Thatâs a depressing way to start the day.
But even if a person is a rock star in an important field, even if potential victims are distrustful of LEO, the only way we are going to change our culture of abuse is to not keep it secret. Nobody wants to be the standard bearer for dismantling the patterns of sexual violence because they themselves were abused, but history will repeat itself until we learn. In this case secrecy doesnât help.
This fucking sucks on so many levels.
This is nothing but a JTRIG operation in progress. Until accusers are verified as people that actually exists, I see this as institutional slander.
Iâm not dismissing sexual assault, but in this particular case, this man has been targeted previously, and what is happening now is straight out of the Snowden slides.
Until there is a verifiable public accusation, I can only assume this is another disinformation operation.
Do we know yet who the accusers are? This is so similar to another case involving Wikileaks.
What exactly is he accused of? I am not understanding from the article or the Wired article. (Also, seriously, Wired? 3 pop ups while trying to view this?)
TOR is trying to slander him? To what ends?
Who profits?
Itâs similar to a lot of cases because unfortunately human nature is immutable and men canât keep their goddamn dicks in their pants.
Iâm not saying he did anything. Iâm saying itâs perfectly plausible that he did because that sort of thing has happened like a trillion times before.
No, that is definitely not the case. The endgame of âSocial Justiceâ is justice. There are some confused people whoâve decided to attribute alternate motives, but theyâre just confused, hostile, and motivated to slander.
No, the US gvmt is trying to slander him by proxy, with plants in the Tor project and pseudonymous allegations
Oh, I see youâve applied Occamâs razor, already.
"The scope of the JTRIGâs mission includes using âdirty tricksâ to âdestroy, deny, degrade [and] disruptâ enemies by âdiscreditingâ them, planting misinformation and shutting down their communications.[2][3] Known as âEffectsâ operations, the work of JTRIG had become a âmajor partâ of GCHQâs operations by 2010.[2] The slides also disclose the deployment of âhoney trapsâ of a sexual nature by British intelligence agents"
So youâre saying that either Andrea Shephard is a plant, or she is the willing dupe of plants?
Presumption of innocence trumps Occamâs Razor.
If you prefer Occamâs Razor, you end up with âIf they are charging him, the simplest explanation is that heâs guilty.â
No. It is an unintended side effect of âSocial Justiceâ.
Being âdefinitely not a criminalâ is considered a requirement for his previous job. And whenever requirements like that creep in, you can kiss âinnocent until guiltyâ goodbuy, because an alleged crime will be punished by job loss and public shaming before guilt and innocence is ever determined.
Presumption of innocence is one thing. Immediately stepping to, ââŚand itâs an elaborate plot against JA run collectively by at least three national governmentsâ is where things appear to go awry.
I stumbled across this over the weekend and was wondering when it would pop up on BB. Itâs going to take me awhile to get my head around.
I canât seem to find this site, and Iâd like to, to hear that side of the story.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
This is an admission, not a denial. He denies doing âcriminalâ things then says âinevitablyâ there were times he âhurt or offended othersâ feelings.â
Iâm sure heâs using a very minimal definition of âcriminalâ and a maximal definition of hurting feelings. I bet a lot of those âhurt feelingsâ were in creepy sexual ways. After all, why bring them up in this context otherwise?
People in the Tor community have come forward and said heâs been creepy. Hell, Iâve heard things about him years ago, and itâs only because I have mutual IRL acquaintances with him.
Someone clever enough to write this kind of veiled admission note is also clever enough to know people will start talking about âhoneytrapâ conspiracies. He knows heâs making a hostile environment for the people he harassed to come forward.
And as an LGBT person myself I really resent the mention of being LGBT in the message. No, itâs not âinevitableâ that youâll behave in a way that will âhurt or offend othersâ feelingsâ just because youâre LGBT. His implication is offensive.
Appelbaum repeatedly propositions people for sex, even after theyâve said no. Thatâs not criminal. But itâs super-creepy. He needs to understand this. If folks keep excusing him, or worse, say this is a honeytrap, heâs going to keep on doing this.
A website, whose URL includes Appelbaumâs name, was launched this week
purportedly containing first-hand accounts of assaults committed by him.
Tor Project developer Andrea Shepard shared the website via her Twitter
account on Friday, commenting, âTurns out credit isnât the only thing
he grabbed,â a reference to separate allegations raised by Tor employees
that Appelbaum had assumed credit for their work.
(although if she did share it, looks like she removed it again)
We need to dismantle the myth that an individual can be such a genius, or so famous, that theyâre irreplaceable. Once someone gains that aura, they become so resistant to accusation that it takes extraordinary evidence or an extraordinary number of victims to come forward before they can be removed from the position that enables abuse.
The mere fact that so many peopleâs knee-jerk reaction to this news is to claim government conspiracy suggests that itâs worth spreading this manâs power out among more people, to, even if no abuse has already occurred, remove the need to see him as an unimpeachable figure.
After all, if someone is enough of an asshole or abuser that they drive other people out of their field, itâs unlikely that they can do enough good to make up for the good their victims would have done.
