I had the pleasure of hosting Shane Cashman of Timcast at my home last month a couple days before the GOP debate in Simi Valley. As two recovering liberals, we had plenty to talk about during his stay (hindered slightly by the stifling migraine I was battling that whole week.)
In this conversation, Shane explains his skepticism over Evan Rachel Wood’s accusations against Marilyn Manson.
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“He made himself this boogeyman, that was part of his performance, being this vampire image. But then if you look at it as a fan, and know his lyrics and his past, it’s almost laughable.”
-Shane Cashman
Marilyn Manson: An Easy Target?
Shane describes his idea of political warfare, dating back to when Mao in China would manipulate the public by creating synthetic realities by marrying a truth to fiction.
“Look at Manson. We know he’s done crazy things on stage, probably wild stuff with exs. They take that and marry it to whatever narrative they have and BOOM synthetic reality and then people who don’t have time to look into it and believe it because look at him- he must be the boogeyman, ” Shane said, understanding that Manson has obviously made himself an easy target throughout the years with his and provocative gothic image.
Cashman on Evan Rachel Wood:
“I think she has no distinction between reality between reality and fiction.”
“She’s a child star who got popular really young. She talks in her documentary about having a bad childhood. I think there’s some trauma there. She gets popular from that movie Thirteen and there’s a scene in Thirteen where she’s screaming and crying and that’s the one note she then plays out throughout her whole life. She takes that character and that becomes her life.”
“She even said through filming Westworld is how she opened up to her memories and abuse with Manson. So there’s no distinction for her. Her whole life has been on camera.
“And I think she is also an opportunist. She saw that victimhood was being catapulted into the limelight. She saw that as a way to destroy any power structure in her way. She then gets linked up with Ilma Gore, who is a legit activist.”
Evan Rachel Wood Forged FBI Letters
“Evan Rachel Wood we know now has falsified FBI documents. They forged FBI letters. Evan Rachel Wood submitted FBI documents for a custody battle she had with her son, Jamie Bell, which she eventually lost.” - Shane Cashman
“If the truth was on her side, she wouldn’t have to forge FBI letters, she wouldn’t have to gaslight women into thinking they have repressed memories . That Ashley Morgan character has already written to the court that she lied and ‘those girls have convinced me otherwise.’ She said, ‘I was gaslit by these women. And actually there was nothing bad between me and Manson. It was all consensual. Which was weird, because it wasn’t use by the judge in his favor.” - Shane Cashman
Documentaries As Propaganda
“She’s saying Manson’s manipulative, right? Meanwhile, that whole documentary is propaganda and a manipulation.” - Shane Cashman on the two-part HBO documentary Phoenix Rising.
As I mentioned to Shane in our conversation, I do feel like these documentaries are highly effective at shaping or shifting public opinion. Sometimes, all it takes is a well-produced documentary these days to cement a narrative in the public’s eye. The danger there is that the documentaries then work as propaganda pieces when people don’t stop to question who funded, filmed, or backed them.
“It’s like she cast a spell on the audience.” - Shane Cashman says of Evan Rachel Wood in Phoenix Rising.
“I think radical feminism is infantilizing women. It makes them like these blameless angels.”
“We should get back to the actual victims and care about those people.”
- Shane Cashman on the #MeToo movement
Will the Manson Case Go to Court?
As a fan of Manson, Shane hopes that the Manson case doesn’t go to court.
“As a fan, I hope they don’t have to go to court. They’re trying to make it so he can’t even testify.”
A friend told Shane that even if it doesn’t go to court, the damage is done.
“The process is the punishment,” they said.
“They don’t give a shit at the end. They just care that you destroy him. ” Shane said about Evan Rachel Wood and the other women involved.
* Marilyn Manson reached a settlement last month with a woman who sued the singer for rape before it went to trial. She filed the suit in 2021, alleging that Manson raped her and deprived her of food, sleep, and a sense of safety. She also claimed he threatened to “bash her head in” if she reported the abuse stemming from 2011.
“I was fully prepared for trial and never in a million years thought I would ever settle, but over the past two-and-a-half years I have silently endured threats, bullying, harassment and various forms of intimidation that have intensified over the past few weeks,” Doe says in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Marilyn Manson attended my deposition, and I was forced to answer seven hours of aggressive questioning with him staring at me from across the table. I’ve been told that this almost never happens, as it’s cruel, and that a main reason for it would be to intimidate and inflict emotional distress on a victim.”
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