Around 9 am eastern an HE commenter called “Really?” wrote a response to last night’s post about (a) the Monday morning (4.1) suicide of cartoonist Ed Piskor over social media accusations of inappropriate texting conversations between Piskor and two women in their late teens, and (b) Jeff Sneider‘s 4.1 post about this tragedy (“Murdered by Internet Bullies“).

“Really?” to HE: “Did you google Piskor and the case for one moment? There’s obviously more to the story than somebody being ‘murdered by the internet.’ Pity that your obsession for cancel culture cancels your ability to be a critical thinker.”

HE to “Really?”: “Are you saying that speaking or texting suggestively or even lewdly to a young girl or two (young but above the age of consent) is a cancellable offense? Which can harm or kill a career or worse, as we’ve just seen with Piskor.

“Unwanted sexting sounds a bit icky, agreed, but if Piskor crossed a line the girl in question could have said ‘no way and hasta la vista’ and terminated the chat or conversation, no?

“Plus the age of consent in Pennsylvania is 16. Doesn’t that mean that in situations involving unwanted attention, lawmakers trust or expect or assume that teens 16 and over can and should exercise agency on their own part?

“It’s unfortunately part of the rough and tumble of life for teenagers to occasionally get hit on by older persons. (My mother used to warn me about predatory older women.) It’s obviously gauche and uncool but if it’s just a texting or phone situation there’s a fairly easy remedy.

“I clearly recall being hit on by an older gay guy in a Connecticut work situation when I was 17, and finding the idea highly distasteful. I told a couple of friends but did I write a complaint to his boss? No. Did I write a letter of condemnation to my local Connecticut newspaper? No. I simply said ‘nope, no thanks’ and moved on with my life. Imagine!”

“’Nobody gets moral unless they want to get something or get out of something.’ — Paddy Chayefsky, 1964.

Reply/comment from Sasha Stone an hour later:

“The same culture that pretends Poor Things is about sexual empowerment is shocked, shocked that sexuality is going on here. They order their little chess pieces to make sure everything is in strict compliance…”her agency” this and “grooming” that. They go along with an entire system that thinks it’s okay to confuse toddlers with conversations about their private parts to “decide” what gender they are. They go along with extreme and overt sexuality UNLESS — God forbid — a heterosexual male enters the chat.

“Even though certain younger but legal women are attracted to him, come on to him, pretend that they’re interested in him, if he takes the bait — PREDATOR!

“This is the most hedonistic, end-of-empire, Caligula-like culture I’ve ever lived through with one exception: masculine men cannot partake because eeww, icky predators. Give me a break. Hypocrites. And don’t bother lecturing me about power this and consent that. Text messages — please.”