Popular TV Host Chris Hardwick accused of sexual abuse

[Just1c3]

It isn't so much about the truthfulness of it but more so that a person's life can be destroyed in media. A court decision won't change that.

To this, I'd say only that I'd hope whoever employs Chris Hardwick, like, whoever his bosses are, would know better than to take his career away based on unsubstantiated allegations.

Granted, the article claims that she has proof, and if that's true, and that proof comes out, then at that point I'd say Hardwick deserves what he gets, his career's fair game, his livelihood, all that.

But really at this point, after all the accusations against everybody else, it's really on bosses and producers to make that decision to NOT base their hiring/firing on what's going on in the media, and wait until charges have been filed, or proof has come out, or any of that stuff.

If somebody who works for me MIGHT have raped somebody, but it's not 100%, then I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. If somebody who works for me DEFINITELY raped somebody, I don't want a fuckin' rapist in my workplace. I don't want my other employees to be in danger, or my customers, or any of that.

But the thing is, sometimes the law fails to act on shit like this. That's the problem. You can say "wait for actual charges to be filed" all the fuck you like, but we ALL know that the justice system drops the fuckin' ball on rape and sexual assault ALL the time.

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But I accused you. You said that if someone accuses someone of something, and it's something that a lot of people have DONE before, it's obviously true and accurate. Ergo, you're a pedophile and a hypocrite. That's 100% your mentality, not mine.


And yet she claims she does, and yet she didn't. But it's cool, you keep condemning him without any proof whatsoever. Just be sure that you do it so Justice up above, too. I mean, there was no other recourse for me other than to accuse him of being a pedophile since I had no evidence other than what I claim to have seen, so it must be true.

Okay, you caught me, yes, I'm a pedophile, you proved it. Call the cops, have 'em come and get me.

You're right and so smart and genius and brilliant, ugh, how could I have possibly doubted your true genius God-King of the Observable Universe ability to be 100% correct about all of the things, 100% of the time, in all conceivable realities and dimensions, you are the only one who is ever correct, who has ever BEEN correct, who will ever BE correct, no one else is as correct as you, I'm so sorry, I bow before your genius.

Next time, I want you to have my opinion FOR me. Next time I post, I'll just post what YOU would have said, because what I think is utter dogshit compared to your unmatched brilliance

[Doctor Funkenstein]

Okay, you caught me, yes, I'm a pedophile, you proved it. Call the cops, have 'em come and get me.

Can't. Don't have any actual proof. So I'll just ruin your life by screenshotting this and sending it your friends, family, and employers, ruin your life, and just point and laugh at you for getting on my bad side. That's what you condone, after all.

You're right and so smart and genius and brilliant, ugh, how could I have possibly doubted your true genius God-King of the Observable Universe ability to be 100% correct about all of the things, 100% of the time, in all conceivable realities and dimensions, you are the only one who is ever correct, who has ever BEEN correct, who will ever BE correct, no one else is as correct as you, I'm so sorry, I bow before your genius.

Next time, I want you to have my opinion FOR me. Next time I post, I'll just post what YOU would have said, because what I think is utter dogshit compared to your unmatched brilliance

Or, more likely, YOU don't know what BULLSHIT you're vomiting forth from your mouth.

Go back and read your posts again and tell us how you're not saying that anyone who gets accused of something is automatically guilty, especially if it's something "a lot of other people DID." I mean, that last bit alone is complete and utter idiocy.

But hey, if COSBY could have done something bad, ANYONE could. Ergo, you're a disgusting pedophile and hypocrite. Again: Your logic, not mine.

[Deleted]

But I accused you. You said that if someone accuses someone of something, and it's something that a lot of people have DONE before, it's obviously true and accurate. Ergo, you're a pedophile and a hypocrite. That's 100% your mentality, not mine.


