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Comment by ezluckyfree | Hacker News Reader

no, a lynching is a murder by a racist mob

this is a community realizing that John Pretty is a predator and deciding that they don't want a predator in a position of power

frankly, it's weird as hell for you to be confusing those two things

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The similarity is that both are mob actions, done without legal charges or rules of evidence.

I'm not defending the guy specifically; I have no idea whether he's a guilty scumbag or a persecuted innocent. But even jerks deserve a certain amount of due process before punishment. Maybe she's the scumbag? I don't know, and neither do you.

A lynching is done by a literal mob. This is being done by a metaphorical mob.

That’s not what lynching is. Lynching is mob justice without a trial. The name came from Charles Lynch, who punished Loyalists during the American Revolution.

Not necessarily by a racist mob, just an angry mob[1].

[1]https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lynch#English

>no, a lynching is a murder by a racist mob

no, a lynching is an extra-legal murder by a mob.

In the US, lynching has extremely strong implications of racist violence. It's not strictly the definition of the word, but most folks in the states will understand a lynching to imply race related murders.

> In the US, lynching has extremely strong implications of racist violence.

Please don’t assume everyone is a US citizen.

I'm not. In fact, I'm the opposite. That's literally why I wrote that comment. It was for the benefit of people who were not US citizens who may not understand that a US reader will likely interpret the phrase that way.

>this is a community realizing that John Pretty is a predator and deciding that they don't want a predator in a position of power

Not really, it seems like cancel culture, did you even read this letter?

not me or you are to judge this, we don't know the details, it may as well be that he is completely shit partner and not much more than that, which is not unlawful.

do you think after those posts his scala/programming/whatever he's doing career won't suffer? he's dead in many professional circles regardless if he's jail material or not.

He wasn't her "partner", he was her mentor; he abused his position, tricked her into staying in an apartment alone with him, got her drunk and forced himself on her against her wishes.

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