Meg Whitman to Step Down as HPE CEO

It really has been amazing to see the momentum building with people speaking out against aggressors. I wonder when critical mass will be reached in terms of when people feel that there's little negative consequence to sharing stories of harassment.

Sorry to be a cynic but the likely next phase will be a spate of false accusations and then a backlash. The so far largely credible victims have been receiving a great deal of well deserved attention, but attention is a profound motivator for some people; certainly enough that they'll make things up.

We're in the midst of the storm just now... In the last 48 hours we've seen Charlie Rose implode and Pelosi call for investigations of Conyers. In the last few hours John Lasseter ended up in the spotlight and got LOA-ed out of Disney. It's too early yet, but at some point an accuser will emerge with provably false claims against a popular and sympathetic figure and the worm will turn.

It's just the way of things.

You're leaving out the part of the story where all of the accusers were slammed as liars for years until they were suddenly believed by the general public in the face of overwhelming mass testimony.

Only two of the scandals involve recently disclosed assaults.

So, maybe it will happen as you say. I predict it won't be widespread. There will likely be another Duke, but it'll be isolated.

LOA?

My guess was leave of absence.

It’s already happening. George Takai’s accuser seems to not be believed. Also Al Franken’s accuser backed off when the photos of them hanging out being friendly came out along with a ton of witnesses who said they saw the two being friendly the whole time.

> Al Franken’s accuser backed off when the photos of them hanging out being friendly came out along with a ton of witnesses who said they saw the two being friendly the whole time.

AFAIK there's a well-known phenomenon of victims later being friendly with their attackers. In general, it doesn't disprove the allegation (I don't know the details about Franken).

Based on my poor knowledge of it (and in the absence so far of anyone who knows more), it comes from the desperate need for safety by traumatized people (i.e., those in the fight / flight / freeze state), any way they can get it. That includes by later trying to placate their attackers and checking if the attacker is friendly (or safe). Remember, often attackers are someone the victims previously knew and trusted and then that trust was horribly violated, leaving the victim feeling utterly defenseless (i.e., dependent on the attacker's good will).