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Comment by mbesto | Hacker News Reader

That's right, no one would ever abuse an online system for blacklisting VCs accused of sexual harassment...smh

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14773434

Yeah, they're basically industrial-scale defamation without recourse, trial, or evidence. From a game-theoretic perspective, you would be wrong not to take advantage of it to burn your competitors.

If it hasn't dawned on you, this is a political strategy, not a tool for the downtrodden. I have quite literally heard people talking about these things as "the way we'll close the gender participation gap", as in, they'll burn men's careers until things equal out. As stupid as this sounds, the fact that people are thinking it is alarming.

> have quite literally heard people talking about these things as "the way we'll close the gender participation gap", as in, they'll burn men's careers until things equal out.

Where? Any transcripts/ video?

Are transcripts/video necessary for sexual harassment accusation?

That's not very listeny or believey now is it?

> have quite literally heard people talking about these things as "the way we'll close the gender participation gap", as in, they'll burn men's careers until things equal out.

How does your quote imply your interpretation of malicious intent at all? If someone believes (rightly or wrongly) that the gap in participation in certain industries is because women feel unsafe participating in those industries from harassment etc, reducing harassment and providing avenues for those women to address that problem would naturally act to "close the gender participation gap".

I wouldn't care to speculate what proportion of the gender participation gap is in fact due to women's experiences of harassment and/or anxieties about such -as I simply don't know, and would prefer to defer to women and the people who research these things-, but there is a pretty obvious and quite benign interpretation to your quote that you are choosing to ignore.

> If it hasn't dawned on you, this is a political strategy, not a tool for the downtrodden.

Also something that occurred to me - if I was an SJW, I'd encourage "guilty until proven innocent" mob reactions against sexual harassment accusations by women to create a powerful leverage for them - the ability to threaten someone with an accusation.

The sad thing is, even after a well-defended trial with a clear, almost "proven innocent" outcome, where the witnesses were shown to have deliberately distorted or outright fabricated the facts, and the prosecutor has a personal connection and interest to the charge; people still remember the accusers as victims and the accused as a perpetrator. There are still people who believe the Rolling Stone rape hoax, there are still people who believe beyond doubt that Jian Ghomeshi is a rapist. The people whose names were tarnished by these accusations may never escape the consequences of being accused. The accusers will surely never face any consequences, even when shown nigh on conclusively to have lied on the stand.

All the while, the public grows more jaded to all trials of these heinous crimes, which casts more public doubt on the allegations of genuine victims.

LOL a leader of YC once threatened to ruin my career and prevent me from ever being hired because of a comment I made on an article that was linked here. Now I know why.

You commented on HN? If this is true, it sounds like a major breach of privacy here.

It is crazy to use your real name to comment on stuff. I limit my real name to GitHub, and even there I always try to comment on stuff like a robot would.

You may be right from the practical perspective. As a matter of principle I refuse to cower and slink around the internet. If I am judged, maligned, or inconvenienced by people's opinions of what I say, then so be it. At least I can say I didn't spend every day in moral retreat as the loudest people get their way.

I am Aaron Muir Hamilton and I'm not afraid of words.

I respect your stance. However, it is also clear that you haven't been under fire yet :)

As long as your intentions are unmistakably pure, the coals don't feel so hot as you're raked over them.

I approve of shedding anonymity (in most cases) but I'll also note that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I don't know why you're downvoted, this is literally the first thing we were told about the internet - don't put your real name online. Today you kind of have to, for most things, but generally you should try to minimise the stuff you post attached to your real name as much as possible.

People are also told to have their work on github and build their personal brand on social media.

Perhaps it's possible that there's more than one source of advice?

Exactly. I was told the "personal brand" advice, too.

And if you look around - even on HN - there's plenty of people who seem to have got the same idea.

[citation needed], because you're making a serious accusation now.

Another case of the linkless martyr.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14694045

No "leader of YC" I know would value their time so miserably as to spend it that way (or be so dumb as to feed every troll forever).

It's a repeat of this claim: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9892966

That's not the same claim. I've had people contact "my employer" for HN comments, for instance about Javascript cryptography. But nobody from YC has ever done that. That would be silly.

Only peripherally related to op's accusation but didn't YC get accused of running a blacklist based on unproven accusations recently? Can you reassure me that this story was also without basis?

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