And yet she claims she does, and yet she didn't. But it's cool, you keep condemning him without any proof whatsoever. Just be sure that you do it so Justice up above, too. I mean, there was no other recourse for me other than to accuse him of being a pedophile since I had no evidence other than what I claim to have seen, so it must be true.

At no point have I condemned him. I only reacted because of how eager you were to dismiss her claims. I see you can understand how things are from his perspective if he is innocent. Now try to imagine if he isn't. No matter what little proof she says she has, she knows damn well that there is little chance of winning a trial. It's not like those cases where a celebrity is assaulting multiple people and you get plenty of evidence and testimonies. Here you have only two people involved, Chris and Chloe, it's basically his word against hers.

Unless she did videotape or record the abuse, which I doubt.
So the moral of the story is : do not judge. One way or another.

[zorkuus]

Granted, the article claims that she has proof, and if that's true, and that proof comes out, then at that point I'd say Hardwick deserves what he gets, his career's fair game, his livelihood, all that.

To add to that: taking it to the authorities first might earn the person more credibility before they blast their sob story all over social media. This just doesn't tend to happen. Why? It's very hard to take some of these stories seriously because of that.

[Doctor Funkenstein]

At no point have I condemned him. I only reacted because of how eager you were to dismiss her claims.

I'm not eager for shit.

I'm not going to assume someone is guilty, though, because someone decided to write a fucking blogpost accusing someone of heinous things like this. Especially when they imply that they do, in fact, have plenty of evidence of it. But, you know, fuck going to a lawyer or the cops. Let's just try to destroy his life on social media because that's how people like you and Justice (albeit with stupid symbols in place of letters) feels that's the best way to go about such things. Fuck guilt or innocence.

[Just1c3]

Can't. Don't have any actual proof. So I'll just ruin your life by screenshotting this and sending it your friends, family, and employers, ruin your life, and just point and laugh at you for getting on my bad side. That's what you condone, after all.


Or, more likely, YOU don't know what BULLSHIT you're vomiting forth from your mouth.

Go back and read your posts again and tell us how you're not saying that anyone who gets accused of something is automatically guilty, especially if it's something "a lot of other people DID." I mean, that last bit alone is complete and utter idiocy.

Mmk. There's a... lot to unpack here.

I'm not, nor did I at any point, condone anything. All I actually said, was that my SUSPICION, is that it looks bad for this guy. It looks really fuckin' bad. That does NOT, by any means, mean that I somehow KNOW that he did it, or that I even THINK he did it, because I honestly don't either way. But I know how it LOOKS, and it doesn't look great. That doesn't mean any of this is right, or fair, or okay. But it looks bad.

At this point, if he DIDN'T do it, then it's on him. The ball's in his court now. He's gotta come out and do something to prove he didn't. Isn't that how it works in court anyway, when you get charged with a crime, you have to alibi out, prove you weren't there, all that? Again, I'm not saying that the current media climate is right, or fair, but that's how it is now. That's just what's happening. Right or not, sometimes you gotta play the hand you're dealt. You CAN'T turn around and say "well, that's NOT how it SHOULD be", because reality does not, and has never, given a shit about how anyone thinks things SHOULD be. All you can do, is deal with how things ARE.

If the woman has proof, like she claims, then her immediate next step needs to be, presenting it to the authorities. And it was fucked up for her to publish what she wrote, imo. But it doesn't change the fact that she did it. Now it's out there, now it has to be dealt with. What she SHOULD have done, now doesn't matter, because what she DID do is now out there, and it can't be undone. The ethical move, would have been to give the proof to the authorities, and not publish anything until AFTER the authorities made a move.

HOWEVER: one important caveat to this, is that if she DID present her proof to the authorities and they chose to do nothing, then at that point, the court of public opinion is her only recourse. You can't know for certain that she DIDN'T go to the authorities first. If she didn't, she should have, but if she did and they chose to not act on it, then she had to do SOMETHING else. The alternative is that an abuser gets to get away with it, gets to move on to other relationships, and none of these women know what they're in for.

