[QuickTidal]

Primateus, on 17 June 2020 - 03:54 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 17 June 2020 - 12:29 PM, said:

Not that we needed more evidence that her case was all lies, and Depp's was airtight...but...

Heard's entire law team has quit the lawsuit.

Please note that the lead lawyer for Heard on the case is known for other TimesUp/MeToo cases...so you know if she gave up....They claim it's due to location logistics...but yeah...not buying it.

A retained lawyer will defend their client in almost every scenario except 1) they believe they will not get paid for their services, or 2) the client is lying to them or otherwise working against their ability to defend them.

My guess is this is the latter.

If this lawyer is so renowned, why do you suspect she's lying about her reasons for quitting the case?

EmperorMagus, on 17 June 2020 - 04:51 PM, said:

Confidentiality. They can't discuss information regarding their client, even indirectly. If a client is lying the lawyer who finds out can't disclose it to the world.

^^This.

She legally can't be like "Well she lied to us".

So the location is the supplied reasoning.

Meanwhile the law offices for this person just opened a branch a 40min drive from the Virginia courthouse...so location issues are hinky anyways.

[QuickTidal]

Amongst the last 24 hrs of revelations about the predatory natures of Comic writers/artists Cameron Stewart, Warren Ellis, and others..(see Comics thread for more deets on those)

We now also have comedian Chris D'Elia for predatory behaviour and grooming of underage girls.

[Malankazooie]

What a shocker. Comedians are fucked up, damaged, broken people.

Here's another scandalous draw dropper - grass is green!

[amphibian]

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

[Tsundoku]

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

May I ask why?

[Aptorian]

Malankazooie, on 17 June 2020 - 07:38 PM, said:

What a shocker. Comedians are fucked up, damaged, broken people.

Here's another scandalous draw dropper - grass is green!

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

Tsundoku, on 18 June 2020 - 07:11 AM, said:

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

May I ask why?

I'd assume it's the hypocrisy or hyperbole of the statement.

Replace the word comedian with black people, women or Muslims, etc.

Making broad sweeping statements about a whole industry in parallel with the Black Lives protests seems sort of oblivious.

Sure, there's plenty of fucked up comedians, especially from the old school stand-up days, but "Not all comedians".

OR maybe Amphibian is actually a failed comedian and feels personally attacked.

[Tsundoku]

If you assume correctly, I think there is a lot there inferred way beyond what is stated - which in and of itself may or may not be accurate - and as such is drawing a rather long and unnecessary bow.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 18 June 2020 - 10:07 AM

[Aptorian]

Look, Tsundoku. You're just not woke enough, alright?! Everything is a microagression if you squint your eyes hard enough.

[QuickTidal]

Danny Masterson finally (it's been what, 3 years since the original allegations?) arrested and charged with rape of three women, after a "lengthy investigation". The time it took to arrest him either speaks of Scientology's long arm of the law reach/ability to stifle police investigations in California, or just how much they close ranks around their "stars" to protect them from this stuff.

Apropos of nothing: He was also married to Bijou Phillips....who's half-sister Mackenzie Phillips recently admitted that she had a incestuous relationship with their father, John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. Bijou Phillips, who claims to believe her father innocent and her half-sister a liar, also ridiculed the assault allegations against her husband in an instagram post in 2017 aimed directly at one fo the accusers when the allegations surfaced.

Both are Scientologists and both are trash.

[amphibian]

Aptorian, on 18 June 2020 - 07:19 AM, said:

Malankazooie, on 17 June 2020 - 07:38 PM, said:

What a shocker. Comedians are fucked up, damaged, broken people.

Here's another scandalous draw dropper - grass is green!

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

Tsundoku, on 18 June 2020 - 07:11 AM, said:

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

May I ask why?

I'd assume it's the hypocrisy or hyperbole of the statement.

Replace the word comedian with black people, women or Muslims, etc.

Making broad sweeping statements about a whole industry in parallel with the Black Lives protests seems sort of oblivious.

Sure, there's plenty of fucked up comedians, especially from the old school stand-up days, but "Not all comedians".

OR maybe Amphibian is actually a failed comedian and feels personally attacked.

There's no comedy connection for me or feeling of attack to me.

I objected because reacting to news that a specific person did a specific harm to another person or many people with sarcastic "what a shocker, in other news grass is green" is minimizing what happened and pushing it from a specific instance being discussed to a general "well what do we do about all this? (hand wave)" type deal.

D'Elia did some really terrible things to vulnerable people. To me, it's better to encourage discussion about that without immediately moving it into the realm of "comedians are shitty".

Does this make sense to you all?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Regarding Ellis, is this accurate?

- The 'impressionable young' women were not underage. Katie West was 22.

