That was a very thorough and informative reply... glad someone around here is willing to do the work rather than just assume that something nefarious has happened. 

Many years ago, I worked in a gas station / convenience store and had a co-worker who was a 17-year old girl with a shitbag abusive boyfriend. One night she broke up with him at the store. He threatened to kill himself and then went and drove his car into the dumpster (at a decent speed, but definitely not enough to…

The sentence, “I will not go to the doctor if you don’t feel safe with me doing so” tells you everything that you need to know — the (apparent) victim of violence is more worried about whether or not the (apparent) perpetrator of said violence would “feel safe” than making sure that she is, in fact, ok (and you don’t…

I work in game shows. It is standard operating procedure to not pay out any winnings until after the show airs, typically 90-120 days after the contestant’s final episode (with some rare exceptions like Ken Jennings, whose “Jeopardy!” streak carried over from one season into another; he got a partial payout during the…

I will also admit that one of the reasons I believe I didn’t share that aspect of our relationship with friends was subconscious shame at realizing how unhealthy things really were and not wanting to have to confront that myself. If I told someone, they might say, “Hey, um, that’s kind of fucked up and not OK,” which…

Still no.

A sociopathic capitalist?

Sounds easy in theory. Shame the reality is so horrible for many people. It’s not like people like this aren’t capable of ridiculous charm and generosity.

Thank you for sharing your experiences; hopefully, the more we can talk about this behavior openly, the easier it will be for others to spot it in their own relationships and convince themselves to get the hell away.

And keep in mind, every bit of this is the stuff his lawyers DIDN’T think was so bad that no one should hear it.

I tell you what, even if he didn’t abuse her (obviously “if” in enormous airquotes), even if you interpret all the facts in the most generous possible light, he’s still a giant scumbag.

The “us” in that “I don’t think you actually protect us” is doing a ton of work. Majority of what it shouldn’t in normal discussion.

What a piece of shit, jesus. 

I believe that this is standard game show practice not to give the prize until the show airs. For instance, I know that The Price is Right won’t give you your winnings until the show airs to avoid spoilers. 

Play squid games, win squid prizes.

Right.  Otherwise, there’s a risk that the last few contestants agree (either openly or secretly) to share the prize money, destroying the tension and drama of the end of the show.  Lots of people would take a 100 percent chance of getting $500,000 over a 50 percent chance of getting $1 million.

I like how the key takeaway from Netflix from the dystopian show about people dying in a reality competition was “Hey this was popular, let’s make it a real show!”

They aren’t paid enough to do investigative journalism.

Yeah, there’s definitely a handful of super obvious questions for which they ought to have at least tried to get answers. Like even a “we reached out but no response” effort.

Man, remember when this was a site where they’d try to even attempt to investigate why they haven’t received the money yet rather than spin an article out of a single quote.