> So yes, if one of us behaves like an asshole then we as a community take responsibility for that, deal with the asshole, and apologize to the victim.
This is where I see the problem... We aren't a town, or a single company, or a government. There's no Computer Science union. So how do you propose we 'deal with' these assholes?
The tech 'community' really doesn't have a lot of power over its members. There isn't any singular accreditation association, there isn't a bar exam to get in. You don't need a membership in the ACM or IEEE to get or hold a job. Sometimes, you don't even need a college degree to get a job in the industry. The only thing unifying the tech community is an interest in technology.
Conceivably we could coordinate and ostracize / not hire problematic members.... but that's not a road we should go down (who determines when someone is being problematic?), and even if it was there would still be companies hiring outside of the loop.
And even then... most of this kind of harassment happens from anonymous accounts. If you know who they are, maybe you notify their employer about their behavior. Maybe, call the cops. But how do you 'deal with' an asshole like this if you don't even know who they are?
I'm not blaming the victim here - harassment is a major problem that needs to be addressed. But this is the internet - harassment is easy, regardless of whether you're next door or on another continent. The best defense is privacy.
I run a small blog, just posting some of the projects I work on. I had an issue with some obnoxious comments - nothing like this, but annoying nonetheless. So I dealt with it in the simplest way - my blog doesn't have comments enabled anymore. It doesn't list my email, my home address, or my phone number. There is a simple version of my resume on the blog, but the only way to contact me from my website is via LinkedIn.
I agree that we share responsibility for the actions of members of our community. I disagree that the tech industry is one large community.