- They weren't trying to work in comics, or on projects where he had any sort of direct authority, aside from his ability as a relatively famous artist to promote their work in tangentially related fields like photography.

- He didn't indicate that he would continue promoting their work only if they had sex with him.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 18 June 2020 - 06:54 PM

[QuickTidal]

Azath Vitr (D, on 18 June 2020 - 06:54 PM, said:

Regarding Ellis, is this accurate?

- The 'impressionable young' women were not underage. Katie West was 22.

- They weren't trying to work in comics, or on projects where he had any sort of direct authority, aside from his ability as a relatively famous artist to promote their work in tangentially related fields like photography.

- He didn't indicate that he would continue promoting their work only if they had sex with him.

Did you get these talking points from people who decided it was nice to rip Katie a new one for being the first to speak up? Because that's what these sound like.

With Ellis it also sounds like it was much more going on than we know about, but if 35 women come forward and call him a predator who used his industry clout....whatever his reasons...to get into May December relationships with young muses...which he would then shut out and entirely cut off...that's super super shitty.

And while Katie was the whistleblower, but it seems like there were lots of others.

I don't think anyone is talking about Ellis breaking the law as Stewart was with underage girls...more that what he was doing was not just unethical, but really shitty.

In fact, this shit doesn't have to be illegal for these men to be called out for being terrible humans...it drives me buts that the knee-jerk is STILL to believe that Ellis is somehow just a blameless dude for 2 decades of this behaviour...while a slew of women get "Well, Actually..." because it's not technically a legal issue, but a social one.

And Katie WAS trying to get into the industry as she's currently in the comic industry.

[Tsundoku]

amphibian, on 18 June 2020 - 01:30 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 18 June 2020 - 07:19 AM, said:

Malankazooie, on 17 June 2020 - 07:38 PM, said:

What a shocker. Comedians are fucked up, damaged, broken people.

Here's another scandalous draw dropper - grass is green!

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

Tsundoku, on 18 June 2020 - 07:11 AM, said:

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 08:25 PM, said:

Not the best time or place to say that, Malankazooie.

May I ask why?

I'd assume it's the hypocrisy or hyperbole of the statement.

Replace the word comedian with black people, women or Muslims, etc.

Making broad sweeping statements about a whole industry in parallel with the Black Lives protests seems sort of oblivious.

Sure, there's plenty of fucked up comedians, especially from the old school stand-up days, but "Not all comedians".

OR maybe Amphibian is actually a failed comedian and feels personally attacked.

There's no comedy connection for me or feeling of attack to me.

I objected because reacting to news that a specific person did a specific harm to another person or many people with sarcastic "what a shocker, in other news grass is green" is minimizing what happened and pushing it from a specific instance being discussed to a general "well what do we do about all this? (hand wave)" type deal.

D'Elia did some really terrible things to vulnerable people. To me, it's better to encourage discussion about that without immediately moving it into the realm of "comedians are shitty".

Does this make sense to you all?

Fair enough, I was just wondering how you got from A to B.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 18 June 2020 - 07:07 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 18 June 2020 - 06:54 PM, said:

Regarding Ellis, is this accurate?

- The 'impressionable young' women were not underage. Katie West was 22.

- They weren't trying to work in comics, or on projects where he had any sort of direct authority, aside from his ability as a relatively famous artist to promote their work in tangentially related fields like photography.

- He didn't indicate that he would continue promoting their work only if they had sex with him.

Did you get these talking points from people who decided it was nice to rip Katie a new one for being the first to speak up? Because that's what these sound like.

With Ellis it also sounds like it was much more going on than we know about, but if 35 women come forward and call him a predator who used his industry clout....whatever his reasons...to get into May December relationships with young muses...which he would then shut out and entirely cut off...that's super super shitty.

And while Katie was the whistleblower, but it seems like there were lots of others.

I don't think anyone is talking about Ellis breaking the law as Stewart was with underage girls...more that what he was doing was not just unethical, but really shitty.

In fact, this shit doesn't have to be illegal for these men to be called out for being terrible humans...it drives me buts that the knee-jerk is STILL to believe that Ellis is somehow just a blameless dude for 2 decades of this behaviour...while a slew of women get "Well, Actually..." because it's not technically a legal issue, but a social one.

And Katie WAS trying to get into the industry as she's currently in the comic industry.

The headlines referring to it as 'sexual coercion' and 'predatory grooming' are at best misleading---especially since 'sexual coercion' is legally rape in many places. (There's some amount of 'coercion' and 'grooming' in almost any relationship. The degree there seems to have been higher and more negative than usual, but apparently not on the level to which those terms almost always refer ('predatory grooming' almost always refers to children, not adults). Shitty behavior, but it should only affect his career to the extent that's based on self-presentations that this contradicts.)

