Matt Damon was skewered on social media for comments he made about the sexual misconduct revelations facing many powerful men in Hollywood.
Damon said in an ABC interview with Peter Travers that he believed there was a “spectrum” of behavior and that he hoped people could see a difference between “you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation.”
“Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated,” Damon said. He also suggested that some who have been accused, like Louis CK, who admitted his behavior and apologized, should be forgiven, and that he thought an ethics investigation should have been done before Sen. Al Franken was forced out of office.
Damon said he thought young people were getting the signal to deny any claims against them rather than dealing with the reality of the situation, so that their lives don’t get ruined, pointing to President Donald Trump as an example of denying allegations.
Damon also said he thought there would be fewer settlements and confidentiality agreements, in the future because he didn’t think they would be kept in the current culture.
Damon’s comments received a massive backlash on Twitter, with commenters seeing his remarks as blaming victims, excusing predators, and showing that he generally just doesn’t get it.
A few people did wonder why the negative reaction was so strong, however.
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