<story><title>This is a blog post that’s incredibly confusing and painful for me to write</title><url>http://blog.maxistentialism.com/post/91476212698/this-is-a-blog-post-thats-incredibly-confusing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>beachstartup</author><text>so basically, we live in a society where anyone&amp;#x27;s reputation can be instantly, completely and forever ruined, at will, by someone leveling a rape accusation on the internet.</text></item><item><author>eggbrain</author><text>Let me begin by saying that this is frustrating for all groups involved. But I wanted to specifically address what Max really can or cannot do regarding this situation.&lt;p&gt;1. I understand those that say that he should sue. But think of it this way: even if he goes through a long lawsuit to sue and wins, he still comes up worse for wear: people who hated him to begin with will just say he &amp;quot;bought&amp;quot; his freedom with high priced lawyers, and the publicity the trial would generate would just hurt him more no matter what the outcome.&lt;p&gt;2. What&amp;#x27;s frustrating to me is even in these HN comments, the fact that he _isn&amp;#x27;t_ suing is somehow proof that there might be more to the story! You end up not winning -- not going to trial is because you know the &amp;quot;truth&amp;quot; might come out, and going to trial and winning will still prove that you might still be guilty, but celebrity status&amp;#x2F;money helped you.&lt;p&gt;3. Other people argue he should &amp;#x2F; should not have posted this blog post. But again, it&amp;#x27;s a catch-22: if you don&amp;#x27;t publish the blog post, it&amp;#x27;s because you are trying to bury the story because there might be some truth to it. But if you do publish it, now people think you aren&amp;#x27;t telling &lt;i&gt;the whole truth&lt;/i&gt; and are just spinning it to get people on your side!&lt;p&gt;So really, no matter what you do, there&amp;#x27;s no good solution. If you sue, your victory will be Pyrrhic at best. If you don&amp;#x27;t sue, you&amp;#x27;re hiding something. If you post a response, you are spinning it. If you don&amp;#x27;t post, you&amp;#x27;re hiding something.&lt;p&gt;Worse yet, defending Max can end up being a lose-lose situation as well. If I believe Max&amp;#x27;s story, and defend him in forums&amp;#x2F;communications, that can portray me as being a sympathizer to sexual offenders rather than victims, which would anger me very much.&lt;p&gt;Sexual assault is a travesty. Period. And victims already have many times a hard enough time coming forward and talking about it, yet alone going to the police -- under the assumption that they might not be believed or that they will be shamed. But we need to make sure that there is justice for all, without hurting either side. We still have a long way to go.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>knowtheory</author><text>This is one of the reasons why having adequate legal recourse is so important.  The incompetence and inadequacy of the criminal justice system injures us all.&lt;p&gt;In an ideal world we would simply say &amp;quot;where is the evidence, this should be sorted out in a trial&amp;quot;.  But given that the cops are so hostile to sexual assault victims, forensics which aren&amp;#x27;t processed for &lt;i&gt;decades&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.npr.org/2014/01/25/266275211/tested-at-last-rape-kits-giving-evidence-to-victims-stories&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;266275211&amp;#x2F;tested-at-last-rape-...&lt;/a&gt; ) and a legal system which will try the credibility of victims, it&amp;#x27;s hard to blame any sexual assault victim who shies away from reporting.&lt;p&gt;In the end, unanswered questions persist.</text></comment>
<story><title>This is a blog post that’s incredibly confusing and painful for me to write</title><url>http://blog.maxistentialism.com/post/91476212698/this-is-a-blog-post-thats-incredibly-confusing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>beachstartup</author><text>so basically, we live in a society where anyone&amp;#x27;s reputation can be instantly, completely and forever ruined, at will, by someone leveling a rape accusation on the internet.</text></item><item><author>eggbrain</author><text>Let me begin by saying that this is frustrating for all groups involved. But I wanted to specifically address what Max really can or cannot do regarding this situation.&lt;p&gt;1. I understand those that say that he should sue. But think of it this way: even if he goes through a long lawsuit to sue and wins, he still comes up worse for wear: people who hated him to begin with will just say he &amp;quot;bought&amp;quot; his freedom with high priced lawyers, and the publicity the trial would generate would just hurt him more no matter what the outcome.&lt;p&gt;2. What&amp;#x27;s frustrating to me is even in these HN comments, the fact that he _isn&amp;#x27;t_ suing is somehow proof that there might be more to the story! You end up not winning -- not going to trial is because you know the &amp;quot;truth&amp;quot; might come out, and going to trial and winning will still prove that you might still be guilty, but celebrity status&amp;#x2F;money helped you.&lt;p&gt;3. Other people argue he should &amp;#x2F; should not have posted this blog post. But again, it&amp;#x27;s a catch-22: if you don&amp;#x27;t publish the blog post, it&amp;#x27;s because you are trying to bury the story because there might be some truth to it. But if you do publish it, now people think you aren&amp;#x27;t telling &lt;i&gt;the whole truth&lt;/i&gt; and are just spinning it to get people on your side!&lt;p&gt;So really, no matter what you do, there&amp;#x27;s no good solution. If you sue, your victory will be Pyrrhic at best. If you don&amp;#x27;t sue, you&amp;#x27;re hiding something. If you post a response, you are spinning it. If you don&amp;#x27;t post, you&amp;#x27;re hiding something.&lt;p&gt;Worse yet, defending Max can end up being a lose-lose situation as well. If I believe Max&amp;#x27;s story, and defend him in forums&amp;#x2F;communications, that can portray me as being a sympathizer to sexual offenders rather than victims, which would anger me very much.&lt;p&gt;Sexual assault is a travesty. Period. And victims already have many times a hard enough time coming forward and talking about it, yet alone going to the police -- under the assumption that they might not be believed or that they will be shamed. But we need to make sure that there is justice for all, without hurting either side. We still have a long way to go.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rhizome</author><text>Has Max&amp;#x27;s reputation been instantly, completely, and forever ruined?</text></comment>