The "everybody who is accused of anything MUST have done it" is something that YOU extrapolated. You interpreted that. Doesn't mean I said it. That's just how you chose to interpret what I actually said. That's not on me. That's a reading comprehension fail on your part, either that, or you deliberately chose to misinterpret what I said because it feeds into your "smugfuck Internet intellectual" delusion. Either way, that's not my fuckin' problem, and it's not my job to feed your fantasies.

[Sooba]

Can't. Don't have any actual proof. So I'll just ruin your life by screenshotting this and sending it your friends, family, and employers, ruin your life, and just point and laugh at you for getting on my bad side. That's what you condone, after all.


Or, more likely, YOU don't know what BULLSHIT you're vomiting forth from your mouth.

Go back and read your posts again and tell us how you're not saying that anyone who gets accused of something is automatically guilty, especially if it's something "a lot of other people DID." I mean, that last bit alone is complete and utter idiocy.

But hey, if COSBY could have done something bad, ANYONE could. Ergo, you're a disgusting pedophile and hypocrite. Again: Your logic, not mine.

I don't necessarily agree with his position 100%, Funk, but you've strayed from reductio ad absurdum into strawman territory (which is the danger of such a tactic). You are not in contact with Justice. You've never met him. You instead are trying to make an accusation on an internet forum to make a point. It is in no way similar to the situation w/ Chloe Dykstra. As such, your analogy breaks.

[s_bushido]

To add to that: taking it to the authorities first might earn the person more credibility before they blast their sob story all over social media. This just doesn't tend to happen. Why?

Pretty sure the answer to that quesiton is why "rape culture" became a term people actually knew existed. Shit like this is hard to prove (because a lot of it boils down to he-said she-said), and that fact is used as evidence that law enforcement just toss these cases aside without a second glance. So it's a cycle of "the authorities can't help me," "I won't report it," "wow, look at all these stories that go unreported," "there must be something wrong with our culture and how it treats sex crimes!"

Easier to just have someone convicted in the court of opinion (with no possibility of defense on their part), than to go through the trouble of proving that they actually did something actionable to you.

[Sanguinerd]

Pfff.. sorry but I couldn't help wonder while reading it all what kind of weak-willed person would even let this happen. Not saying(if it's even true) that it's her own fault but saying no once in a while could go a long way.

All it will do now is discredit Hardwick with no evidence other than some random blog post.

Pathetic.

[McFuu]

That's one of the things that bothers me with all the people constantly bitching and moaning about the #MeToo stuff, they're acting like the falsely accused don't have ANY recourse. They fuckin' DO have recourse, it's exactly what you just said. Libel, slander, defamation, all that shit. If Hardwick didn't do any of this shit, and he KNOWS he didn't, then he can absolutely do this and take this woman to the cleaners.

Why the fuck are we acting like these fuckin' rich guys are defenseless victims, helpless against this shit? There's plenty of legal recourse for shit like this, false accusations, stuff like that. Hardwick's RICH, I'm sure between his comedy money, and his wife's William Randolph Hearst inheritance, they can mobilize an army of lawyers before you can blink.

This is a bigger deal for, you know, regular people living paycheck to paycheck, I can't imagine having to try and defend against a false rape allegation in my position. But bitching about the rich people it happens to? Why? If they didn't do it, and they know they didn't, and they can prove they didn't, then they can fuckin' CRUSH the accuser in court.

That's the thing though, IF he is innocent, then why not take it to court? That's always a red flag for me, is these guys come out with their PR statements like "I didn't do this, these allegations are false" but then they don't take it to court. Why? If you didn't do it, then you KNOW you didn't, and it should be an easy win. Not taking it to court just makes it seem like you're guilty and you know you wouldn't be able to win, because you know you did it

This is the problem though...

