A few short years ago, Harvey Weinstein was widely considered the monster against which all other alleged sexual abusers were measured. As he begins his New York state retrial for a series of rape and sexual assault charges over a period of years, that consensus has broken.

To see just how wide of a cultural swing we’re in the midst of, observe the questions right-wing commentator Candace Owens and manosphere hero Joe Rogan — notable “just asking questions” provocateurs — have begun asking on Weinstein’s behalf.

“After looking over this case, I’ve concluded that Harvey Weinstein was wrongfully convicted and basically just hung on the Me Too thing,” Owens said on a podcast on Sunday. Owens is in the midst of promoting “Harvey Speaks,” a series of jailhouse interviews with Weinstein which she promises will exonerate him.

“I can’t believe I’m on Harvey Weinstein’s side,” Joe Rogan said on his podcast in March. “I thought he was guilty of, like, heinous crimes and then you listen, and you’re like, ‘Wait, what? What is going on?’” Rogan says Owens’s series convinced him to change his mind on Weinstein.

This high-profile support for Weinstein is part of a larger anti-Me Too, anti-feminist backlash that took off in earnest in 2023, arguably beginning with the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp domestic violence trial. The days in which America was transfixed by accusation after accusation of sexual violence committed by famous men are long over. Gone is the era in which it seemed possible that America was going to truly hold sexual predators accountable, regardless of their fame and power. In this moment, America is more often transfixed by the idea that those famous men aren’t so bad after all — that maybe the women who accused them are simply lying.

For Owens and Rogan to embrace even Harvey Weinstein signals........

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