{"id":121121,"date":"2021-02-08T14:34:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T19:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121121"},"modified":"2021-02-08T15:12:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T20:12:47","slug":"knowles-what-the-metoo-movement-can-teach-conservatives-about-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-what-the-metoo-movement-can-teach-conservatives-about-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"KNOWLES: What The #MeToo Movement Can Teach Conservatives About Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fknowles-what-the-metoo-movement-can-teach-conservatives-about-liberty%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121121&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-480917862.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Just when you think you know a rockstar satanist, more than half a dozen women accuse him of abuse. Three years ago, Evan Rachel Wood recounted harrowing tales of an anonymous ex-boyfriend during a congressional hearing on sexual assault. Now she has identified her abuser: shock rocker Marilyn Manson, to whom Wood was briefly engaged in 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During her testimony, Wood<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/tv\/read-evan-rachel-wood-harrowing-2018-testimony-to-congress-on-abuse\/\"><span>described<\/span><\/a> <span>the \u201cworst part\u201d of the \u201cdomestic violence\u201d as involving \u201csick rituals of binding me up by my hands and feet to be mentally and physically tortured until my abuser felt I had \u2018proven my love for them.\u2019\u201d She recalled, \u201cWhile I was tied up and being beaten and being told unspeakable things, I truly felt like I could die, [and] not just because my abuser said to me, \u2018I could kill you right now.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some of the rocker\u2019s former colleagues have backed up the women\u2019s claims. \u201cEvery single thing that people have said about him is fucking true,\u201d<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/nine-inch-nails-frontman-trent-reznor-denounces-former-collaborator-marilyn-manson-in-light-of-allegations\"><span>insists<\/span><\/a> <span>former Manson guitarist Wes Borland. \u201cHe\u2019s fucked up, and he needs to be put in check, and he needs to get sober, and he needs to come to terms with his demons. He is a bad fucking guy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In his defense, Manson has not quite denied the allegations. \u201cThese recent claims about me,\u201d he insists, \u201care horrible distortions of reality.\u201d He does not deny that events resembling those Wood describes took place. But Manson adds what he considers to be a crucial caveat: \u201cMy intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with likeminded partners.\u201d How could Manson\u2019s sexual escapades constitute abuse if his partners agreed to participate?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Wood acknowledges having technically consented to the relationship and at least most of the sex acts. But she also questions her ability to give consent. \u201cHe started grooming me when I was a teenager,\u201d she charges. \u201cI was brainwashed and manipulated into submission.\u201d In other words, she was never truly free to \u201cconsent\u201d in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Whether or not the actress in fact consented to the acts depends upon one\u2019s definition of liberty. The modern liberal view conceives liberty as the ability to follow one\u2019s desires and appetites wherever they may lead him. According to this definition, the distinction between liberty and licentiousness that our Founding Fathers so often emphasized disappears. Liberty, the modern liberal view holds, guarantees the right to visit a brothel just as surely as it means the freedom to go to church on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Conservatives have traditionally tended toward a different understanding of liberty. In the words of Lord Acton, the traditional view understands liberty, not as \u201cthe power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.\u201d As Christ explains to the Apostles, \u201cEveryone who sins is a slave of sin.\u201d In other words, the modern liberal notion is not only wrong, but it actually makes liberty impossible. The classical pre-Christian understanding of liberty takes much the same view. According to this definition, we attain liberty, not by doing whatever we please, but rather by practicing the virtues and taming our base passions, for which purpose we undertake<\/span> <em><span>liberal<\/span><\/em> <span>education. When we neglect virtue and indulge vice, we become slaves to our appetites and forfeit our freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Drug addicts demonstrate the distinction. According to the modern liberal view of liberty, drug addicts are the freest people in the world. They indulge their appetites however and whenever they please, so long as they can find their drug of choice. But according to the classical view of liberty, drug addicts are slaves. When a heroin addict joneses for a fix, there is little he won\u2019t do to satisfy his cravings. He may will with his intellect to resist temptation, but his appetite will overpower his loftier desires, and he will degrade himself to stave off withdrawal. According to the modern liberal view, he has freely consented to whatever unspeakable act scored him the dope. In reality, he cannot consent because sin and vice have compromised his free will.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAge of consent\u201d laws presuppose the classical view of liberty. Children cannot consent because they, like the heroin addict, cannot control their appetites and have not fully cultivated their will and reason. We educate children so that they may learn to use their liberty.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For decades, the Left has exalted \u201cconsent\u201d as the highest political good. Much of the Right has followed suit, cravenly refusing to articulate a substantive moral vision and instead embracing the modern liberal view that mistakes licentiousness for liberty. But the depraved rituals that Wood accuses Manson of performing on her are wrong whether the \u201clikeminded partners\u201d believed them to be \u201centirely consensual\u201d or not. The overwhelmingly left-wing ladies of the #MeToo movement have stumbled unwittingly on the conservative reality of liberty. Like it or not, conservatives should listen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/knowles-keep-tubman-off-the-20\">More from Michael Knowles: Keep Tubman Off The $20<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><em>member<\/em><\/span><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just when you think you know a rockstar satanist, more than half a dozen women accuse him of abuse. Three years ago, Evan Rachel Wood recounted harrowing tales of an &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892903,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4432,4539,4679,5577,5834,4620],"class_list":["post-121121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-about","tag-conservatives","tag-knowles","tag-movement","tag-teach","tag-what"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}