Posted on 03/27/2015 8:19:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
TED Talks are a hot liberal video series. The 20-minute talks, usually taped in Vancouver, have become such a viral force on the Internet that NPR now has a weekly "TED Radio Hour."
TED's mission statement proclaims a passionate belief in "the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world." TED offers "a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers."
Or they're seeking the most Internet clicks. Because their most recent "most inspired thinker" was ... Monica Lewinsky.
Seventeen years after the Year of Our Intern, Lewinsky should be doing something different. To quote the liberal lingo during that time, "move on." Yet it is Lewinsky who keeps returning to the scene of her obscene behavior, and now insists we feel her pain, that she is the "Patient Zero" of "slut shaming."
Lewinsky wishes to reinvent herself as an evangelist and a guru, but how to do it? Call it shame-shaming.
She told a story of being nearly suicidal in the days of Ken Starr's investigation and Clinton's impeachment, and how her mother feared she would kill herself. She was deeply ashamed by the tapes Linda Tripp made that showed how catty and shallow she sounded.
She might have been ashamed, but now the public should feel more ashamed for making her feel ashamed.
"For nearly two decades now, we have been slowly sowing the seeds of shame and public humiliation in our cultural soil, both on-and off-line," Lewinsky announced. "Gossip websites, paparazzi, reality programming, politics, news outlets, and sometimes hackers all traffic in shame."
She continued: "This invasion of others is a raw material, efficiently and ruthlessly mined, packaged, and sold at a profit. A marketplace has emerged where public humiliation is a commodity, and shame is an industry."
All this talk of commodification thrills liberal ears, and she dreamed out loud of a revolution, a powerful wave like the rush to embrace gay marriage. "What we need is a cultural revolution. Public shaming as a blood-sport has to stop. And it's time for an intervention, on the Internet and on our culture," she proclaimed. "We need to return to a long-held value of compassion. Compassion and empathy. Online, we've got a compassion deficit, an empathy crisis."
This drew a standing ovation from her audience, but it came with an obnoxious dose of revisionist history -- not to mention hypocrisy. One can sympathize with her humiliation, and millions did, in real time. But then what happened?
In 1999, she was reportedly paid more than $1 million to narrate a best-selling book to Andrew Morton called "Monica's Story." In it, she declared, "I don't want to make a career out of being Monica Lewinsky. I haven't done anything to be proud of."
But that's what happened. She now shames the commodification of embarrassment, but in 2000, two years after the scandal, she hosted the U.K. documentary series "Monica's Postcards." She also appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and on comedian Tom Green's MTV show in an episode titled "Tom Brings Monica Lewinsky to Canada." She shames reality TV, but in 2003 hosted the reality show "Mr. Personality" on Fox.
That's humiliation, mined for profit.
So might be this new narrative. At the risk of displaying an empathy deficit, it's quite possible that after her TED Talk, Lewinsky may now be able to create a whole new enterprise as a paid lecturer against slut-shaming, cyberbulling and online harassment. How many campuses and businesses will now fork over a large fee for such a famous (or infamous) expert?
Monica, shame on you. If it's still OK to say that, of course.
her point seems to be that her situation is like shaming someone for the color of her hair, rather than for some important moral transgression.
which isn’t true but that’s where she is coming from. same thing that has the gay movement pressing down upon us.
I believe this is a Clinton funded exercise to help Monica and to deflect the “blame” from Bill Clinton to some straw man like internet bullying or some such, in order to help Hillary.
Monica Lewinsky sucks.
LOL! Progressives decide which 90% of the iceberg is in view.
Gosh, Chik-Fil-A rage guy (ex) CFO Adam Smith making the rounds hawking his new book, Monica demanding we move on, what’s next? Don’t these things come in threesomes?
"She's gone from suck to blow."
nope
the Demon rats will back her FOREVER!
She NEVER went after Bill or Hitlery-
(even after the clintooons said she was a “stalker!”)
for that - she will will be getting speaking tours- book deals- hell,I am sure somewhere in there she will hook up
with the Kardashians! yeah that’s the ticket- her own
“reality show”- just for being a loyal bimbo demonrat-
you know .... maybe her and Chelsea can star in....
nevermind
lol
So she’s still a whore.
She prefers to give them...
I wish she would not talk with her mouth full
Liberals have no conscience so they must attack everyone else’s in order to feel innocent.
What to do with ones mouth when NOT lecturing? Hmmmmm
I hear Bill registered Monica’s mouth w/ the Atomic Energy Commission.
Blow she did!
It would be nice if she’d just go away . . . get a job somewhere flipping burgers or something. Just go away!
Just what we need in America! Some slutty fat broad lecturing us.
The little chippie Lewinsky is still nothing but a freakin’ spitter.
“Prepare ship... for LUDICROUS SPEED!”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.