The Morning After Continues Apace

The recent history of moral panics shows that they sooner or later work themselves out through the legal system. The McMartin preschool case, the most visible episode of the 1980s Satanic day care panic, lasted seven years but resulted in no convictions, and all charges were dropped in 1990. The putative 2019 MAGA attack on Jussie Smollett took place before the 2020 COVID-BLM panic, but it was nevertheless a background issue throughout 2020 as public and law enforcement outcry over the case's being dropped eventualy resulted in appointment of a special prosecutor.

In addition, the most vocal opjection to the anticipated outcome of Smollett's trial came from Black Lives Matter, one of the chief entrepreneurs of the 2020 panic:

In our commitment to abolition, we can never believe police, especially the Chicago Police Department (CPD) over Jussie Smollett, a Black man who has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom.

. . . Black Lives Matter will continue to work towards the abolition of police and every unjust system. We will continue to love and protect one another, and wrap our arms around those who do the work to usher in Black freedom and, by extension, freedom for everyone else.

In comparison with the McMartin case, the Smollett case was resolved quickly, although the McMartin allegations of bad clowns in secret underground rooms were no more credible than Smollett's story. The puzzling thing about Smollett's story, though is that it was never credible, with the putative MAGA assailants forced to wait for hours in subzero cold for Smollett, delayed by a late flight arrival, to appear.

The most cogent commentary on the case came in the banter on Greg Gutfeld's show last night, where guests noted that not only was Smollett a bad actor, but he was a bad director (the choreographed attack took place with the camera facing in the wrong direction) and a bad casting agent (he hired black actors with heavy African accents to play white rednecks).

Not only that, but if Smollett intended the episode somehow to result in urban riots a la Rodney King or George Floyd, such riots would be highly unlikely in the middle of winter. Why didn't he just wait a few months? I don't think it's unreasonable to think that, although there seems to have been a great deal of planning behind the episode, the planning was very bad, quite possibly under the influence of drugs.

Another question is why he allowed this to go to trial, and once he did, why he took the stand. The consensus seems to be that if he wanted to continue a Hollywood career -- though he was getting too old to continue to play young gay black actor-musicians in any case -- it would have been in his interest to negotiate a quiet plea and stay away from publicity. Instead, he bizarrely doubled down.

(The same question comes up with Alec Baldwin. That man's judgment appears to be equally compromised. Our pastor refers to an "epidemic of narcissism", but it's quite possibly exacerbated by drug use as well.)

Another question is that if he'd negotiated a quiet plea, it would have been far less expensive than going to trial. And now that he's convicted, he intends to appeal, which is another way of saying he's committed to spending millions of dollars on attorneys over a period of years, when the likelihood appears to be that he'll spend minimal jail time for his conviction, while the financial penalty for his legal hot water steadily rises nonetheless. And that's under his complete control.

I can't imagine that his family has the resources to cover this -- I don't want even to try to estimate what he's paid multiple attorneys up to now. At this point, with no income, all I can think is he simply assumes someone's going to cover the bill for his lawyers and his drug-addled lifestyle indefinitely.

Greg Gutfeld, who certainly understands the entertainment industry better than I do, thinks the powers that be will nevertheless set him up with a "Jussie is back" show. By then, in his early to mid 40s and the effects of drugs even more visible, it's hard to imagine what that would look like.

You can push fantasies into real life only so far. The American people are smarter than the moral entrepreneurs have been making out.