"That 70s Show" Actor Danny Masterson Again Facing Rape Charges

[Leo656]

Looks like something's finally gonna happen with this. Arrested this morning, out on bail. Looking at up to 45 years if convicted.

https://apnews.com/0094b7382d1bb5425...fY5rjFDrv8oZVQ

As stated in the article, these allegations are nearly two decades old and just NOW they're finally getting around to arresting and charging him. The ol' Scientology Cult must have a lot more pull than anyone realized, to keep things from moving forward for so long.

I've been seeing this all day, and I keep seeing people acting shocked by it. I heard this sh*t like, forever ago, and I assumed it was common knowledge by now.

Keep in mind, he's not alleged to be a "rapist" in the sense of "The girl maybe had too much to drink and then regretted it the next day and now she's making accusations" or anything. By all accounts he's a "Hold them down and choke them until they submit" kind of rapist. Gross. And there were originally more women coming forward but the statutes of limitations expired. Who knows how "prolific" this guy's been?

Between the fact that these allegations are not new, a LOT of details have already come out many years ago, and the fact that he's neither All That Rich nor All That Famous, I'm very much inclined to believe the allegations in this case. If any woman were trying to extort money from a celebrity, spending 20 years in pursuit of it while most people don't even know the guy's name seems like a really sh*tty way of going about it.

I'm curious to see if "That 70s Show" reruns are gonna be the next thing to be "cancelled". I kinda don't think so, and I'm not rooting for that, I'm just curious to see. There's so many arbitrary double-standards with these things, with who gets punished and how much, what gets "cancelled" and what gets left alone, that it becomes impossible to predict. In his case, he's been heavily protected by the Scientology Cult, which is why it's taken so long to even get this far with regard to charging him, but he's also pretty popular among certain circles in Hollywood, which may make it less desirable for them to "sacrifice" him outright. Point being, he's well-liked and has powerful friends. He was in deep with Weinstein, for example. Hmm....

We'll see where this goes. Too much smoke for far too long to be nonsense, in my opinion. To my understanding, this is another Cosby case, where "everybody" knew he was guilty for years and years but everyone just kinda shrugged because he was rich and friends with the right people.

I'm like F*ck This Guy, personally.

[TigerClaw]

I never understood why these celebrities commit these horrible acts. What is driving them to rape? Could it be the alcohol? All this fame and fortune can corrupt one's mind. It makes it feel like your entitled.

[Sumac]

They are either become crazy from power or they always has been rotten monsters, and fame just allowed them to act upon their desires.

[PizzaPower1985]

I'm usually, in the name of social justice, very much inclined to stand by the women (or whoever the victims are in these cases)... In this case, yeah there has been a lot of super shady, sketchy $hit going down with scientologists and weird things for supposedly two decades now.

That said, there's something inside of me, for whatever reason I'm not sure, that wants to give Masterson the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe I'm not aware of all the facts and IF he is indeed an aggressive rapist of the "hold 'em down for my own sadistic purposes" variety, then F*CK HIM. But I don't know... I mean none of us really know these celebrities and it may be a railroad job... or he may legitimately be a disgusting excuse for a carbon-based lifeform. I guess we'll have to watch this case closely to see what the outcome determines (even though our time could be better spent)...

I didn't wanna believe it about Cosby either and look what happened. So, yeah, I don't wanna defend any kind of rape or rapist ever, but I think I just need to be privy to more info before I make a judgement. I mean the guy is a good actor and for me Hyde was the best thing about 70's Show. But if he's actually a f*cking rapist then yeah... I hope he gets burned for this $hit.

[Voltron]

Originally Posted by Sumac

They are either become crazy from power or they always has been rotten monsters, and fame just allowed them to act upon their desires.

You forgot to mention how they're filthy leftists.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Originally Posted by Voltron

You forgot to mention how they're filthy leftists.

Nice catch.

[Andrew NDB]

Well, let's let the judicial system work and see what's determined. If he's guilty then he's guilty.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Voltron

You forgot to mention how they're filthy leftists.

As soon as you agree that not everyone who disagrees with you are right wingers.

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

Nice catch.

Nice quack, quack.

[Leo656]

Here's my thing, though: Why falsely accuse THIS guy? Why drag it out for 20 years?

He's not that rich and not that famous. Much bigger fish to go after.

If y'all know me well, you know I'm a skeptic by nature, and I don't automatically Believe All Women. I just don't. I look at the evidence and make my judgment accordingly.

There's no reason to disbelieve them in this case. While I firmly believe Weinstein and Cosby were guilty, I can also see How and Why they could be targeted by false accusations. Those are Big Fish.

Nobody knows who "Danny Masterson" is. "Hyde from That 70s Show" is famous. "Danny Masterson" is not famous. Falsely accusing and extorting Danny Masterson makes no sense. They also filed criminal complaints against him, NOT civil compaints. They didn't ask for money, they asked for him to be thrown in jail. Big difference. They also didn't wait 20 years until he was in a place of prominence and THEN accuse; they accused him Back Then and have been pursuing it ever since.

I do not, by default, "Believe All Women". I believe the ones in which the evidence supports their accusations. This fits. I cannot see any reason at all why anyone who's accused him would lie.

We'll see, but I don't think it's a work. I think he's a scumbag who used his money and influence and connections and entitlement to abuse women, and I think he deserves to be punished for it.

If I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong. This case, to me, seems pretty straightforward.
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Also, c'mon guys, I almost never make threads. Go rub your dicks together and try to make fire in one'a your own. It would be nice if ONE Current Events thread didn't get locked, y'know?

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

I never understood why these celebrities commit these horrible acts. What is driving them to rape? Could it be the alcohol? All this fame and fortune can corrupt one's mind. It makes it feel like your entitled.

I can give this an honest effort at answering.

We live in a culture where we've been taught for decades and decades that being a celebrity means having people thrown at you as if you are a treasure.

But it's a wake-up call to realize that once again most people look at the information incorrectly. Let's use the crazy stories from Def Leppard's heyday as an example.

Stories of crazy, after concert orgies, women running around doing anything for the band backstage. Probably true. But what's not true is that every woman in the audience would commit to that behavior. Take an arena audience of 23,000 people. Arguably we will say half female. There certainly aren't 11,500 women who were going to be back stage committing any act the band wanted. But the stories would make you think so. Maybe there were 100. Of that, 25 get back stage. Barely a drop in the hat and that was during an age where that was the zeitgeist.

Now compare that to the crew of That 70's Show. "But I'm a celebrity! You love me!" this guy thinks. But now he faces the wakeup call not only born of the ratio I outlined in the Def Leppard example, but even a worse ratio given his big claim to fame isn't really that big of a deal, and the fact that it's a different era when compared to well-marketed celebrity stories from the 80's.

Short of it is you have an actor that probably feels entitled through his fame and it's a huge system shock when he realizes that most people don't care, and that those that do are in a much smaller group than the stories of pop culture would have you believe. So he takes his "entitlement" and pushes too hard not understanding the "not interested" and without the empathy that it takes to stop.