In general, the sentiment is understandable and in some fora, the context is understood by everyone present. The problem in my experience is that many people hear the loud complaints (and the absence of any similar complaints for companies that are worse) and don't have the implied context. This naturally leads the tenor of the conversation to "the subject of the complaint must be worse than companies in similar situations". I've even seen this happen on fora like HN where you'd expect the context to be understood.
It reminds me of a friend of mine who has decided to preemptively leave tech early in her career because of the reputation it has for sexism (despite not (yet?) experiencing any issues firsthand). The main industry she's considering switching to? _Finance_! As much as most people implicitly know that sexism in finance is WAY worse, it's rarely brought up because it's considered something of a lost cause (for now). And yet, in her ignorance[1], my friend's assumption is that the relative visibility of sexism discussion maps to the relative incidence and severity of sexism in these industries.
[1] The term ignorance here is meant literally: not having experience in either field and being forced to go off of what she reads/hears about.
It reminds me of a friend of mine who has decided to preemptively leave tech early in her career because of the reputation it has for sexism (despite not (yet?) experiencing any issues firsthand). The main industry she's considering switching to? _Finance_! As much as most people implicitly know that sexism in finance is WAY worse, it's rarely brought up because it's considered something of a lost cause (for now). And yet, in her ignorance[1], my friend's assumption is that the relative visibility of sexism discussion maps to the relative incidence and severity of sexism in these industries.
[1] The term ignorance here is meant literally: not having experience in either field and being forced to go off of what she reads/hears about.