, and #MeToo, are suggesting. Woody Allen was investigated and cleared of any charges, yet he is being punished anyway. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/87 "2020-03-20T16:48:54Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Woody Allen was investigated and cleared of any charges, yet he is being punished anyway. Regardless of whether such an investigation can be trusted, what would you suggest? Should publishers be forced to publish his book? Should workers be forced to work for a publisher if they disagree with them on something? Should readers be forced to buy his book? This is a free society. If people think Allen is a creep, they are free to criticize him and publishers who want to work with him. Workers are free to criticize their employers. Allen is free to publish a book with his own resources, which is incredibly easy and inexpensive nowadays (I’ve done it three times so far). Allen will be fine. If he doesn’t like how the public has responded to him, he can console himself with his millions of dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/88 "2020-03-20T16:57:31Z")
I probably should be angry, but I’m mostly amused by the way my post has been turned inside out, cherrypicked, and misinterpreted to be repurposed as arguments against what I was saying. What a great example of the interact in action. The lesson from Broussard 's prank is not that cancel culture is invalid and has no effect, but that nobody complained about it being an injustice that invited an audience to castigate their peers anonymously. Instead everyone got canceled. Every single person. That’s what mobs do. They don’t make distinctions. They don’t do nuance. They don’t have to think, or gather evidence, or check facts. Mob justice is no justice at all. Yeah, iiandyiiii, we should take #MeToo seriously. You know who also said that? Me. But here’s something that [several wise thinkers said](https://www.bartleby.com/73/953.html). > [@](#): > > Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) > QUOTATION: That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved. > ATTRIBUTION: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, letter to Benjamin Vaughan, March 14, 1785.—The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert H. Smyth, vol. 9, p. 293 (1906). > > He was echoing Voltaire, “that generous Maxim, that ’tis much more Prudence to acquit two Persons, tho’ actually guilty, than to pass Sentence of Condemnation on one that is virtuous and innocent.—Zadig, chapter 6, p. 53 (1749, reprinted 1974). > > Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, 9th ed., book 4, chapter 27, p. 358 (1783, reprinted 1978), says, “For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” They said that because they were so afraid of mob justice at work. The question of what to do about the falsely accused innocents is a crucial one. I don’t have an answer. I don’t think anybody has. I’m very much afraid that some innocent lives will be ruined in the process of righting decades of serious wrongs. That is how society works. Should no one care? Here’s another thing I said, though. “Cancel culture is not synonymous with #MeToo.” You and most of the others keep running over those words to talk about #MeToo. Look over here! is a another internet eyesore I’m sick of. You can’t find an example of my saying anything negative about the #MeToo movement because I never have. I am, irony alert, being accused of something I never did. Will some readers of these posts believe my accusers over me? Will they make a swift judgement on the basis of an accusation? Will I have to defend myself in the future against some rot that came bubbling out of the ooze? You see how easy cancel culture can arise out of nothingness? You’re wrong to dismiss it or claim that it has no consequences. Cancel culture is new only in the way it currently manifests. It’s the direct descendant of earlier whisper campaigns. Stay away from John, he’s a homosexual. Betty? She belonged to a Communist group. Old Abe is secretly a Mason. I am not exaggerating the seriousness of this new variation; I wish I were. Get your minds around the notion that two separate but partially overlapping cultural movements can happen simultaneously. Real Communist spies did real damage by stealing real secrets and they needed to be exposed. At the same time, thousands of innocents had their lives destroyed by suspicion and namecalling. Both happened simultaneously. The mob happily allowed it; heck, encouraged it. Today McCarthyism is one of the worst insults that can be hurled at someone. Is cancel culture the new McCarthyism? Maybe. I’m fighting it just in case. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/89 "2020-03-20T17:14:53Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Woody Allen was investigated and cleared of any charges, yet he is being punished anyway. I wouldn’t exactly say he was ‘cleared’. From the [1993 judgment](https://www.scribd.com/document/205403621/Allen-v-Farrow-Custody-Ruling-June-7-1993): > [@](#): > > Mr. Allen’s relationship with Dylan remains unresolved. The evidence suggests that it is unlikely that he could be successfully prosecuted for sexual abuse. I am less certain, however, than is the Yale-New Haven team, that the evidence proves conclusively that there was no sexual abuse. > … > > I agree with Dr. Herman and Dr. Brodzinsky that we will probably never know what occurred on August 4, 1992. The credible testimony of Ms. Farrow, Dr. Coates, Dr. Leventhal and Mr. Allen does, however, prove that Mr. Allen’s behavior toward Dylan was grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her. > … > > Mr. Allen’s request for immediate visitation with Dyan is denied. It is unclear whether Mr. Allen will ever develop the insight and judgment necessary for him to relate to Dylan appropriately. