How Blame for Prurient Behavior Switches from the Culpable to the Innocent Bystander When It Serves the Progressive Agenda
By Prudence Cummings

If I could sum up in one word what is wrong with the Progressive Left I think that word would be “accountability.” I’ve struggled between accountability and a second word—“hypocrisy” but I think accountability is the better choice. You see, the Progressive Party (oh, who are we kidding—the Democratic Party) believes in holding everyone accountable except their constituents, their reporters, their idols and their celebrity demi-gods. This has been blatantly evidenced with Leftist media outlets shifting the blame of the prurient masturbatory behavior from Jeffery Toobin to the innocent bystanders on his recent Zoom call.

Your role in the normalization of indecency is what is key here. It’s an outrage. You should be outraged and horrified.

Let’s take a look at two columnists who not only dismiss Toobin’s behavior but also make a case for flipping the accountability to the viewer. The first is a Daily News piece in which Jonathan Zimmerman writes, “On Monday, the New Yorker suspended Toobin — one of its best-known authors — after he was seen masturbating during a Zoom work call. In an interview with Vice magazine, Toobin said he didn’t realize his video was on. “I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake,” Toobin admitted. “I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”

This has nothing to do with what he was doing but rather where and how he was doing it. He was using his co-workers to fulfill his fantasies during working hours. Had this been a women-only Zoom call don’t you think the “Me Too” movement would have been up in arms? I do. Now, instead, Zimmerman wants to give Toobin a “pass” because he says, it is societies’ fault because we have a “collective unease with masturbation” and that “Toobin is paying the price for a topic that remains taboo.”

Zimmerman’s piece goes on to laud masturbation, invokes the irony of Bill Clinton’s firing of “The Condom Queen,” (Joycelyn Elders) for promoting masturbation, and then even attempts to “guilt” us by throwing in some biblical quotes and attempts to explain how they were misinterpreted by Biblical scholars. (Gosh, I love it when atheists who never read the Bible explain Scripture!). These shortcomings aside, the most telling quote from his article is, “You might say that he shouldn’t have been pleasuring himself during a work call, but that’s his business rather than yours.”

What? His business? I think HR might disagree with you on that matter, Mr. Zimmerman. It is my business if someone chooses to expose his privates on a business call that I am on. It does affect me and guess what? Legally, it’s not my fault but rather the fault of the person who chooses to expose himself.

Commentary on social media concurred, and ranged from issues of consent, professionalism and general decency. 

“Clearly Zimmerman missed all the faculty memos that go around universities about ‘consent’ and sexual harassment. No one consented to see his penis.”

Thank you. Correct. No one else consented.

“Why would anyone defend this? The outrage isn’t about puritanism. It’s about professionalism. No rational adult, much less a highly placed professional, would whip it out in the conference room. He shouldn’t be given a pass merely because he was at home.”

True. You are on a business call. Treat it as if you were at the office.

And my personal favorite:

“Pooping is perfectly normal too, but I don’t take my laptop in the bathroom with me during video calls.”

Exactly. You wouldn’t take a dump on your Zoom call, so why for gosh sakes would you think it OK to masturbate? You wouldn’t.

But that doesn’t seem to be a problem for Canadian based journalist Vinan Menon. In Menon’s October 20, 2020 article in The Star he writes, “The only person Toobin hurt with this election-simulation-turned-erection-stimulation is Jeffrey Toobin.”

Wow, I didn’t realize Menon was also a trained psychologist? And I suppose he’s also omniscient? How does he know this for certain? Answer: He doesn’t. We don’t know who may or may not have been on the call, what they saw, what someone in the background may or may not have seen, or how the incident affected anyone on the call. We just don’t know, and to assume that someone wasn’t psychologically affected by the experience is overreaching.

But the clincher in Menon’s article is that the onus is on us, the viewers who have to change our mindset. He writes:

“But we need to keep perspective. We need to see the big picture. Granted, there are few things more unprofessional than masturbating during a company meeting. Toobin is a lawyer. His judgment is now suspect. I get it. All I’m saying is we need to forget this ever happened. Block it out.”

So, the accountability is now on us. It is up to us to forget the incident. It is up to us to “block it out.” The accountability of exposing oneself during a professional meeting has been completely dismissed.

If you think this sounds remotely familiar to another issue of accountability that the Progressive Left perpetuates you would be correct. This is the same hyperbole used to dismiss the destruction and havoc wreaked by the Black Lives Matter movement, and ANTIFA protests, in cities nationwide. The accountability factor shifts from “Hey they are bashing in windows, and destroying our property!” to “Hey, you, the store owner! It’s your fault we are damaging your store!”

See the connection here? See the issue? See how the Progressive agenda earnestly attempts to shift guilt, blame and accountability? You are now the accountable party according to the liberal pundits and protectors of all things Progressive—not the actual culpable party. Fortunately Toobin was asked to step down. Fortunately someone at the company for which he works had the foresight to realize he was accountable and should pay for his “mistake.”

But this may not always be the case. If it were up to the Progressives, they would have given Toobin a pass. Do we really want people who think like this running our country? I think not.