Edit: A few comments mention the power imbalance between Lewinsky as an intern and the president. This meme shouldn’t be seen as me approving of Clinton’s behavior but point out that an adult man having “sexual relations” with a child should have some bearing against a sitting president.
If Clinton is in the Epstein files, show the world.
The impeachment was a farce and resulted from an obvious fishing expedition that never should have happened. However, based on the massive power difference between an intern and the literal president of the US, consent is nebulous at best, and he is a despicable person for it among other things. No one should be going to bat for Bill Clinton.
Ya OP clearly learned nothing from that whole MeToo movement. I know it was a few years ago but c’mon!
The current sitting executive officer of the USA is literally a scammer, rapist pedophile . I think the bar has been lowered so far that Clinton looks like a respectable adult in comparison.
But he’s not and we shouldn’t accept that
Unless you were there to bear witness. How do we know that Monica wasn’t the aggressor ? The power dynamics implies that he was in the wrong? I’m no conspiracy theorist, yet i have to question her bank account, especially after the Panama papers leak.
Edit: honestly…I don’t care who is in the Epstein island files… the politics stops there… anyone who participated isn’t left or right wing, they’re all criminals
Yes, because of the power dynamic. Also, Monica wasn’t Bill’s only victim.
Serial killers and mass murderers have victims. Cite your proof, else it’s another Clinton conspiracy and you speaking from your cloaca.
Sexual assaulters also have victims.
I dont have proof of anything. But personally I am convinced that women like Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick had legitimate complaints against him, considering how easy he showed he can lie about such things (like when he denied anything with Monica and then admitted it later).
I also believe the whole impeachment of Clinton was a political hitjob by the right, but I dont excuse assault because of that.
The existence of worse doesn’t make bad any better.
Is that a quote? If not, I’m going to use ~ryathal when I use it
The bar to ‘decent’ doesn’t actually lower.
Donald Trump is just orders of magnitude further below the bar than Bill Clinton, but the bar is in the same spot.
I was thinking about this recently as I learned that a couple of public figures engaged in extramarital affairs, and I just wasn’t getting outraged because they were engaging with consenting adults. I should be upset about it but at this point so many prominent people have been getting in trouble for severe abuse of power, rape and pedophilia that I’m too jaded to get upset over someone I don’t know cheating on their partner.
Weren’t they looking into savings and loan or real estate dealings to begin with?
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She was an intern and the power imbalance was massive. I am not defending the fact the GOP is full of pedo sex offenders, but don’t act like Clinton didn’t do something grimey here.
Not defending what Clinton did but she was old enough to sign a military contract. I don’t see anyone calling for military recruiters to be pulled out of schools and dismissed from the service for the power plays and down right lies they employ in highschools and college campuses.
One, we absolutely should not allow recruiters to be in schools. Two they didn’t mention age at all. They mentioned her being an intern and the power imbalance. It’s extremely strange that you jumped right to her being eligible for military contract.
Well I was alive back then and remember that she was in her early 20’s when it happened. I was just using the military age and recruiters as an example of something that people around that age encounter than also has a power dynamic.
I guess I still don’t see your point. Yes there are multiple places we take advantage of naive people. And?
It was the first one that came to mind that also fit the age range, that’s all. Hopefully someone else can explain it better than I can.
Came in to say exactly this.
Not saying she did but what if she seduced him? Still power imbalance?
don’t take away her agency though, she was an adult
has she ever complained about it?
I genuinely don’t know
what a terrible fluff article
her trauma was the spectacle and it wasn’t SA but I’ve come to understand now it was an abuse of power?
her words interposed with a bunch of people wanting to be relevant
what exactly were you trying to argue agisnt?
You explicitly asked if she’s ever complained about it and were given an article written by her contemplating her feelings on it; it was directly a resource to your very question.