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/90 "2020-03-20T17:56:18Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > False accusations are possible, and they’re bad. But what do you suggest we do? Ignore accusations because some small but real fraction might be fake? > > All accusations should be taken seriously. That’s all I, and #MeToo, are suggesting. I don’t want to rehash the arguments in the #MeToo thread all over again. I think **Exapno Mapcase** has eloquently summarized much of what I wanted to say in [post #88](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22200556&postcount=88) anyway. But I do have the following specific responses to the above post. You are suggesting much more than what you claim. 1. Nowhere did I ever say or imply that accusations shouldn’t be taken seriously. What I object to is a social climate where an accusation is equivalent to a conviction, with no due process and no recourse, and which may be career-limiting or career-ending or, as in the story I posted, put an innocent person through years of living hell. 2. Even when there is an investigation which clears the individual, we live in a social climate where it doesn’t matter. In the minds of many, Woody Allen is still a pedophile, and Chris Hardwick is still being called a creep who doesn’t deserve to be on the air. 3. Most disturbing of all is your claim in the other thread that a “broken society” placed Ghomeshi’s accusers in an “impossible” situation, and that therefore their deliberate, proven lying and calculated withholding of material information should have been excused and Ghomeshi found guilty regardless, despite the fact that the credibility of the witnesses was absolutely central to the case. This goes directly against the principle I expressed that honesty and justice are the pillars of civilized society. Instead, your conclusion was that the judge (who was widely praised for putting justice and due process ahead of emotion) was an old fogey who erred in his decision. BTW, I hope it was clear that in the other thread, when I said “I don’t see #MeToo helping with very much of it”, the “it” I was referring to were your alleged systemic societal dysfunctions of misogyny, patriarchy, and “rape culture”. I think we can all agree that #MeToo has done a great deal to expose and reduce sexual violence against women and that this is an unmitigated good thing. I think progress in these other areas is mostly being made through other, broad cultural changes. I think in the final analysis all that I really disagree with you about is what I regard as your extremism, which seems willing to subvert those fundamental values I talked about – honesty and justice – to a social cause that you believe in so strongly that any societal upheaval and injustice is worth it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/91 "2020-03-20T17:58:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The lesson from Broussard 's prank is not that cancel culture is invalid and has no effect, but that nobody complained about it being an injustice that invited an audience to castigate their peers anonymously. Instead everyone got canceled. Every single person. That’s what mobs do. They don’t make distinctions. They don’t do nuance. They don’t have to think, or gather evidence, or check facts. Mob justice is no justice at all. But no one got canceled, AFAICT. That list did nothing and affected no one. A bunch of random people clicked “cancel” or whatever, next to some names, but why is this notable? Why does this matter? I could make a list and invite people to decide who is a poophead and who isn’t… but this wouldn’t affect the world in any way. No one would or should care about a random list on the internet with “poophead” or “cancel” next to a bunch of names. Mobs actually hurt people. Random internet people just do silly things online that affect no one, for the most part. > [@](#): > > Yeah, iiandyiiii, we should take #MeToo seriously. You know who also said that? Me. But here’s something that [several wise thinkers said](https://www.bartleby.com/73/953.html). I don’t have a problem with any of those quotes, and they don’t dispute anything I’ve said. > [@](#): > > You see how easy cancel culture can arise out of nothingness? You’re wrong to dismiss it or claim that it has no consequences. Cancel culture is new only in the way it currently manifests. It’s the direct descendant of earlier whisper campaigns. Stay away from John, he’s a homosexual. Betty? She belonged to a Communist group. Old Abe is secretly a Mason. I am not exaggerating the seriousness of this new variation; I wish I were. Get your minds around the notion that two separate but partially overlapping cultural movements can happen simultaneously. Real Communist spies did real damage by stealing real secrets and they needed to be exposed. At