Rita Panahi Fires Off On Harvey Weinstein, Political Elites And The Twitter Swamp

Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi joined the Young IPA Podcast to discuss a wide range of issues. Here are some of the highlights.

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Harvey Weinstein

• “To me, he is the poster child for the creepy male feminist. Every male feminist I’ve met has given me the creeps. This guy was a classic. He was sponsoring the feminist program at Rutgers, he was part of the Women’s March with the p***y hat-wearing crew. He was – on paper – a crusader for women’s rights and progressive values, meanwhile he’s preying on vulnerable women.”
• On established celebrities not coming out against him earlier. “Once you’ve made it, someone – say like a Ben Affleck, someone who’s not only a famous actor but also a movie maker – he didn’t do anything. Someone who’s fairly outspoken about women’s rights and progressive values. He did nothing, and that to me leaves a really bad taste.”

The disconnect of ‘the elites’ with mainstream elites

• “Seeing institutions like much of the mainstream media, who are almost proudly out of touch with the mainstream, I think is worth talking about because I just think it’s not healthy. It’s just not healthy to have such a narrow band of views dominate that’s not actually reflecting the community.”
• “It’s now actually infecting news reporting, where you read a news report and it’s got such a slant on it and it’s so obvious that the biases of the journalist are being reflected in that piece of writing. It’s like they’ve lost the ability to be impartial. In fact, they don’t see it as their duty to be impartial. If you want to get your opinion out there become a bloody columnist.”

Twitter and its role in public debate

• “Where it’s been unhealthy is the way it’s shaped the agenda so often, because you see things on Twitter which are just nonsensical crap that nobody cares about…but it now makes it into the mainstream media because everyone in the media is on Twitter even though like 105 of the population is on Twitter.”
• “I think it’s been fantastic in exposing the biases of people who claim to be centrist or impartial when their Twitter feed is a dumpster fire of leftist bulls**t…and yet they claim not to be left.”