She explicitly says:
There are even some people who feel my White House experiences don’t have a place in this movement, as what transpired between Bill Clinton and myself was not sexual assault, although we now recognize that it constituted a gross abuse of power
She, now, agrees that – whatever her desires at the time – that Bill Clinton both had an overwhelming amount of power over her as both her boss and nearly 3 decades her senior. And we got to see what that power difference could mean for her when the relationship went sour.
nah that ‘article’ was multiple pages of other people’s opinions and advertisements and like a paragraph of her feelings
useless fucking article
also you are literally quoting the part I reference in the prior reply so good job being blindly ironic lmao
and my point was it wasn’t sexual assault so not even comparable to the guy running a pedo ring
she wanted him at the time, power is sexy, she regrets the circus and note her wording her: ‘although we now recognize’
just so we can skip more of these tired ass windmills Clinton is still disgusting
I’m using an adblocker so maybe you’re seeing something else than I am which had me misunderstand your comment (which I mostly mention because I didn’t notice any ad.s so, based off of that, maybe what what you were seeing was also different from me)? The entire piece was written by her with no other people’s opinions.
It was a whole article entirely written by her, reflecting both on her feelings from the entire event and how it for within the other major events in both the culture and the nation (given her experience catipulted her into both). So your response hadn’t made sense since the entire thing is written by her and her thoughts about the ordeal.
lol if you think she wrote this herself
it reads like a ghost written memoir
I don’t know about you but as a white dude I love spouting Mexican proverbs
i have other examples but lemmy won’t upload the images and i don’t care enough to do it myself
i wasn’t arguing, i happened to know where her words on the subject were published and thus rendered them
the magazine is called “Vanity Fair” and yeah they’re sort of a bazaar of… vanity
probably when we consider that this is the level of consideration Lewinsky was given, even in 2018, we should reflect on what that says about the colonies
She was an intern for the most powerful man in the world
Also she wasn’t the first for Billy C, he has a track record of sexual abuse in the workplace.
of course no woman ever liked a man with power right?
and no doubt Clinton was a shit heel but how many Trump victims have made complaints?
has Monica ever said she didn’t want what happened?
seems like when it blew up she had plenty of opportunity for a more serious claim than the act itself
of course no woman ever liked a man with power right?
Are you a Harvey Weinstein defender?
fuck off
just because I think painting Clinton with the same brush as Trump as a defense towards Trump’s behavior is bullshit doesn’t mean I support any of their behaviors
and people like you with dishonest arguments do no one any favors
do better
She must have. How else would anyone know?
republican fishing
it’s in that horrible article linked to my reply
I remember when the Speaker of the House, Bob Livingston, called for Clinton to resign over the Lewinski scandal. Then announced that he too had an extramarital affair, held himself to the same standards, and issued his own resignation. It was about to come out anyway. The investigative journalists at Hustler magazine thought it would be interesting for the public to know how many of the impeachment managers were unfaithful to their wives, and Livingston’s name came up.
Livingston was replaced as speaker by Dennis Hastert who, so far as I know, never slept with a woman other than his wife. He did however eventually go to prison for raping little boys who were not his wife.
The investigative journalists at Hustler??
Since print media is dead, it’s now PornHub’s responsibility to shift to sex-scandal journalism
Hustler and Playboy did in fact employ very talented journalists back then. Naked ladies aside, the quality of the articles in those magazines was quite good.
Some reference: https://thehundreds.com/blogs/content/reading-playboy-for-the-articles-13-must-read-journalism-literature-pieces-from-playboy-magazine
Clinton might have done things that were a lot worse. They should release the Epstein files so we can all check.
Keyword might. If there’s evidence of that, let’s talk about it. Until then, I always read these statements as “whatabout”.
Something about referring to Lewinsky in that context as a consenting adult rubs me wrong. With the power imbalance between the two it feels like a situation where consent is impossible. It feels like the same kind of power imbalance that attracts rich men to pedophilia, and it certainly doesn’t help that Bill is almost definitely going down if the epstein stuff ever gets out
With the power imbalance between the two it feels like a situation where consent is impossible
Technically speaking, POTUS is such a powerful position, you can’t actually have consensual sex in that role, except maybe with a long term partner from before the whole ordeal.
Lewinsky herself said that in the moment she wanted it, but in retrospect, Clinton should’ve known better
With the power imbalance between the two it feels like a situation where consent is impossible.
