Linus Tech Tips

I couldn't disagree more. Self-harm is a common symptom of PTSD. Her experience reads like textbook workplace abuse leading to PTSD. Yes, a toxic work environment is absolutely a known cause for PTSD. So no, it is not an "extreme personality" to be driven to self-harm from a toxic work environment that involves instances of physical sexual harassment, belittling, and threats of firing.

This is where the victim rule comes in. She was (allegedly) victimized, and nothing about her story comes off as contrived or exaggerated. Nobody is saying to take LTT down and wipe them out, but like all victims who have come out she has the RIGHT to have her testimony taken at face value until or unless it is proven otherwise. Not in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion and people's opinions of her. And yes, that means until we know otherwise, it is reasonable to judge LTT on this, especially because it is compatible with everything else that's come out about them.

I agree that self harm is a tragic response to the kind of environment she was apparently in. I do not agree that this act somehow makes her "perception of the world" (whatever that very broad phrase might mean) unreasonable, or that it proves she has an "extreme personality" (again not sure what, definitionally, that is). I think perfectly normal people react in unexpected ways to extreme environments and unless you have some reason to assume otherwise I'm not sure it's reasonable to look at self harm and then default to questioning the person first and not the situation first.

Because you seem very close to implying (and I'm sure this isn't the case) that issues of "recall" "perception" "reasonableness" and "personality" makes the statements of someone who self-harms untrustworthy, suspicious, or in some way self-serving or discountable. Not saying you were consciously trying to imply that, but that's probably the cause of the downvotes.

This feels very dismissive of the work environment that would lead someone to go to this measure, and of mental health in general. If you're being reprimanded for taking allotted days off, and if the work environment is so hostile from higher ups that you end up being this distressed, then that's not her fault, nor is it evidence of an extreme personality. I'm not saying it's what I would have done, and I also would encourage anyone in a similar situation to seek other alternatives, but her decision to self harm doesn't make her any less credible.