The Ashley Madison email leak of 37 million users confirms what many have long suspected — that some of the most vocal supporters of so-called “family values” maintained active, paid accounts on a website designed to facilitate secret affairs between married people.
Is this what our society has become? Is cheating now so acceptable and mainstream that we have entire websites devoted to the practice? Everyone knows that cheating is wrong, but we think society needs to be better educated about healthy relationships.
We wonder if some of the public figures who have “apologized” for their use of the website are sorry that they cheated or just sorry that they were caught.
Josh Duggar, the eldest son of the Duggar family from TLC’s now-canceled show, “19 Kid’s and Counting,” was just one of many exposed in the leak. Duggar, who as a teenager molested several young girls, including his younger sisters, has been exposed as having maintained not one, but two paid Ashley Madison accounts.
Duggar and others like him have used their fame and their positions as conservative spokespeople to demonize LGBTQ people as immoral, but the Ashley Madison data leak has brought their hypocrisy out into the open.
Politicians are also among those currently in damage control mode.
Jason Doré, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, insists that an Ashley Madison account opened using his personal email address and credit card number was intended only for “opposition research,” whatever that might mean.
It isn’t only TV personalities and politicians who have been caught, however.
Given the high number of government and military email addresses registered with Ashley Madison — couldn’t people have used their personal emails for this stuff? — we wonder if the federal government should perhaps launch an investigation into the misuse of government emails and servers.
The U.S. Postal Service has in fact begun a review to determine whether or not USPS employees used their government email addresses inappropriately to register with the site.
We suspect the timing of this leak may have been in part politically motivated. With so many candidates in the presidential race and primaries fast approaching, we wonder if this was perhaps an attempt to “weed out” some of the candidates by exposing them as lying cheaters.
The Editorial Board believes, while political figures and others in positions of power and influence were probably the main targets of the leak, ordinary people are most likely the ones feeling the brunt of it.
Despite Josh Duggar’s laments that the scandal damages his credibility as a Christian, he will likely get through this just fine, with his money and power secure and his family intact.
Ordinary people caught by their spouses, however, will probably just end up as collateral damage.
Ashley Madison capitalizes on selfishness, greed and a lack of concern for a spouse’s feelings. A 2013 advertisement for the service features people bored with their marriages as zombies who can only be brought “back to life” by opening Ashley Madison accounts.
We wonder if Ashley Madison might not also be capitalizing on an interest in kink and sexual fetishes. Is cheating just another market in the sex industry?
Would the reaction to the data leak be different if the site brought together people with foot fetishes?
While we recognize and respect that some people choose to be in open relationships, we do not think Ashley Madison members are likely to be in this category given the site’s emphasis on anonymity and secrecy.
The company’s slogan insists, “Life is short. Have an affair.” We say, life is short, so treat your partner right.