It took years for Lewinsky to understand this herself. So, please be kind to people that need instruction on the power dynamics of consent and provide that instruction, if you have the spoons.
Bill is almost definitely going down if the epstein stuff ever gets out
I’ve yet to find a person on social media that sees that as a problem.
I hope whatever happens it’s more restorative and rehabilitative and less retributive or punitive.
In the context of the meme one has to remember republicans do not care about power dynamics, and to them regardless she was consenting.
Was she free to choose not to without repercussions like any of the other interns did? If so, then cool infantilization, brah.
Oh yeah, this wouldn’t fly with any decent HR department. Obviously should have held back even if she had initiated it. I do wonder though, what if it was not with a white house employee? As president / most powerful man in the world there’s pretty much a power imbalance with anyone. Is the president just not allowed to get BJs?
How did we get from there to here. Truly astonishing that a rapist and felon could even have a chance at running for president, let alone winning it
You forgot “insurrectionist” too. Remember, a Colorado judge found that Trump had engaged in insurrection, but kept him on the ballot in 2024 for some stupid fucking reason. The argument was that, although the 14th amendment bars “officers” who engaged in insurrection from holding office again, does the chief executive officer of the country, the person holding the office of President, really qualify as an officer? And the answer to that question should obviously be yes. Per the 14th amendment, he should’ve been disqualified from running, and I have no idea how anybody could seriously interpret the intent of the law in any other way.
Democrats caring more about their lobbyists rather than the people. Resulting in:
- Not winding back what republicans put in place, because the corporations wouldn’t like that.
- Massive corporate welfare.
- Choosing candidates who are uninspiring “steady as she goes” figures.
- Them losing their base, and relying on “blue no matter who”
- The people taking a chance on “anything to shake up the system”.
Republicans are gonna be republican, but why do democrats have to be too?
Once Republicans realized they got away with that and shoehorning W. Bush in 2000, they got bold
Because we begrudge history instead of learning how we got spanked and implementing strategies that work for rather than against us. Did we take the same steps Ken Star and George Conway did? Did we take a century view of where we wanted to be and have the skills and patience necessary to get there? Did we maintain an emotional connection with our issues with the public? No, we celebrated too soon and resented rather than learned.
This is what people miss about conservatives: they seem to be getting things done. When you have a single-minded focus on a particular thing, like abortion, then regardless of whether you should have done so or not you are going to get it done when you put in the level of time and effort that was done.
Never mind that it was a cover for lowering taxes on the wealthy - The People voted for it, and so got both in the same package. In contrast, the Dems seem to stand for… what exactly? Besides being merely less obvious about making payments to corporations?
Survival of the Fittest for now looks like it has doomed the USA Democrats. We’ll see if it has doomed democracy itself (this one globally). All I know is that afaik no democracy in history has ever survived devolution into a 2-party system - the parties each merely claim that they are not the other side, which incentives them to avoid actually doing anything themselves, which causes systemic collapse (hrm, sounds familiar somehow…).
I wish I could see a way out of this.
I wish I could see a way out of this.
Corrupt individuals being fearful of consequences for their actions would be a good start.
Moreover, survival of the fittest refers to the ability to adapt, rather than bludgeoning. Dawkins referred to tit-tit-tat, in The Selfish Gene.
It seems to me more like a game of “chicken” - you wouldn’t really vote for the other side, would you? (Immediately votes for other side.) Okay yeah, but you wouldn’t like, do exactly that yet again, would you? (Immediately does that again.) Okay yeah, but you wouldn’t like, do exactly that still yet also again, would you? (Repeat.)
When 60% of the population can’t make ends meet, Democrats continue to talk about middle class. They need to address poverty in meaningful ways and get it done.
Spoiler: they won’t, but meanwhile Republicans will promise to (BBB lowers taxes on tips and such, thereby incentivizing those styles of employment at the expense of the middle class).
Clinton was a Democrat which is why they even cared. meanwhile the gop was diddling kids the entire time. they’ve always been the pedophile party and it was even more of an open secret back then. it was actually a running joke guessing which Republican would be caught diddling kids each month. yet they always rallied and protected their own when allegations came out where as Democrats tended to turn against other Dems if allegations ever came up.
