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Comment by valaryu | Hacker News Reader

Why can't 2 things be true? That Weinstein is a horrible person and that memories of something 20 years ago can be flimsy and vague.

The same thing happened in that Ivan The Terrible trial. Horrible as it is, people in their 80s recollecting what happened in their 20s is hardly reliable.

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They are both true, but that's the problem. It's not enough to know Weinstein is a terrible person; we want to punish him for specific acts of wrongdoing. However, our evidence for those acts is inherently unreliable. Our desire to punish wrongdoers must be tempered by the fact that memories are not reliable evidence.

How thoughtful of you! It's funny though that people like you never show up when the accused doesn't have an army of lawyers. In those instances, no one ever goes "guys, our desire to punish the accused must be tempered by the fact htat memories are not reliable evidence! Maybe she kinda wanted to be raped and can't remember it"

Either memories are reliable or they are not. It seems they are not. You're free to deny that fact or to refute it with counter-arguments, but claiming "people like me" are discussing it because we fear "an army of lawyers" puts you a step away from tin foil hat territory.

Exactly, anyone can dispute the facts, that's why being able to hire better lawyers totally doesn't affect the outcome of the case, right? /s

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