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Jerry Sandusky
Larry Nassar is a former team physician for the USA Gymnastics national team. After years of sexually assaulting young women and girls under the guise of administering legitimate medical treatment, Nasar was convicted on federal sexual assault charges in 2017. Despite facing numerous allegations of abuse from patients over the years, USA Gymnastics’ inaction allowed Nassar’s abuse to continue. Nassar was a beloved doctor whose colleagues—and many parents of his victims—strongly believed in his innocence. Ultimately, it was the seizure of Nassar’s personal computer, which contained tens of thousands of images depicting child pornography, that led people to believe the allegations. Gladwell argues that society should empathize with rather than condemn Nassar’s enablers, citing humanity’s “default to truth” to explain how well-meaning people weren’t able to recognize Nassar’s deceit.
Larry Nassar Quotes in Talking to Strangers
The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Larry Nassar or refer to Larry Nassar. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
The fact that Nassar was doing something monstrous is exactly what makes the parents’ position so difficult.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
If every coach is assumed to be a pedophile, then no parent would let their child leave the house, and no sane person would ever volunteer to be a coach. We default to truth—even when that decision carries terrible risks—because we have no choice. Society cannot function otherwise. And in those rare instances where trust ends in betrayal, those victimized by default to truth deserve our sympathy, not our censure.
Get the entire Talking to Strangers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Larry Nassar Quotes in Talking to Strangers
The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Larry Nassar or refer to Larry Nassar. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
The fact that Nassar was doing something monstrous is exactly what makes the parents’ position so difficult.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
If every coach is assumed to be a pedophile, then no parent would let their child leave the house, and no sane person would ever volunteer to be a coach. We default to truth—even when that decision carries terrible risks—because we have no choice. Society cannot function otherwise. And in those rare instances where trust ends in betrayal, those victimized by default to truth deserve our sympathy, not our censure.
