It's unpleasant, but it's not pointless. We've just had days of uninformed and uninvolved randos micro-analysing all things Altman, and pushing various wild speculations. This is seen as okay as long as it's confined to what is essentially office intrigue and gossip. But on the much more consequential topic of potential childhood sexual misdeeds -- nothing.

We don't know whether there's any means of verifying the story until people actually put some effort into verifying the story. Also, it's not unprovable. Perhaps in a mathematical sense, but that's not even required in a courtroom.

Consider all that's been written about Altman's character, using such weak signals as "this former co-worker said this about him". Meanwhile there's this disturbing piece of information that could be a strong signal that is completely ignored.

Have you spoken to anyone in your life who has been molested, or abused? It really cuts through the abstract arguments and illustrates that this dynamic is how abusers get away with it.

The reason is that SV works on connections, and people are afraid that they won't get their next round or that sweet job if they rock the boat. Also, we're mostly all dudes, so therefore more vulnerable to false allegations on this topic. Also some overlap with culture-wars and pushback against the perceived excesses of the MeToo movement.

Hypothetically, if a little girl were molested by her older brothers, how should she proceed in order to satisfy your sensibilities?