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Again, I will just state that the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the da
by supernova87a 9y ago
Again, I will just state that the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got.
Separately, I hope that they absolutely nail and jail Sunny Balwani, who threatened and intimidated whistleblowing employees with their careers for exposing the massive fraud that Theranos was.
Finally, we should be thankful that the SEC and agencies like DHHS and CMMS actually still have some teeth and reputability to follow through on issues like this and have not been totally gutted. Imagine 100 years ago when hucksters like this were touting every fake medicine under the sun and people were actually grateful for public-serving regulation. The order from CMMS to Theranos actually essentially said, "You are in immediate jeopardy of violating the law and must provide proof that you're reversing the harm caused by your inaccurate / fraudulent medical test results. Simply closing your lab will not remove this jeopardy." Thank god for rules.
- DoreenMichele 9y agoSchadenfreude is a word commonly used in discussion of the Theranos debacle and it really aggravates me because it presumes that anyone not throwing a pity party for these pathological liars defrauding people of money and potentially putting lives at stake with their bullshit tests that don't work are somehow bad people with negative personality traits. No, Holmes and her people are bad people with negative personality traits. The folks going "Fuck yeah, this bullshit never made sense to me and I am glad to learn I am not crazy" aren't suffering some personality disorder. They just are glad to find reality aligns with their understanding of reality. Also: Justice is a thing. Righteous anger over bad behavior is not schadenfreude.
- googlryas 9y agoWhy do you think schadenfreude is a negative personality trait or a personality disorder? It is just a name for a specific emotional state. It seems perfectly apt here.
- DoreenMichele 9y agoIt means taking joy in someone else's suffering, which is basically sadism. I don't see that as being the same thing as being happy to see the truth come out and justice finally happen.
- mnemonicsloth 9y agoI don't think justice and schadenfreude are terribly different. Schadenfreude is taking joy in someone else's suffering. Justice is taking joy in the meting out of suffering to people who deserve it. People argue about who deserves what, and laws and justice systems exist to manage those arguments. But the idea of righteous retribution for a wrong is pretty close to universal, and looks like schadenfreude to me.
- DoreenMichele 9y agoWell, in my mind, retribution and justice aren't closely related. Taking revenge on wrongdoers and making things right are not inherently the same thing. I can think of lots of situations where taking revenge on the wrongdoer in no way makes anything right. "Two wrongs don't make a right" and all that.
- JangoSteve 9y agoSchadenfreude is when you take satisfaction in someone else's misfortune. I think what the parent comment is saying here is that many of those who are satisfied with the Theranos outcomes aren't satisfied because they take delight in the leaderships' misfortunes; they're satisfied because they take delight in finding out they were right, that they weren't crazy to think that the promises of Theranos didn't make sense, and that there are consequences to the kind of fraud that seems to get some people ahead.