one of the very, very few stories I have had to kill because we couldn't stand it up legally involved sexual misconduct at one of the biggest NGOs, because literally nobody would go on record because the culture of said NGO is *so* toxic and vindictive.

April 11, 2026 - 02:39 UTC

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Never underestimate the power of PERCEIVED self preservation
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When stories like this “break” I always have to wonder about the timing. If this has been an open secret for so long, it seems strange that it is just now saturating my feed.
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There are no irreplaceable candidates, and a party that relies on them has much, much bigger problems than a politician of that party going down for committing a crime.
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Sometime they break at a time like this because a victim decides to go on record because the creep is likely to win and they couldn't live with themselves if that happened and the greater access to potential victims

Going on record is hard and scary
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Thing is, the timing is ALWAYS suspicious. Because today is always interesting, one way or another.

And when a news story is uncomfortable to look at, it can be real appealing to decide that the actually interesting thing is the timing, and the shadowy forces at work.
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In addition to what everyone else is saying, this type of assault is difficult to process. It’s someone you know and trust. You were having fun flirting on Snapchat. You drank too much. He’s your boss, and you don’t want to lose your job or for people to think it’s the only reason you’re here.
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To wit, when they're running for something is the perfect time to go on record
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There just isn't ever a "good" time to bring forward an account of abuse you survived from a public figure. There's never a time when it isn't disruptive and distressing (both to the abuser and to innocent people). Sometimes you have to do it anyway, at the time *you* can bear to
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In this case many of the women accusing Swalwell explicitly said that they only went on record when they were approached by journos and realized that they weren’t the only victim. No one ever wants to be the first one to put their head above the parapet
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Isn’t this most NGOs?
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most of them don't have the reach of this one
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Yes.

People are acting like this is unique to politics, but I’d say that what’s unique to politics is that she’ll probably keep her job and friends, and he’ll probably lose his job and most of his support network, and that’s just not the case for any other abuse situation.
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Just blink slowly, Palmer.
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Is there a way to go public with unsubstantiated rumors? Can it be punted to a different publication?
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Go ask Alex Jones how that worked for him.
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not unless you want to be sued to oblivion, no.
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