What do we do with people like Joe Biden?

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First of all the usual caveats. It's early. Allegations are just allegations. Trump, Kavanaugh, Justin Fairfax etc. have all been accused of much worse. This is not a thread trashing Joe Biden or the #MeToo movement. This is a thread asking for legitimate discussion of what society should do with people who are guilty of what Joe Biden is accused of.

First: The accusations.

Flores: "He smelled my hair, and kissed me on the top of my head."

Lappos: "He grabbed me by the head, and rubbed noses, I thought he was going to kiss me."


My Thoughts in a somewhat organized order:

1. This is mild mild stuff. Consider a moment the sexual harassment and rape perpetuated by the true monster Harvey Weinstein and this isn't in the same universe.

2. Even though this is mild, it still is behavior that makes people uncomfortable and SHOULD be discouraged.

3. Biden is definitely from an older time, and probably meant no malice in his actions.

So the question becomes what should we do with people like Biden? No punishment or rebuke of any kind legitimizes behavior that makes other uncomfortable. However, when the "crime" is so mild, it seems any real punishment is overkill. Do we shame him in the streets? Make him attend a sexual harassment workshop? Not vote for him for president? Wave our hands and say "he's old?" Wave our hands and say "That's just Joe being friendly?"

I'm asking to provoke discussion and hopefully not angry rants.

I wouldn't mind if an attractive woman (or Chris Hemsworth) walked up to me and rubbed her nose with mine...
She doesn't even have to be an Eskimo...
But please, not in flu season...

<serious mode on>

Assuming the accuracy:

It sounds a little like dementia creeping in...<shrug>
Has he always acted like that?

Bottom line:
Modern PC has set boundaries which have been breached here, period...<shrug>

https://youtu.be/Cdmqn9JIuzc

The touching stuff he does was acceptable during previous times the smelling hair and generally doing this stuff at formal public functions to people he does not know never has been as far as I can remember.

My immediate reaction to the accusations was that people were trying to take him down. Not that the accusations are false but that they are being inflated to something more than they are.

But any man has to realize that intention isn't the full story. A man can have perfectly good intentions but still make a woman uncomfortable with stuff like that.

I think the guy is harmless, so I doubt there was any malicious intention. I guess people will just have to decide for themselves.

They are more then accusations, there are a lot of pictures and videos of this behavior.

I am touch sensitive and these would make me very uncomfortable, especially in a formal situations like those.

Biden? I wouldn't vote for that nose-rubbing, head-kissing hair-sniffer, anyway!

I bet he's an eye-winker, too!

There are just some people who are "touchy-feely."

My father was like that. There are people in my job like that. There are guys who like to hug me.

I'm touch-aversive, for the most part.

I sort of feel like this is a "hatchet job" to try to bring down Biden. Even the women in question don't believe he was '"sexually motivated." They just felt "uncomfortable," similar to how I feel "uncomfortable" when someone touches me.

I'm not a great fan of his; I would prefer him over Trump, though.

If people are trying to "take him down", there are much worse things they could accuse him of.

But "Hair-sniffing"? Admittedly creepy ... maybe even a form of harassment ... maybe could get him fired from a corporate job ... is it worth all of the media coverage? I don't know.

I had never heard of Glen Greenwald or Randi Mayem Singer until today.

Looking them up reveals two journalistic hacks -- one a book-writer, and the other a show-runner.

Both seem more interested in self-publicity than in anything of substance.

I didn't know anything about them, either. I thought the Tweet was amusing. Just when you thought Russia hysteria was starting to die down, here we go again.

Yes ... some people will do anything to change the focus to their favorite bogey-man topic ... amiright?

"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

Poor Joe, he’s old, white, male and heterosexual. He'd better start kissing men, and pronto, if he wants to be a serious contender as the democrat Party’s Presidential nominee.

do nothing.