#MeToo is a response to a real cultural failure and a cultural crisis. If you look at the Keith Raniere DOS cult, in which at least two famous women and a very rich liquor heiress were involved, you will see the direction that the culture is headed in without a correction like #MeToo and the Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, etc. trials.

The cult can be described as human trafficking, but it runs deeper because the female victims in this case are often rich, successful women. However taken as a whole, this is an attempt to lower women and opponents of the government to branded slavery status. Is this the solution for well-healed women seeking to punish acts of harassment, sexual assault, and rape?

Trotsky supported nationalist movements and movements for democratic rights on the principle that chauvinism must be fought within the revolutionary movement. Lenin as well blamed social chauvinism for the decision of the Second International to back their governments with war credits through the first World War.

A defense of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and others like them is a defense of social chauvinism. They act as if their privileges stem from some inner superiority, and this is further encouraged with comments about their “81 Oscars”. 81 what? Awards for plagiarism, rape, and torture? The WSWS has analyzed the Nobel Prize as a bourgeois prize. Why not the Oscars?

You may respond alleged plagiarism, rape, and torture. The same can be said about heads of state and ex-presidents who oversee illegal wars. Are they not allegedly illegal? Are they not alleged war criminals? Having dropped these charges, much of the case against the leaders of imperialism must be dropped as well. No evidence has been presented to a court with jurisdiction over the imperialist states and their leaders.

Furthermore, these figures are closer to the top of the Democratic Party establishment than the genuine leaders of the #meToo movement, who only wanted to break the isolation imposed upon those who accuse the powerful. They are branding the women. You cannot keep supporting social chauvinism at this time.