the same time, thousands of innocents had their lives destroyed by suspicion and namecalling. Both happened simultaneously. The mob happily allowed it; heck, encouraged it. Today McCarthyism is one of the worst insults that can be hurled at someone. Is cancel culture the new McCarthyism? Maybe. I’m fighting it just in case. Maybe there are bad things about whatever “Cancel Culture” is, and maybe it could hurt some people. But you haven’t offered any examples of this so far – just random internet silliness, and mundane things happening to wealthy people that marginally affect their lives. Many abusers, gropers, harassers, and the like have suffered significant (but rarely criminal) consequences, and this is a good thing. But I assume this isn’t what you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/92 "2020-03-20T18:10:26Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I don’t want to rehash the arguments in the #MeToo thread all over again. I think **Exapno Mapcase** has eloquently summarized much of what I wanted to say in [post #88](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22200556&postcount=88) anyway. > > But I do have the following specific responses to the above post. You are suggesting much more than what you claim. > > 1. Nowhere did I ever say or imply that accusations shouldn’t be taken seriously. What I object to is a social climate where an accusation is equivalent to a conviction, with no due process and no recourse, and which may be career-limiting or career-ending or, as in the story I posted, put an innocent person through years of living hell. I object to this as well, and I don’t believe anything I’ve advocated leads to this. But false accusations will cause suffering, unfortunately. I can’t imagine how all accusations can be taken seriously without the possibility of the false ones causing suffering. Can you? > [@](#): > > 1. Even when there is an investigation which clears the individual, we live in a social climate where it doesn’t matter. In the minds of many, Woody Allen is still a pedophile, and Chris Hardwick is still being called a creep who doesn’t deserve to be on the air. Neither Allen nor Hardwick have been cleared. Maybe investigations occurred (with some or no details released), and maybe they faced no professional or criminal consequences, but that doesn’t mean they’ve necessarily been cleared. > [@](#): > > 1. Most disturbing of all is your claim in the other thread that a “broken society” placed Ghomeshi’s accusers in an “impossible” situation, and that therefore their deliberate, proven lying and calculated withholding of material information should have been excused and Ghomeshi found guilty regardless, despite the fact that the credibility of the witnesses was absolutely central to the case. This goes directly against the principle I expressed that honesty and justice are the pillars of civilized society. Instead, your conclusion was that the judge (who was widely praised for putting justice and due process ahead of emotion) was an old fogey who erred in his decision. Here you misrepresent my posts once again. Not once have I characterized the verdict of the case in any way – I only criticized the judge’s comments. And I stand by my criticism of the judge’s comments, which I made in detail and with specific examples. > [@](#): > > I think in the final analysis all that I really disagree with you about is what I regard as your extremism, which seems willing to subvert those fundamental values I talked about – honesty and justice – to a social cause that you believe in so strongly that any societal upheaval and injustice is worth it. Maybe clearing up the mischaracterization above would eliminate this concern/disagreement. Honesty and justice are also two fundamental values in my view as well. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/93 "2020-03-20T21:21:07Z")
I actually used the constituent contact form to urge my senator Al Franken to step down. I don’t agree that he’s an innocent victim. But what about the lesbian couple in that NY Times piece? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/94 "2020-03-20T21:29:04Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > But what about the lesbian couple in that NY Times piece? If their story is accurate, then they suffered unjustly. But I don’t understand what this story has to do with this discussion. We already know that false accusations are possible. Sucks, but sometimes people suck. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/95 "2020-03-20T22:32:30Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I wouldn’t exactly say he was ‘cleared’. Per Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > According to the report, the important inconsistencies in Dylan’s statement, the lack of spontaneity, and the impression of repeating something learned are the main reason for the conclusions.[6] The report also stressed that Dylan felt that she had to solve her mother’s problems,[79] and indicated that the relationship between Mia Farrow and Dylan and Satchel was very disturbed and required immediate intensive psychotherapy. Which is just what Moses, now a psychotherapist himself, reports: > **[A SON SPEAKS OUT By Moses Farrow](http://mosesfarrow.