Well, that was fast.
My expectation was that Corey DeAngelis would be redeemed and eventually return to his work, wiping the dust from his shoes after traveling through the village of Dark Past Secret. But I confess that I figured it would take more than a week.
The only real sign that he was in trouble was being dumped from Betsy DeVos's American Federation for Children, but after a brief pause, a mountain of conservative school choicers stepped up to voice their support for him. Truth be told, I think better of them for it; AFT's move was pretty cowardly and cold ("Doesn't look like he'll be further use to us-- dump him"). Besides, while I hesitate to call any human being irreplaceable, I don't see any fledgling DeAngelis on the bench ready to leap into the gap.
But when word came that DeAngelis was back on the dead bird app, I wondered what DeAngelis 2.0 would look like. Humbled and more mellow? More feisty? Sadder but wiser? What, I've wondered, would his redemption look like.
Well, no need to keep wondering. It looks like this. DeAngelis sat for an interview with Christian Broadcast Network News to "break his silence" unveil and DeAngelis 2.0, and he looks familiar. But now we know his origin story, and the rewritten version of history that goes with it.
The story of his decade-ago porn career is a familiar one. He was "drawn into pornographic work" as a young adult, and that's why he's fighting so hard now.
“If I was able to be lured in to make bad decisions as a young adult in college, just imagine how much worse it could be for younger people,” he said, explaining how the experience became fuel in his fight for educational freedom and reform. “So I fought against this kind of material being included in the classroom. I’ve been consistent. I’ve changed my life. People change over time.”
It's a spin that has been popular in anti-drink revivals for ages. "I fell in with bad companions." It's also a good way to straddle a tricky line. “I did make those decisions. I’m not proud of those decisions, but I can see how it can be deceptive, and the entire industry can be deceptive, especially for young people," says DeAngelis. What's missing is an examination of why DeAngelis. among all his peers, was seduced by this deceptive industry. Not that he owes us an explanation, and if his explanation is "I wanted to" that would be a fine explanation. But if there were another one, it would be helpful in determining how to spot and help those uniquely susceptible twenty-somethings. We're left with kind of accepting responsibility and kind of not. He could just say, "I was a grown-ass man and it was what I thought I wanted to do at the time," but the problem for the brand is that if he accepts too much responsibility for his choices then that lessens the impetus to banish any remotely sexual stuff from anywhere young humans.
But that appears to be what we're going with, and it's an effective enough narrative.
Then we get into the rewrite of history. The article says that the videos and images "intended for gay audiences, have led progressive advocates to mobilize against DeAngelis."
“There has been a cancellation attempt from the left, in particular, and my political opponents trying to accuse me of hypocrisy,” he said. “Their claims fall flat.”
Except that it wasn't The Left that came after him at all. It was a far-right wingnut website that broke the story (two whole weeks ago), and while I suppose "political opponents" is correct-if-misleading, the drumbeat came from a non-zero number of folks on the right who consider DeAngelis a tool of UNESCO and vouchers an attempt to extend government control over private schools, a sort of Leftist Trojan horse.
There has certainly been some schadenfreude on The Left, though I would say it's been rather subdued considering the number of people DeAngelis and his troll army have harassed mercilessly. But does it really make sense that The Left is going to be after someone because they did gay porn? Yes, the hypocrisy thing has been brought up repeatedly, but he did not get canceled for being a hypocrite and he didn't get canceled by The Left-- he got canceled by Betsy DeVos's American Federation for Children, and I'm guessing that it didn't happen because Diane Ravich called DeVos on the phone and said, "You gotta get rid of this guy."
The question with hard core voices in any debate is "Does he really believe this stuff, or is this just a performance part of the gig?" Two weeks ago it looked like we might have an answer in this casde. Now we're back to "who knows?"
DeAngelis makes a worthy point via Chris Rufo-- "cancellation requires consent." Which is sort of true. Nobody can make you shut up. They (and this is almost exclusively the people on your own "side") can take away your platform and your financial support and your audience can stop listening to you, but you can always keep yapping, especially in this day and age.
DeAngelis goes on to talk about more personal attacks-- DMs to his wife encouraging divorce, messages telling him to kill himself, a whole bunch of ugliness. It's inexcusable shit, and no human being should have to endure it ever. I don't believe for a minute that it came primarily from his political opponents; that's not the crowd that ordinarily tells people to die because of gay stuff. And it would be awesome if, on the back of his experience, DeAngelis actively told his social media troll army to stop the ugly personal attacks on folks from the other side. Because nobody (and that absolutely includes DeAngelis himself) should have to go through that shit.
There is of course one more requirement for a good redemption story
One of the most compelling ways the dilemma has changed DeAngelis has been in the area of faith. Describing himself as a lifelong agnostic, he said the situation has brought him and his wife, whom he described as a “believer,” closer to church.
“We’re watching our local church on TV each Sunday,” DeAngelis said. “And, the first time that we tuned in a couple of weeks ago, just the things that the pastor was saying — it just brought me to tears.”
Look, as I've said more than once before, I don't wish DeAngelis ill. I disagree with pretty much everything he works for, and I find his online persona toxic and ugly, but he's a human being, and a relatively young one at that. Like him, I'm glad he doesn't have this chapter of his life hanging over him as potential blackmail material. And I would really love to find out that this whole redemption narrative is an authentic shift to bring the world a better version of the privatization evangelist, and not just a carefully calibrated tale to justify the same old shtick.
Most of us who have reached a certain age have been Through Some Things--specifically, major missteps of our own creation. You learn a lot of stuff from those episodes. In my own case, one of the things I learned is that you are tougher than you think you are, which in turn means you don't have to strike out viciously at everyone you find in any way threatening. Save your strength for when you really need it.
At any rate, having written about the first chapter of this story, I felt obliged to follow up, especially since my first installment was wrong about what the next chapter would look like. We now have the new pitch-- DeAngelis was seduced by the gay porn industry and that's why he wants to protect students from naughty books in public schools. Also, vouchers, and maybe Jesus. And he's got a new job-- senior fellow with the American Culture Project, a dark money right-wing activist group and "stealth persuasion machine", headed up by John Tillman who also runs the Illinois Policy Institute. ACP has done fundraising by railing against "cancel culture" and general wokitude.
So DeAngelis is going to be doing just fine. I hope the harassment of him and his family stops. I hope he's in a better place now, a receiver of grace rather than a momentarily useful tool. I hope all of his preferred policies fail, and that he abandons his toxic tactics anyway. As he told CBN,
You can change as a person. If you’re in a bad situation right now, you can get out of it like I got out of it.
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