I disagree. Firstly, if you want a masterclass on repentance, see Dan Harmon’s apology. Made actual tangible steps to better himself, and devoted an entire podcast episode to apologizing, and spent about 0 seconds of that podcast feeling sorry for himself or lamenting that he got caught, or complaining about the financial effect it had on him. Plus, he doesn’t deny the story of the woman he harrassed.
None of this is true for Louis CK. He says “everything they say is true”, but then every chance he gets on his gigantic public platform, he repeats the blatant lie that he got consent. He didn’t. In none of the women he harrassed’s stories, he asks for consent. They deny that he asked for consent. All of them. And in his “apologies” he keeps repeating that he asked for consent. That’s not an apology, that’s just a lie.
His “apologies” are mostly made up of three parts. The first is a sneaky denial of the victim’s stories, the second he spends some time complaining about how this makes him feel, and how it affected him financially, and that he’s looking to get back on top of things and better his situation. And then the third is where he explains that there’s nothing he can do to make the world tangibly a better place (like, idk, staying the fuck away, donating to a charity for victims of sexual assault, trying to do anything to fix the careers he destroyed), and that all he can really do are these vague platitudes that help no one like (I wish I were making this up) “shaking one hand at a time”.
It’s hard for me to think of a worse realistic public apology. Maybe “I didn’t do it, but I’m sorry if you feel I hurt you” although that’s already pretty close to what Louis CK is doing.
Dan Harmon really is the gold standard on how to deal with that situation. I especially appreciate how his work after the fact is so heavily influenced by the changes he’s made to himself.
Just going to add on, that in the YouTube series linked above that there is a direct comparison of how Loius and Dan Harmon both handled it and that you’ve summarized the differences quite well
I disagree. Firstly, if you want a masterclass on repentance, see Dan Harmon’s apology. Made actual tangible steps to better himself, and devoted an entire podcast episode to apologizing, and spent about 0 seconds of that podcast feeling sorry for himself or lamenting that he got caught, or complaining about the financial effect it had on him. Plus, he doesn’t deny the story of the woman he harrassed.
None of this is true for Louis CK. He says “everything they say is true”, but then every chance he gets on his gigantic public platform, he repeats the blatant lie that he got consent. He didn’t. In none of the women he harrassed’s stories, he asks for consent. They deny that he asked for consent. All of them. And in his “apologies” he keeps repeating that he asked for consent. That’s not an apology, that’s just a lie.
His “apologies” are mostly made up of three parts. The first is a sneaky denial of the victim’s stories, the second he spends some time complaining about how this makes him feel, and how it affected him financially, and that he’s looking to get back on top of things and better his situation. And then the third is where he explains that there’s nothing he can do to make the world tangibly a better place (like, idk, staying the fuck away, donating to a charity for victims of sexual assault, trying to do anything to fix the careers he destroyed), and that all he can really do are these vague platitudes that help no one like (I wish I were making this up) “shaking one hand at a time”.
It’s hard for me to think of a worse realistic public apology. Maybe “I didn’t do it, but I’m sorry if you feel I hurt you” although that’s already pretty close to what Louis CK is doing.
Dan Harmon really is the gold standard on how to deal with that situation. I especially appreciate how his work after the fact is so heavily influenced by the changes he’s made to himself.
Just going to add on, that in the YouTube series linked above that there is a direct comparison of how Loius and Dan Harmon both handled it and that you’ve summarized the differences quite well