On D'Elia---not clear if he knew they were underage? It can be difficult to tell on Twitter and so forth.

While older men hitting on relatively young women seems viscerally repulsive to me, that's almost certainly more a product of our modern infantilization of people in their late teens and early 20's---and toxic catastrophization about sexual or potentially traumatic experiences.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 June 2020 - 02:56 AM

[Aptorian]

Chris Avellone, a famous video game writer, has been accused of harassment and sexual assault. He's famous for having worked on fallout, Planescape, Baldurs Gate, Elder Scrolls and more.

https://www.gamasutr..._harassment.php

Techland "Has let him go" so this is only going to compound the problems Dying Light 2 is having.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 23 June 2020 - 06:57 AM

[Morgoth]

Aptorian, on 23 June 2020 - 06:55 AM, said:

Chris Avellone, a famous video game writer, has been accused of harassment and sexual assault. He's famous for having worked on fallout, Planescape, Baldurs Gate, Elder Scrolls and more.

https://www.gamasutr..._harassment.php

Techland "Has let him go" so this is only going to compound the problems Dying Light 2 is having.

Yeah, from what I gather he's been blacklisted from several conventions. Not for sexual assault or generally illegal behaviour mind you, but for being creepy and unpleasant and too fond of buying drinks to and touching the younger women around him. I'd reckon it takes quite a bit to be blacklisted when you're an industry star, and especially as it happened before the metoo era, so I inclined to believe what is being said about him. Which is a shame, because I love his writing in games.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

There's been a huge blow up of Twitch users being accused as well.

I'm really uncomfortable with all this - because it just didn't surprise me. Whilst I'm not saying every loud angry white male gamer involved is a sexual predator.... the whole Gamergate nonsense showed the really quite vile underbelly of people in the gaming community and industry very clearly, and what they think of women in their space. Add to that the fact I was living with my abuser at the time who thought everything that happened to the likes of Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn etc was fine - "They shouldn't talk shit about what they don't understand then should they?".... I want to be shocked and horrified but I'm just not, except perhaps for the scale of it.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Morgoth, on 23 June 2020 - 10:17 AM, said:

Aptorian, on 23 June 2020 - 06:55 AM, said:

Chris Avellone, a famous video game writer, has been accused of harassment and sexual assault. He's famous for having worked on fallout, Planescape, Baldurs Gate, Elder Scrolls and more.

https://www.gamasutr..._harassment.php

Techland "Has let him go" so this is only going to compound the problems Dying Light 2 is having.

Yeah, from what I gather he's been blacklisted from several conventions. Not for sexual assault or generally illegal behaviour mind you, but for being creepy and unpleasant and too fond of buying drinks to and touching the younger women around him. I'd reckon it takes quite a bit to be blacklisted when you're an industry star, and especially as it happened before the metoo era, so I inclined to believe what is being said about him. Which is a shame, because I love his writing in games.

'intentionally getting women "blackout drunk" at industry events before making non-consensual advances, and sending sexually explicit messages to women over social media.

[...] He got me blackout drunk on Midori Sours (on the company dime)," said one accuser, in a lengthy account posted on Twitter. "He and two friends somehow got me back to my room, where he pounced in front of the other guys.

[...] After witnessing Avellone do the same thing to other women on different occasions, he was eventually reported to convention organizers and blacklisted -- though his accuser claims that didn't halt his pattern of behavior.'

https://www.gamasutr..._harassment.php

[QuickTidal]

Fantasy authors Myke Cole and Sam Sykes have been accused of inappropriate behaviour. Both have acknowledged and apologized on their twitter. I don't know much more about it.

EDIT: Both blame alcohol....so...yeah, not great.

Paul Krueger too....I don't know him.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 25 June 2020 - 12:11 PM

[Morgoth]

QuickTidal, on 25 June 2020 - 12:03 PM, said:

Fantasy authors Myke Cole and Sam Sykes have been accused of inappropriate behaviour. Both have acknowledged and apologized on their twitter. I don't know much more about it.

From what I understand, Cole was accused of something similar in 2018, apologised without caveat, and promised to work on himself to make sure it never happened again. From what I understand the new accusations are also from before 2018, and he has reiterated his apology and his promise to never put people in that position again. My understanding is that he 'flirted' intensely and relentlessly, and it made several women understandably uncomfortable. Whether his behaviour has improved since 2018 I cannot say, but I haven't seen any accusations connected to episodes taking place during the last two years.

The accusations against Sykes started as complaints that he knew of Coles behaviour and tolerated it, though he did step in on occasion, but seemes to have developed into direct accusations of misogyny. Exactly what it was he did I don't know, but it seems to have made people uncomfortable.