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-son-speaks-out-by-moses-farrow.html)** > > I’m a very private person and not at all interested in public attention. But, given the incredibly inaccurate and misleading attacks... > [@](#): > > It was important to my mother to project to the world a picture of a happy blended household of both biological and adopted children, but this was far from the truth. I’m sure my mother had good intentions in adopting children with disabilities from the direst of circumstances, but the reality inside our walls was very different. It pains me to recall instances in which I witnessed siblings, some blind or physically disabled, dragged down a flight of stairs to be thrown into a bedroom or a closet, then having the door locked from the outside. She even shut my brother Thaddeus, paraplegic from polio, in an outdoor shed overnight as punishment for a minor transgression.[…] > For all of us, life under my mother’s roof was impossible if you didn’t do exactly what you were told, no matter how questionable the demand.[…] > When I didn’t give the answer she wanted, she slapped my face, knocking off my glasses. She told me I was lying and directed me to tell my brothers and sisters that I had taken the tape measure. Through my tears I listened to her as she explained that we would rehearse what should have happened. She would walk into the room and I would tell her I was sorry for taking the tape measure, that I had taken it to play with and that I would never do it again. She made me rehearse it at least a half-dozen times. > > That was the start of her coaching, drilling, scripting, and rehearsing – in essence, brainwashing. I became anxious and fearful. Once, when I was given a new pair of jeans, I thought they would look cool if I cut off a couple of the belt loops. When Mia saw what I had done, she spanked me repeatedly and had me remove all my clothing, saying, “You’re not deserving of any clothes” and making me stand naked in the corner of her room, in front of my older siblings who had just returned from dinner with their father André. (After I spoke to People magazine in 2014 about how I was treated, Dylan called it a “betrayal” and said that I was “dead to” her. She later publicly dismissed my recollections of my childhood as “irrelevant.” This from a woman who now styles herself an “advocate for abuse victims.”)[…] > In her widely-circulated 2014 open letter in The New York Times, the adult Dylan suddenly seemed to remember every moment of the alleged assault, writing, “He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.” > > It’s a precise and compelling narrative, but there’s a major problem: there was no electric train set in that attic. There was, in fact, no way for kids to play up there, even if we had wanted to. It was an unfinished crawl space, under a steeply-angled gabled roof, with exposed nails and floorboards, billows of fiberglass insulation, filled with mousetraps and droppings and stinking of mothballs, and crammed with trunks full of hand-me-down clothes and my mother’s old wardrobes.[…] > Now, whenever I hear Dylan making a public statement about what allegedly happened to her that day when she was barely seven, I can only think of that imaginary train set, which she never brought up during the original investigation or custody hearing. Did somebody suggest to the adult Dylan that such a specific detail would make her story more credible? Or does she really believe she remembers this train “circling around the attic” the same way she says she remembers Woody’s whispered promises of trips to Paris and movie stardom (kind of odd enticements to offer a 7-year-old, rather than a new toy or a doll)? And all this apparently took place while those of us who promised to have our eyes trained on Woody were downstairs, seemingly oblivious to what was happening right above our heads? I expect (or at least hope) that a lot of the people who are so sure Dylan must be telling the truth have not read this. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/96 "2020-03-20T23:38:35Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I probably should be angry, but I’m mostly amused by the way my post has been turned inside out, cherrypicked, and misinterpreted to be repurposed as arguments against what I was saying. What a great example of the interact in action. > > The lesson from Broussard 's prank is not that cancel culture is invalid and has no effect, but that nobody complained about it being an injustice that invited an audience to castigate their peers anonymously. Instead everyone got canceled. Every single person. That’s what mobs do. They don’t make distinctions. They don’t do nuance. They don’t have to think, or gather evidence, or check facts. Mob justice is no justice at all. > > Yeah, iiandyiiii, we should take #MeToo seriously. You know who also said that? Me. But here’s something that [several wise thinkers said](https://www.bartleby.com/73/953.html). > > They said that because they were so afraid of mob justice at work. The question of what to do about the falsely accused innocents is a crucial one. I don’t have an answer. I don’t think anybody has. I’m very much afraid that some innocent lives will be ruined in the process of righting decades of serious wrongs. That is how society works. Should no one care? > > Here’s another thing I said, though. “Cancel culture is not synonymous with #MeToo.” You and most of the