Once they accuse a person, most of the time they "lose everything". So the lawsuits are largely meaningless, the damage is done. Also notice a lot of these accusations aren't backed by police reports or the like, so they become civil matters, which leaves the plantiff in a position immune to legal reprisal.

Honestly the only time I've ever seen one of these accusations not hurt a person (yet) is Kimi Raikkonen. But once his accuser went public, he immediately filed suit against her.

[Sooba]

HOWEVER: one important caveat to this, is that if she DID present her proof to the authorities and they chose to do nothing, then at that point, the court of public opinion is her only recourse. You can't know for certain that she DIDN'T go to the authorities first. If she didn't, she should have, but if she did and they chose to not act on it, then she had to do SOMETHING else. The alternative is that an abuser gets to get away with it, gets to move on to other relationships, and none of these women know what they're in for.

Don't agree here. There are a myriad of reasons why someone would choose not to go to the authorities. Sometimes simply creating the equivalent of an uncomfortable PSA is the better course of action. Assuming she is 100% right for a moment -in this case it's clear that she feels he has the chance to improve and she might not want to saddle him with a rap sheet. In other cases, due to the codependency of such situations, the person may have to cop to less-than-savoury behaviour themselves and they don't want to go through that.

In this case it appears she got her evidence and has chosen to use it only if he pushes back. It will be interesting to see his full response over the next while.

[Just1c3]

This is the problem though...

Once they accuse a person, most of the time they "lose everything". So the lawsuits are largely meaningless, the damage is done. Also notice a lot of these accusations aren't backed by police reports or the like, so they become civil matters, which leaves the plantiff in a position immune to legal reprisal.

Honestly the only time I've ever seen one of these accusations not hurt a person (yet) is Kimi Raikkonen. But once his accuser went public, he immediately filed suit against her.

And I'm not saying that's right, or fair. But idk, that's just the way it is now. What are you gonna do? News outlets are obviously gonna publish this stuff, because I imagine it's probably some of the most click-frenzy content around right now. And I don't see people going "nah, I'm NOT gonna accuse so-and-so". So if the media's not gonna stop, and the accusers aren't gonna stop, then at that point, what can you do? Is there anything you even CAN do? At some point, I think we've gotta give in and just be like "well this is what our reality is now, this is just the way life is".

And again, let me emphasize, that an acknowledgement of the reality of a situation is NOT the same as condoning it.

[8bithamster]

i think it is best to support the victims

Please do provide any solid evidence that any accusation is true.

Remember, innocent until proven guilty

[Sooba]

Pfff.. sorry but I couldn't help wonder while reading it all what kind of weak-willed person would even let this happen. Not saying(if it's even true) that it's her own fault but saying no once in a while could go a long way.

All it will do now is discredit Hardwick with no evidence other than some random blog post.

Pathetic.

Seems to me you're making a few assumptions too early. She has said she has evidence. We'll need to see how this plays out to see if that proves to be untrue. You've said there's no evidence when she's clearly said there is.

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Please do provide any solid evidence that any accusation is true.

Remember, innocent until proven guilty

Wrong application. Mokoshne is talking about supporting Dykstra, not about tarring-and-feathering Hardwick. Giving someone emotional support does not require the second. Often in such situations, before the dust settles, it's important to have such a split approach.

[Sanguinerd]

Seems to me you're making a few assumptions too early. She has said she has evidence. We'll need to see how this plays out to see if that proves to be untrue. You've said there's no evidence when she's clearly said there is.
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Claiming to have it and actually having/showing it are different things.

If closure was so important for her she could've done this in many different ways.

Then again cosplayers thrive on attention right.

[Sooba]

Claiming to have it and actually having/showing it are different things.

If closure was so important for her she could've done this in many different ways.

Then again cosplayers thrive on attention right.

It's next to impossible to do everything "just right" in such a situation. Even harder under emotional duress. Demanding perfection of assault allegations before you're willing to consider them is foolish.

