Comment by akoboldfrying
9 hours ago
> I'm afraid I don't accept that you can split this
I don't see how else to interpret your original remark:
> To make these kinds of accusations as a woman tears your life apart in unimaginable ways
> At least one of the victims started to raise concerns in the community several years beforehand and their concerns were not taken seriously
That's fair I think, though I don't share the conviction that it's the responsibility of a convention to prosecute criminal allegations (and especially not if the allegations are "sub-criminal" -- any behaviour that is sufficiently damaging to warrant any kind of formal punishment deserves to be a crime).
> I'd also be very, very deeply skeptical that two public claims were the only claims made. We should bear that in mind.
OK, but this is pure speculation. I prefer not to bear such in mind.
> OK, but this is pure speculation. I prefer not to bear such in mind.
Quote from the second accuser:
Because of similarities in our stories as well as the stories Jon Pretty told us himself, we have reasons to believe that other people in the community have had experiences with him that are similar to ours.
I think either you aren’t reading the accusers’ statements closely enough or you are choosing to discount them - but if they suggest that this is more widespread than just the two of them, I think this moves beyond “pure speculation” and into “quite likely”.
I read both statements, I'm just not as willing as you apparently are to take their claims at face value.
In a dispute between two parties, one side's claims about the other are not to be taken as gospel. This applies to both sides.
Whether or not or other people have made similar complaints about JP is actually one of the few independently verifiable claims that can be made in a case like this, so I would argue that speculating about this aspect is especially egregious.
This is not one person complaining about another’s behaviour - these are two people who are alleging the same thing about the same person. Either a) they are colluding or b) this is a pattern of behaviour by the accused person that needed to be addressed.
Whether the way it was addressed was appropriate or not I don’t know. The person may have been warned about it and what we are reading about may have been the end of a lengthy process. Maybe, as the accused person alleges, this was an enormous unexpected surprise and they had no warning of it.
You’re entitled to your opinion about what has taken place in this situation.
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