As PZ mentioned, the Slymepit, a relic from Elevatorgate, gave up the ghost. Before Gamergate, they were pioneering crowdsourced harassment and disinformation. Their targets included Rebecca Watson, PZ, Surly Amy, and too many other advocating social justice within atheist and skeptical organizations. That included the organizers of Atheism+, an attempt to form a progressive secular organization. Slympitters twisted the term “Atheism+” in the same way Republicans twisted the term “Woke” today.
According to RationalWiki, the Slymepit moved on to other targets after Elevatorgate:
In 2020, the Slymepit raged against vaccination and in support of the Taliban. In 2022, the Slymepit enthusiastically supports Vladimir Putin and his attack on Ukraine, heaping praise on the “denazification” goals of the attack, and mocking the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Commonly posted memes compare Ukrainian women and children, including infants, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mocking both for their fears of sexual assault while excusing or even glorifying the assailants, openly praising the equivalences between the two groups. It is almost as bad as before 2020, when posters to the Slymepit explicitly endorsed misogyny, slavery, Richard Dawkins, and genocide.
They only noticed me once, and that was before I joined FTB. They didn’t know what to make of a Babbler psychic prediction that one of their members would convert to Catholicism, promptly get excommunicated, and ending up sending 95 tweets to the Pope. They decided to move on instead of bothering me. It’s probably just as well that they never noticed my first novel, The Rift: A Bolingbrook Babbler Story. The character Marty would have loved posting there. I’m also sure Trevor would have been a guest on a certain someone’s YouTube channel.
Unfortunately, the bigotry behind the Slymepit lives on through Trumpism, groups like the Proud Boys, and the transgender panic. There will also be atheists who will choose to work with oppressors rather than similar marginalized groups. Their only concern with Christian Nationalism is the “Christian” part.
There will also be atheists that strive to create positive changes. Even the American Humanist Association and American Atheists have tried to become more diverse organizations. Anti-harassment policies are the norm now. The Slymepit caused real harm to progressive atheists, but it didn’t kill the ideas.
The fight for social justice in the world is far from over. But, for now, I’ll enjoy knowing that Freethought Blogs is still around while the Slymepit is history.
I will *particularly* relish the fact they abandoned all pretense of actual skepticism and righteousness before they disintegrated. One of the most frustrating things about them and their ilk was always that they made the right noises to fool themselves and others into thinking there might be some validity to their views. At this point nobody with a lick of sense would make that mistake.
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abbie “erv” made her skeptic bones opposing medical woo and the movement she spawned went whole hog for it . can’t get over how gratifying that is; i hope she wakes up every day and feels that in her kidneys. hahahahaha!