And yes, you're right. True, but trivially true. Of course claiming is different from actually having. However just as there are a myriad of reasons not to go to the authorities, there are often reasons for leading with the accusation and withholding the evidence. It's possible that it's embarassing to him and she's attempting to be as non-life altering as possible. It's possible that it displays negative behaviour on her part that would invite social media abuse even though it proves her claims. In this particular case it's clear that she's going to wait for his response before she decides how to proceed. If he denies wrongdoing, then we'll probably see what her evidence is.

And to bring it back to a previous comment of yours - assuming weak willed is a weird value judgment to make on your part. You'd be surprised what strong-willed people have been through long-term harrowing ordeals. One area where people who haven't been in such a situation tend to get things wrong is in the "just leave them" department. Things aren't always so easy.

[Sanguinerd]

It's next to impossible to do everything "just right" in such a situation. Even harder under emotional duress. Demanding perfection of assault allegations before you're willing to consider them is foolish.

And yes, you're right. True, but trivially true. Of course claiming is different from actually having. However just as there are a myriad of reasons not to go to the authorities, there are often reasons for leading with the accusation and withholding the evidence. It's possible that it's embarassing to him and she's attempting to be as non-life altering as possible. It's possible that it displays negative behaviour on her part that would invite social media abuse even though it proves her claims. In this particular case it's clear that she's going to wait for his response before she decides how to proceed. If he denies wrongdoing, then we'll probably see what her evidence is.

Yeah but she wrote him into a corner with this. Either he "does the right thing" even though judging from her story all he's guilty of is being a shitty person or he denies it and she provides "evidence" of him being a shitty person.

Either way he's going to look like a shitty person, besides already being judged by a plethora of people who don't wait for evidence.

The thing that bothers me about this is, it's not a crime to be a shitty person. He didn't force himself on her, didn't abuse her physically and she allowed him to do so mentally. Did she really need to write it publicly? What was the point... a warning?

[Deleted]

She's equating passive aggressive behavior and demanding sex in a relationship with sexual assault. That's not how it works. You can't just flippantly decide everything is sexual assault, especially when you then go on to say you regularly "let him" sexually assault you. Nope.

I know relationships can be shitty but jesus, there has to be some amount of personal responsibility involved.

[Doctor Funkenstein]

I don't necessarily agree with his position 100%, Funk, but you've strayed from reductio ad absurdum into strawman territory (which is the danger of such a tactic). You are not in contact with Justice. You've never met him. You instead are trying to make an accusation on an internet forum to make a point. It is in no way similar to the situation w/ Chloe Dykstra. As such, your analogy breaks.

Oh I do know him. I'm his next door neighbor, and we were best friends in school until I discovered his love of tender young flesh. You read it on the Internet, ergo it's true. I have plenty of evidence, too, though I'm not going to show it to you or anyone. But trust me, I have it. Not that I need it at all, because just accusing him of this crap is proof enough for him and everyone like him.

Again, if COSBY can do something bad, anyone can. So he's without question a bad, bad person.

[Deleted]

Yeah but she wrote him into a corner with this. Either he "does the right thing" even though judging from her story all he's guilty of is being a shitty person or he denies it and she provides "evidence" of him being a shitty person.

Either way he's going to look like a shitty person, besides already being judged by a plethora of people who don't wait for evidence.

The thing that bothers me about this is, it's not a crime to be a shitty person. He didn't force himself on her, didn't abuse her physically and she allowed him to do so mentally. Did she really need to write it publicly? What was the point... a warning?

I don't get it... If all she has on him is that he is a shitty person, then people will only consider him a shitty person. Although I disagree that forcing your partner to have sex isn't a crime, if she has nothing on him committing a crime he will not go to jail.

You are saying that we shouldn't call out (very) shitty persons on their behavior. Why exactly ?? If you treat others like less than animals you shouldn't expect leniency in return...

The point of writing it publicly is letting people know that he is a shitty person ? Really hard to wrap my head around your position.