Hacker News Reader

Comment by pbhjpbhj | Hacker News Reader

Whether the model is a "skank" (which I read, as a UK English user, to be similar to a slag - a loose woman of low morals, skank suggests "scruffy" where slag does not) is a matter of opinion and not a matter of objective fact.

How then can one show that she is being defamed, if one considers here to be a skank then under that subjective definition she is. No defamation/libel just name calling.

If you said specifically she "slept around" and there was no factual basis for that then it would be different.

View on HN

"How old is this skank? 40 something? She's a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank."

I think that is pretty concretely claiming that she "slept around." If there is a factual basis for the claim, the blogger should be cleared of all charges. If not, a libel or defamation case seems appropriate, just as if these claims were made in the New York Times or on CNN.

Reading that quote the only adjective at issue is "whoring" the rest are subjective unless the alleged defamer is her Psychiatrist and knows that she is not. Whoring in this context would be unlikely to be meant as actual prostitution instead I'd interpret it (though the courts will doubtless disagree) as meaning "she has multiple partners outside of or alongside long term relationships". This of course is a matter to be determined by facts.

Even if it's shown that in fact she does not sleep around, then there's the question of whether that allegation defames the person in question. For example they may be widely publically assumed to have that lifestyle and so this statement would no more defame her than the allegation of lying (everybody lies).

So does she sleep around, perhaps this should be determined before the breaching the anonymity of her critic. Revealing the critics identity is punishing them before the trial has even taken place to determine if they're guilty.

Even if the blogger was lead to believe that she slept around, he would still be cleared of charges.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com