Abigail Shrier penned an interesting editorial the other day titled Ken Fisher, Joe Biden and the Merciless Young how a clumsy old guy can easily get trapped by the "me too" movement.
Apparently, Ken Fisher made a remark at a conference to the effect that people need to be careful what they say, using a crude example:
... it’s like “going up to a woman in a bar and saying, ‘Hey, I want to talk about what’s in your pants.’ ”
Cue the outrage. Competitors pounced on the remark with their twitter feeds, and according to Ms. Shrier, "As of this writing, Fisher Investments has lost more than $2 billion in institutional assets, and Ken Fisher has been widely tarred for sexism." Ouch!
Likewise with Joe Biden's touching -- years ago women could handle it, but not now.
Ms. Shrier gets to the point:
None of this is about women. Denouncing sexism is a pretext that permits one competitor to damage another while playing the hero. Messrs. Biden and Fisher were successful in their fields, but vulnerable because of old age. They failed to keep up with political correctness. This is the competitive advantage of the young—that they can so readily assimilate the ever-expanding list of shibboleths and forbidden expressions. Mock horror is the next generation’s form of rent-seeking, and political correctness the younger players’ edge.
What then are the lessons for other Ken Fishers and Joe Bidens? Shake fewer hands, make fewer jokes, never speak freely or off the cuff. It’s a tall order.
For now, their younger competitors need only lie in wait. But someday age will render them more human and less vigilant, too. Eventually, they too will cough up the keys to their own downfall. Viva la revolución!
Accusations of sexism for minor touching and unguarded comments are now merely weapons to be used against competitors.
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4:02 PM 10/26/2019
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