[zozbot123]

Defend the misogynistic mob? That's exactly what parent did not do. Indeed, the unsavory, /v/ element was always a huge liability for GG as a social phenomenon, and I don't know of anyone who would even attempt to deny this.

[matt4077]

"It started really bad, but [...] some good came out of it in the end."

That's a defence, without question. It does include an acknowledgement of the harms of what happened, but by pointedly ending with a hand-wavey invocation of some supposed benefits, it is characterising those harms as a sort of necessary evil.