I read pharyngula from time to time but PZ can drop strawman arguments from time to time and sometimes he doesn't get facts right either. In this case, I don't see anyone arguing that only submission and silence are the acceptable responses to abuse. Those articles that I've read whose author disagrees with AR say she should have gone to the organizers.

And regarding the jokes, I don't think anyone has been specific with what was said. The guy who got fired only mentioned, "I'll fork his repo" (or something like that) which doesn't sound
too bad but then of course, he could have just picked the most innocent phrase that they used.