A comment by Jadehawk on PZ’s post containing Carrie Poppy’s account of why she quit the JREF cites a post I did on the subject last November. The subject matter was pretty funny then, and it looks even funnier now, so I’m reposting it.
November 26, 2012
Anyone else reckon?
Now that’s really funny. The things people dream up!
Anyone else reckon
@CarriePoppyYES resigned from#JREF because of the abuse from#FTBullies?
Richard Sanderson Right?
What abuse? And if there were any abuse, why would it prompt Carrie to resign from JREF? It would be like resigning from your job at NASA because someone tailgated you on the Evergreen Point bridge. It would be like quitting a job at The Mayo Clinic because the counter person got your order mixed up at an Albuquerque McDonalds. It would be random, dude.
It’s like the #FTBullies hijacking all over again. Let’s just blame #FTBullies for everything – the weather, food we don’t like, bad movies, traffic, Rush Limbaugh, everything.
Also – seriously – Carrie hasn’t had any “abuse” from Freethought bloggers. Really.
I am of the opinion that Richard Sandersen mainly lives in a world of his own making. But he is enabled by braveheroes who can site his fantasies as “evidence”.
Oh, that’s where he lives all right, but the internet empowers him to slander people in public day in and day out.
Had to link to Carrie Poppy’s response in that thread.
Meanwhile the slymie braveheroes are going off about how PZ’s unsubstantiated accusations hurts the real victims of abuse. Funny how they drop Carrie Poppy from their narrative.
Yesterday, Mr Fantasy did say that FtBullies contributed the the atmosphere that made for the abuse.
Because Ben Radford is just a puppet of the bullies. He cannot control his actions.
And now poor Jen has received a vaguely threatening comment from Famous Skeptic and has redacted his name from her post. Clearly, the power of Atheism+ is even more far reaching than we imagined! Oh wait…
Goodbye Enemy Janine,
Yep, I was genuinely curious to see if this changed anything for the folks on the other side of the rift. They are hard at work being awful. I also noted that some people who would surely have been our allies if we hadn’t been such poopy-heads to them by calling them out when they weren’t being stellar allies, have actively joined in spreading that narrative.
My opinion is that these were their true colors all along.
#FTBullies stole my ice cream….
It’s strange (or maybe I just mean pathetic) because for a lot of them the core grievance was “picking on poor innocent DJ.” That grievance has been blown out of the water, but they’re still just as determined to Hate The Enemy.
In better news, Ken White of Popehat is assisting Jen in this matter.
Are they legitimately delusional or are they just that bereft of ethics that they’ll make up any shit they can just to bolster their “side”? I wonder that fairly regularly.
Weird little factoid about Rich, he argues with Homeopaths online. I found this as I got derailed into arguing with a few and saw his Disqus id on there also engaging with them. It freaked me out as when talking to people who promote woo that can and has killed he is calm and logical. Compared to his beloved “FTBullies” who have at worse said they’d kick some blokes ass once … Well it doesn’t actually compare as his “style” is best described as unhinged in response to any of FTBs perceived shenanigans. What makes him so over the top when it comes to feminism and misogyny? Lack of a coherent argument? Deep seated issues with women? I really have no idea.
Unknown Eric,
They are literally trying desperately to find a way to make this somehow about how awful the people trying to fix the problem are, instead of how awful the problem is. These people are beyond my comprehension.
They are. I didn’t think they’d be able to manage even the attempt, but I was wrong.
It’s funny that they blamed FtB, considering that when she decided to share her story she did it through FtB. I think that shows some trust right there.
Of course she was a communications director, she may have chosen PZ because of his wide reaching platform (which is the intelligent thing to do when you have a story like this to communicate). Still, I doubt she would have chosen PZ if she felt at all threatened by FtB.
Finally, it’s such a BS narrative, it doesn’t pass the laugh test. It raises the question of how anyone can take them seriously.
oolon@10: There’s an old “joke” (or aphorism or whatever you want to call it) in the legal profession to the effect of “when the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When the law is on your side, argue the law. When neither the facts nor the law are on your side, bang the table loudly.”
It’s pretty easy to dismantle homeopaths coolly and logically. But when a subject comes up where those tools won’t get the job done, some people resort to other techniques.
@seraphymcrash #13:
Right, if she wanted to share it without going through PZ, she might have been able to go through SciAm like Stollznow did, or she could have gone to someone with similar stature outside of FtB, like Phil Plait.
If you actually read the comments on that previous posting, you’ll see Carrie state categorically that FtB had nothing to do with her decision. On a related note, Wowbagger asked Sandersen via twitter if he was going to apologize, and the predictable answer was “NO!”. Because #FTBullies, you know. It doesn’t matter if an accusation is completely wrong, it’s still fine to fling that mud because of something something something argle bargle.
@14
Yeah, talk about echo chambers, bullies, and in-group allegiances. At least defense lawyers are motivated to this because it is required.
Honestly, the whole FTBullies narrative is about as close to reality as the liberal media meme pushed by wingnuts. I am wondering at what point they will demand to see Rebecca Watson’s birth certificate.