[gizmomagico]

Yes, rape is terrible, and judging by your reaction, you're probably American. Was that a racist slur or just an observation?

Would it also be terrible to be falsely accused of rape, in an internationally public manner?

The problem here is that mine was the first comment to allude to the whole debacle being disgusting bullshit.

There weren't almost any comments in the thread, possibly because if you really wanted to discuss this, you'd have to discuss the whole thing being bullshit, and facing the bullshit-laden reality we live in is unpleasant.

HN doesn't want to discuss unpleasant realities.

That may actually be a good thing for maintaining the high quality of discussions on other, more pleasant subjects - who knows. But on the other hand, spreading awareness of bullshit being bullshit would do us all good in our role of ordinary citizens of various governments.

[allenbrunson]

You are showing no evidence that you heard what I said. This has nothing to do with my nationality, and a lot to do with this site's conventions. pg has worked really hard to keep news.yc from going down in flames, the way every other discussion site in the history of the internet has done, eventually.

You are not the first person here to suspect that Assange may be falsely accused. If you'd put it that same way, like I just did, you would have likely generated some discussion on the topic. As it is, you merely said something inflammatory and inappropriate.

A couple of weeks ago, this site featured a story about a woman who accused a man of groping her at ApacheCon. If there is a more loaded topic for discussion than that, I can't think of it. Yet this community managed to have a very civil discussion about it, due to those rules you are disparaging.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1875718

[gizmomagico]

You are showing no evidence that you heard what I said. This has nothing to do with my nationality, and a lot to do with this site's conventions. pg has worked really hard to keep news.yc from going down in flames, the way every other discussion site in the history of the internet has done, eventually.

I did acknowledge the potential quality issue, which is what you spent your message talking about. You didn't really address anything I said. I bet I guessed your nationality right, though, didn't I?

> You are not the first person here to suspect that Assange may be falsely accused.

As I said, I was the first one to hint at that quite likely possibility.

> a woman who accused a man of groping her at ApacheCon. If there is a more loaded topic for discussion than that, I can't think of it. Yet this community managed to have a very civil discussion about it, due to those rules you are disparaging.

That's nice, but what did you think the civil discussion might have devolved into? Hypersensitive overreacting about "assault"?

This Assange -story, on the other hand, is not only about alleged rape, but also about the place where conspiracy-theories and reality meet.

[ugh]

Do you have any evidence at all for your allegations?

[gizmomagico]

What allegations?

[ugh]

Your allegations that Assange is falsely accused because of some sort of conspiracy.

[gizmomagico]

Where's your proof that he isn't?

Also: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=1917913

Shouldn't you go demand more "proof" from him too, or is it just easier to pile on the heavily downvoted guy?

It shouldn't be too hard to see this is all bullshit, and that's what I originally got downvoted for trying to point out (in a less-than-HNesquely-eloquent manner).

[ugh]

I make no claims about Assange’s guilt or innocence.

Productive discussions demand evidence and you provided none.

[gizmomagico]

Cute