Which is probably a first for us:  Me agreeing with you... 

Just some thoughts:

I don't think the needs and the mental health of ex-premies should be overlooked here!  There are a lot of exes who are having a wide range of reactions to John's post and they have a right to express those reactions on this forum -- especially because John posted an apology to Maharaji on this forum which is the ex-premie forum.  To ignore the subject, IMO, would be to ignore the big white elephant that's already in this room. 

So far, I haven't seen any posts here that are anything other than an expression of great concern for John's well-being, including TomG's and Nya's posts.  Except for the ones from premies, that is.  They don't give a shit about John.  They've been celebrating this recent development as some kind of perverted victory.

John has been a major commentator here, and probably a great influence on many.

I never thought of John a major commentator here mainly because he never posted on the forum much.  

John never had much influence on me.  The content of the article isn't anything I didn't already know about.  I can only speak for myself, though.