Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ I've fought abusers & bullies all my life & a key lesson: they stay in power through silencing. The majority 'public' is allowed to believe everything is fine while they abuse & feed. Sunlight is the first step to rooting the abusers out

2/ There's also a delicate balance of the abusers, their protectors & accomplices who either don't care abt the crimes, agree w/the principle of hierarchy & the sub-humanity of the victims, or are just cowardly & want to make it all go away

Sunlight exposes them too

3/ But one reason why protests can cause rapid change is b/c abusers are kept in power with this fragile balance and mask. Once the veneer of power is cracked, they can crumble

& those in the power structure who have been battling the abusers are waiting for that public pressure

4/ The good cops WANT the protests b/c that helps them root out the 'bad apples' before the whole bunch has rotted (them too)

To fix the abuse problems we need more oversight of the powerful, more sunlight, MUCH more accountability for the accomplices & enablers

5/ We also must recognize who in the power system are the good guys as well. Who are the casualties, and re-judge them, give them respect

I can also tell you from experience that there's very little respect for those good apples who were crushed in the process of battling abuse

6/ All those actresses who seemed to fall of the face of the earth. All those ABD grad students, college dropouts. All scientists or academics who are stuck teaching in low prestige places, if at all

We must (a) destroy the abusers & the systems which protected them

7/ (b) expose & punish the enablers

(c) give second chances to those hurt by the system. All those talented people who were silenced so a Superstar Man would be protected (professor, conductor, journalist, artist etc)

We need a system change all over. It's possible