Friday, March 24, 2023

Justin Roiland—not as guilty as thought?

The above video is saying that Justin Roiland, co-creator of "Rick and Morty" and the voice actor behind the two main characters, may have been yet another victim of a false #MeToo campaign against him. The charges made against him (by his ex) have been dropped. I wrote about the Roiland case here and here, and yes, I stood in judgment of him. Does the above video make me want to recant my stance, though? Well... not yet. Keep in mind that Roiland's remarks, after the charges had been dropped, focused mainly on his ex, whom he accuses of besmirching his character. But as I wrote in the second of the above-linked posts:

Turns out it's way worse than that: Roiland has had a history of accosting underage girls, often using his Rick and Morty voices to draw them in. It seems that all of this was "an open secret" among the people who worked with him.

So what about all that? I think Roiland may be trying to argue that, if his ex is wrong about his character, then all accusations about him are wrong, which is a non sequitur. So the above video doesn't move the needle for me very much although, as always, this is a lesson in holding off on final judgment until the dust settles. Look what happened to Saint George of Floyd: I was ready to believe the cop had outright murdered him on camera, then all that other stuff about Floyd's history and his medical condition at the time of his arrest came out. That said, Roiland still sounds like a Harvey Weinstein wannabe to me. I'll do my best to avoid final judgment, but I'm still leaning toward the idea that he's guilty of something.



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