That which confuses me.

It used to be child abuse, but now we are in a full-on social media Mass Hysteria over sexual harassment. Just look what happened to Matt Damon when he commented on this issue.....

That being said, and realizing as a man I am stepping into a minefield here, I want to address the issue of "Why Now?"

Why Now? Why is this an exploding issue now?

It was over 15 years ago that I had my first company training on sexual harassment. It was mandatory and we were told it was company-wide and everyone had to participate. It went on your training records and if you put it off, your supervisor would see you hadn't done it and not complete your annual evaluation until you had.

Yes, it was that mandatory. AND additional training happened over the succeeding years as laws changed. AND that training was just as mandatory and unavoidable. The Corporate America I worked for comprehensively addressed sexual harassment as early as the year 2000.

And in that training we all learned about "Hostile Workplace" sexual harassment, which is basically "if someone feels uncomfortable, then that is harassment."

We learned that hostile workplace harassment is in the eye of the beholder. You as the guy ( and it usually is a guy ), have no recourse if someone goes to HR about you. So we were told "Don't even have a picture of your wife or girlfriend on your desk, just to be on the safe side. Especially not that cute one you took on vacation."

So my company over 15 years ago, knew this was an area ripe for accusations and they trained us all to not do ANYTHING at ANY TIME in ANY WAY that might be construed by ANYONE as contributing to a hostile workplace.

I guess HR wanted a quiet life.

So the point I am coming to is "Why Now?" And I am forced to draw one conclusion, And it is this....

Ordinary working stiffs have had sexual harassment training forever, and we knew that there could be serious repercussions over many perceived sleights by the harassed. So we took our training and we did what our companies asked. And we avoided, avoided, avoided anything that could make us open to accusations.

But what about all these people who are now so publicly accused? Why did they continue? Surely they all worked for someones company at some time? Gosh, even as contractors they got the training somewhere? Even running their own companies, the lawyers must have told them about the law and the consequences of accusations....

Why didn't they stop until 2017 when allegations became avalanches?

Could it be that it was because they were Big Shots and they thought the law did not apply to them?

"Don't you know who I am?" to the power of a google? The bullying "I can ruin you in this town" mentality?

I think it was that. They all deserve everything that's coming to them.

Grifters on the Instagram.

In the last few weeks I have been contacted by two people through social media who wanted me to be their "friend" based on my Instagram posts.

One came at me via Facebook Messenger and claimed to be the Page 3 Girl Lucy Pinder, but from her broken English, I know it really wasn't her.

In both cases I got lines about "Needing a normal friend" and "You seem a genuine person". You know, generalized sucking up.

Lucy kind of backed away after I didn't respond enthusiastically enough to her. But I have reached out to see if she still thinks I'm hooked.

Annabelle contacted me two days ago via Instagram. She quickly sent me her phone number ( 612 470-xxxx ) and we texted away; me telling her how lovely she was and her massaging my ego saying stuff like "You have a genuine heart" and nonsense like that.

Then of course, out came the "I am flat broke, my phone service is about to be cut off" ( so we would not be able to continue to text ) and "I need a $75 i-Phone gift card and no-one else will help me."

She was good, but I'm a 60 year old man and I know that a 34 year old woman is not randomly reaching out for friends on social media.

So then "Poof!", I blocked her phone number, deleted her texts and blocked her on Instagram.

On IG she trolls by the name of "sassyannabelle". So, Buyer Beware. Especially Olde Buyers.