Being impeached for lying about a blowjob is even funnier compared to today’s environment, tbh.
Also though, given that Bill is in the epstein documents too, he may not be the best example to use in the near future depending on if we ever see the files.
My bet is they release them with Donnie conspicuously innocent of any wrongdoing
That depends on what your definition of the word “is” is.
Remember when Republicans said there wasn’t enough time to confirm Obama’s SCOTUS pick and then they rammed three justices on the bench right before Biden was elected?
Also remember in 2012 the Republican party could not find an interesting candidate among its own, and finally resorted to Romney, the president of a private equity firm (that sinkholes functional large companies while pocketing loans and assets, thereby creating wasteland in the economy – it’s way more evil if less spicy than blowjobs from young staffers)
The same thing was happening in 2015 when Trump did his sales pitch (which really resonates with low-information voters) and he literally stole the Republican party from under the principal candidates. Remember that through 2015 they screeched about how he was going to bring the GOP to ruin, and turn it into a fascist cult of personality that worshiped Trump as a God-Emporor-Shuggoth-Thing. All of these predictions eventually came to pass, and with a couple of exceptions (that got ousted or died) every last one of them bent the knee for the general election.
Much of the US is under a thrall that is exacerbated by a) A trillion-dollar propaganda machine that dominates viewership (and has ruined masculinity as an identity – at least to me) and b) That the lower rungs of the working class can no longer survive under neoliberalism (e.g. late stage capitalism) and so the Democratic party as it is has nothing really to offer them. They’re dying anyway, so why not vote for the face-eating leopards?
According to Knitting Cult Lady, the exceptions they extend to Godhead Trump will not be extended to his replacement. If J. D. Vance becomes president, no-one will like him, and he may just get knifed by his own staffers in the situation room.
Trump Cult collapses from within is not on my bingo card, but I’ve seen it on other cards.
That was long, long ago in a reality far, far away. Now we have a pedo, rapist, sexual predator in the White House and a lit if people think he’s the second coming of Christ.
Clinton was impeached for lying under oath, was 100% guilty and was acquitted by Democrats because they decided to ignore the law and use some newly invented “yes, but does anyone care?” legal theory.
Have you followed the news lately? “yes, but does anyone care?” legal theory has been a thing for at least 10 years now.
Don’t know how to tell you this but… Clinton was impeached 26 years ago.
shut up it’s still the 90s
they decided to ignore the law and use some newly invented “yes, but does anyone care?” legal theory
Lying under oath in a civil trial over matters that don’t conflict with official functions & duties of the president hardly qualifies as “high crimes and misdemeanors”, ie, serious offenses of office and in particular those that subvert our system of government.
This is beside the point that Congress was willing to impeach over practically little before yet does nothing to impeach over an incredible volume of lies and subversion of our system of government now.
consenting adult
According to the rules, you cannot consent if they have authority over you. The head of state of your country always has authority over you. (Hmm, I guess this means that the head of state and their spouse cannot legitimately %$*@)
They can’t legimately shit?
On each other.
This man knows consent 👏
only because it was started by GINGRICH, who started the whole “dont work with the other side strategy” he set the stage for the likes MITCH mcconnel. and the impeachment was spearhead by him too.
Defending Bill Clinton in 2025 is a strange move.
Guy has a well known track record of sex abuse in the work place.
Plus he’s the biggest likely Epstein client outside trump.
Bro please point to exactly where in the picture Bill Clinton is being defended.
Glad you agree he shouldn’t be defended
It just seems like a non sequitur if you didn’t think the pic was defending him
that’s a remarkable lack of an answer
If you watched House of Cards, you are probably already aware that the writers mentioned they took inspiration of the Underwoods from the Clintons. So, the plot line on sexual deviancies may have merit.
Watch Primary Colors! They do everything but name the actors Bill and Hillary.
It’s based on a fictional account of the Clinton’s first run for President when he was Arkansas’ governor. Excellent movie! Lots of heart, funny, tragic, pulls no punches.
Not that I give a fuck, but he was impeached for perjury and obstruction, had nothing to do with raping a staffer.
What a fucking shit world