others keep running over those words to talk about #MeToo. Look over here! is a another internet eyesore I’m sick of. You can’t find an example of my saying anything negative about the #MeToo movement because I never have. I am, irony alert, being accused of something I never did. Will some readers of these posts believe my accusers over me? Will they make a swift judgement on the basis of an accusation? Will I have to defend myself in the future against some rot that came bubbling out of the ooze? > > You see how easy cancel culture can arise out of nothingness? You’re wrong to dismiss it or claim that it has no consequences. Cancel culture is new only in the way it currently manifests. It’s the direct descendant of earlier whisper campaigns. Stay away from John, he’s a homosexual. Betty? She belonged to a Communist group. Old Abe is secretly a Mason. I am not exaggerating the seriousness of this new variation; I wish I were. Get your minds around the notion that two separate but partially overlapping cultural movements can happen simultaneously. Real Communist spies did real damage by stealing real secrets and they needed to be exposed. At the same time, thousands of innocents had their lives destroyed by suspicion and namecalling. Both happened simultaneously. The mob happily allowed it; heck, encouraged it. Today McCarthyism is one of the worst insults that can be hurled at someone. Is cancel culture the new McCarthyism? Maybe. I’m fighting it just in case. Do you notice that those citations all references criminal punishments—imprisonments, death penalty, and other punishments we only allow the government to impose after due process. “Mob justice” is when Private citizens usurp the prerogatives of the justice system to, say, abduct, assault, or murder someone. When people in society decide they don’t want to associate or do business with someone, that’s not mob justice. Would you really restrict the rights of individuals, entities, and societal institutions to refuse to include someone in their social groups? Would you really make being rich and famous a protected class? What happened to some of the people in Jon Ronson’s book is unfair. What happened to Woody Allen or Al Franken is not a miscarriage of justice. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/97 "2020-03-20T23:44:13Z")
I’m with Mill on this one. I don’t think it makes it okay to say “oh well, it’s not government censorship”. > [@](#): > > I deny the right of the people to exercise such coercion, either by themselves or by their government. The power itself is illegitimate. The best government has no more title to it than the worst. It is as noxious, or more noxious, when exerted in accordance with public opinion, than when in opposition to it. If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/98 "2020-03-20T23:46:41Z")
Show us where Moody Allen is being censored. Otherwise that cite is irrelevant. If Woody Allen being censored then that means everyone who has ever been given a rejection letter has been censored. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/99 "2020-03-20T23:51:06Z")
If they get a rejection letter because a bunch of people are actively trying to prevent the book from being published, you bet it’s censorship. That’s completely different from just deciding “eh, I don’t think this manuscript would garner much interest”. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/100 "2020-03-21T00:55:31Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Maybe there are bad things about whatever “Cancel Culture” is, and maybe it could hurt some people. But you haven’t offered any examples of this so far – just random internet silliness, and mundane things happening to wealthy people that marginally affect their lives. Many abusers, gropers, harassers, and the like have suffered significant (but rarely criminal) consequences, and this is a good thing. But I assume this isn’t what you’re talking about. Seriously? You’re going down the same road that had LAZombie say there was no AIDS crisis because he didn’t know anyone with AIDS? You’ve had your eyes and ears closed for years? You don’t remember [Carson King and Aaron Colvin](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/25/carson-king-viral-busch-light-star-old-iowa-reporter-tweets/)? You didn’t hear about [Jeremy Kappell](https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/01/07/racial-slur-whec-news-10-nbc-lovely-warren-martin-luther-king/2499961002/) when he made an extremely unfortunate stumble over his words? How about when [Sam Sedar](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/6/16738564/sam-seder-msnbc-firing-alt-right-smear) got fired after a misunderstanding of a decade-old tweet? I’m still shaking my head over your continued dismissal of my comments about Broussard. A parody only works if everybody instantly gets the joke, meaning that it is public and obvious. Just because you’re blind to the issue doesn’t prevent you from learning about it when it’s waved in front of your face. Every movement has a segment of assholes who go too far and outrage the rest because they give the whole movement a bad name. Cancel culture is the segment with the assholes who make #MeToo look trivial and vindictive. If you didn’t know that before, you know it now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028.md?page=6)