Honestly, one of the reasons I don’t find the Nonlinear narrative credible is the absolute 100% denial of any wrongdoing, a 0% reflection. Clearly, Ben really looked into this and has various accounts from multiple people or really questionable behavior, that seems very credible and to come against all of it with such force and conviction is a tactic of people who want to deny and distort the truth.
Irenicon
Karma: 24
Cross-posted from the EA Forum thread, mainly because it seems to be a minority opinion and I want to be clear that there are different ways to read these texts:
I think it’s telling, that Kat thinks that the texts speak in their favor. Reading them was quite triggering for me because I see a scared person, who asks for basic things, from the only people she has around her, to help her in a really difficult situation, and is made to feel like she is asking for too much, has to repeatedly advocate for herself (while sick) and still doesn’t get her needs met. On one hand, she is encouraged by Kat to ask for help but practically it’s not happening. Especially Emerson and Drew in that second thread sounded like she is difficult and constantly pushed to ask for less or for something else than what she asked for. Seriously, it took 2.5 hours the first day to get a salad, which she didn’t want in the first place?! And the second day it’s a vegetarian, not vegan, burger.
The way Alice constantly mentioned that she doesn’t want to bother them and says that things are fine when they are clearly not, is very upsetting. I can’t speak to how Alice felt but it’s no wonder she reports this as not being helped/fed when she was sick. To me, this is accurate, whether or not she got a salad and a vegetarian burger the next day.
Honestly, the burger-gate is a bit ridiculous. Ben did report in the original article that you disputed these claims (with quite a lot of detail) so he reported it accurately. To me, that was enough to not update too much based on this. I don’t think it warranted the strongly worded letter to the Lightcone team and the subsequent dramatic claims about evidence that you want to provide to clear your name.
Hi, I’m running these workshops with John so I can provide more information:
We will arrange transportation to the venue from Prague but you can also get there yourself using public transportation. It’s quite straightforward.
The workshop is at a venue that has accommodation and food provided for the participants. Confirmed participants will receive more detailed information about logistics later.
It is possible that some of the instructors will be at LWCW but many are flying in later and some will be in Prague preparing for the workshops. I also expect that by late August we will have filled most of the spots for CFAR I and CFAR II. There may be still room in CFAR III (and CFAR IV if confirmed). So if you have questions about applying, feel free to message us so we can talk earlier.
To be clear—I think Nonlinear may honestly feel wronged here and in their story, they are the victim. I’m not necessarily saying that they are purposefully lying about this—they may believe what they are saying/describing.