It's only incongruous if you evaluate it in the context of people who expect to be treated fairly when they report mistreatment.
There is a pattern of behavior minimizing the scope and impact of abusive or discriminatory actions across the tech industry, and it is very prevalent on this site as well.
The simple reality is that unless an employee is able to obtain clear, slam-dunk evidence of directly legally actionable abuse or misconduct, then it is a huge personal risk to come forward. Most businesses that are large enough to have systemic problems have enormous resources to litigate against those claims.
In contrast, for employees to collect and use evidence, it is required that they:
a) experience the abuse or discrimination, repeatedly
b) collect evidence and documentation of that behaviour
c) exfiltrate that evidence in contravention of legal contracts that can include NDAs, binding arbitration clauses, morality/non desparagement clauses, etc
d) be in a strong enough financial position to defend against litigation
e) be confident enough in their own skills, reputation, and network to be able to give up future career prospects based on A-D.
And this is just from the 5 minutes it took me to compose this message.
I get that HN is a bastion of support for meritocracy, and that founder worship is a strong bias for many on this forum, but as a community, and as an industry we have got to stop undermining and destroying the folks trying to hold people and firms accountable for bad behavior.
