A carving of the Three Wise Monkeys on the sacred stable at the Nikko Toshogu Shrine complex.
The motivations and causes of denialism include religion and self-interest (economic, political, financial) and defense mechanisms meant to protect the psyche of the denialist against mentally disturbing facts and ideas.
The infamous “Access Hollywood” tape on which President Donald Trump can be heard describing in vulgar detail how his celebrity allowed him to sexually assault women with impunity was not “locker room talk,” as then-candidate Trump suggested, according to the other man on the tape, former NBC host Billy Bush.
Bush, who was fired from his job on NBC’s “Today” show shortly after the tape’s publication last October, described in an interview published over the weekend by The Hollywood Reporter how the 2005 tape derailed his career and led to months of reflection that included a week-long stay at a self-help retreat in California. He noted that the “irony is glaring” that the tape proved so damaging to his career while Trump, who actually made the inflammatory comments while Bush chuckled, went on to win the presidency in spite of it.
My [then] 15-year-old, Mary, called me from boarding school, and she was in tears: “Dad, Dad, Dad,” and I said, “Everything is going to be fine, Mary. Everything’s going to be OK.” It’s just instinctively what you say to your daughter. And she said, “No, why were you laughing at the things that he was saying on that bus, Dad? They weren’t funny.” It hit really hard, and I stopped for a second, and I said, “I have no answer for that that’s any good. I am really sorry. …”
