In an article that suggests you can judge a blogger by their commenters, we get a snap assessment of Pharyngula and you, the commenters:
Pharyngula writes smart stuff that looks down on religion; he gets smart and dismissive commenters.
I wouldn’t reject that characterization, but there has to be some appreciation of the diversity of people here. We do have some very dumb people who defend religion blindly, obviously, and some atheists who aren’t very smart, and some smart people who are religious. I can see where the proportions are skewed in predictable ways here, and we’ve got a different character than Crooked Timber or LGM, and we’re nothing like Freeperland, but I don’t particularly care for the thorough lumping of the description.
Obviously, though, I’m going to have to purify the comments section. If you don’t obediently parrot the Pharyngula party line, I’m afraid you’re going to have to go. Sorry. All non-smart and non-dismissive commenters will please immediately report to one of those other blogs, thank you very much.
Yeah, whatever.
e=mc^2 (That covers the smart)
But, generally, fuck you Pee Zed!
What if your non smart but dismissive? Can I still watch?
“P’shaw” is my middle name.
No, wait, it’s Signal.
n/m
But… the whole point of coming here is the ongoing soap opera starring you and Wilkins!
(Actually the point of coming here is the developmental biology posts. Hint.)
Ok – I’m opening a book on how long it takes for the snark in PZ’s final paragraph to be quote-mined. 6 hours will get you even odds. Place your bets now!
Yesterday, my daughter & I saw a photo, in a neswpaper, of a group of people praying. We both laughed at how STUPID they looked, & discussed what a waste of time it was for them to try to telepathically communicate with a phantasy-being.
While they certainly looked stupid to us, (probably due to their dopey expressions), we acknowledge that they might be mad rather than stupid.
(PZ, I hope that was good enough.)
Where is the quote from?
I’ll bet you are still in the process of getting ready for your presentation to the Minnesota Atheists this afternoon, but I wonder if you can take a few minutes to clear up some confusion here:
Are we to self-select whether we are stupid and have to leave? Self-assessment has not been proven to be very effective.
I’ll stay with the fact that I have two entries in today’s Carnival of the The Godless #71.
I are in ur blog, bringing teh IQ down.
Self-selection would be far too boring. In line with his alter-ego PZ will goose-step up and down the comment thread disemvoweling as he goes.
“purify”?
You mean, kind of like “ethnic cleansing?”
Gulags anyone?
But seriously, I mean to tell ya…this is why are not fit for political office.
You are dismissed.
Sorry about leaving out the link, it’s fixed now.
And of course you don’t get to self-purify. My army of obedient Pharynguloid robots is on their way to your house right now, and they’ll be fixing you right proper.
And I get almost no comments. I don’t like what that probably says about this blogger. Rats.
I’ve gotten more comments for these creepy crawly snaky things than I have for anything else. You can judge my commenter community (and thereby judge me) by that, I suppose. The darkwinged fungus gnats have even beaten “Blake’s Law”.
Nope. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve already hung curtains and I planned on ordering a pizza later.
Dumb as a stump here, PZ. I just hang out here to learn how to pick up women.
It’s true – I am a mere reactionary troll, taking the opposite position from sanity, truth, and light for the sole purpose of annoying all who know The Truth of things.
I would speak further about this review, but who cares what it says? Pffft.
All the people commenting here are idiots. I comment here a lot.
(keeping up appearances)
Qui custodiet ipsos custodies—Pizzita!
The Pharynguloid robots are knocking on my door as I write. I knew this day would come. Me, a professor of Art and Design, not a scientist, but only a lover of science, daring to post here. Wait, they’ve broken thorogh, thvegottaaaaaaa
I’m just here because it’s a proxy for the social life that I don’t have. Someone pass me a beer?
“It ain’t the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I’m smart! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I’m smart and I want respect!”
If you’re smart enough to know that you’re dumb does that mean you get to stay, or leave?
Or do you have to report to Zeno’s Coffeehouse?
“If you’re smart enough to know that you’re dumb”–Speaking in the First Person, of course. : )
If you’re really that smart then you’re way too smart for this or any other blog.
My apologies for the lack of fine resolution in my description of your comment section. It was one example among a few and I didn’t develop it very thoroughly. I hope it doesn’t offend you as a rough take, although clearly there is far more complexity here than I captured.
If, in fact one can judge the quality of a site by the commenters, what can one say about a blog at which Richard Dawkins chimes in?
I thought so.
The description hardly captures the variety that is Professor Myers: the perfect mix of smartness and righteous indignation one minute, and barking mad chihuahua-dom the next.
As one of your smarter commenters, I have no quarrel with clause 2.
Did PZ actually utter the words “smart people” and
“who are religious” in the same sentence???? Or was that a typo?
No problem, Megan. We aspire to be smart and I know we are also rather uncompromisingly brutal, so I think you’re right about the overall tone.
Whew, I’m glad SOMEONE had the nerve to say it. There is so damn much pressure commenting here to be both smart and dismissive. At times I can be a perfect ass, but have nothing intelligent to contribute. Or I may nail a creative and witty argument, only to be too accomodating.
Thank you Megan.
Blake Stacey #15:
Wow, I can see why. Totally freaky.
I AM SMART!
S-M-R-T
I AM SMART!
Wait – there’s a Pharyngula party line? Did it happen to ship with the new copy of The Homosexual Agenda? ‘Cause I didn’t get that, either.
Matthew: LOL! “D’oh!”
Zeno’s Coffehouse? Who is this impostor? Some rank parvenue, no doubt…
Oh. Since 1994. I guess that *I* am the rank parvenue (since 2005, anyway).
As missives go, I prefer the smart and dis-. I try to avoid the dull and sub- like they were the sick and trans-.
Hmm. Well I tend to be uncompromising. Then again, I have, on some issues, not towed the party line, so I suppose I am going to get the *armed and giant* robots at my house? Being as I might be considered more dangerous. Unfortunately, what PZ doesn’t know is that I have my own army of armed giant robots! And I didn’t like the local city council or all the old people that want to turn our resort town into Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for retirees anyway, so the devastation to the surrounding city from the battle isn’t a big deal. ;) lol
Graculus: (#10) Thank you for making coffee come out my nose. I wish I’d written that!
But PeeZed, I’m neither smart, nor dismissive and I don’t believe in Happy Mr Giant Ghost and the Blissful Land in the Sky. Oh wait – hyuk! – you already included me: “atheists who aren’t very smart”.
Now I can sit and drool quietly, watching the fun from my cage.
Ooh, I like the idea of a party line…wait, I’m thinking of a conga line. Never mind.
I consider myself smarter than quite a few people, and I’m pretty dismissive, but I’m also stubborn as a mule. If you try to kick me out I won’t go quietly.
The way to foil a pharynguloid robot is simple. You put a sign on your door instructing ‘Both shoes must be removed on entry’. Since a pharynguloid robot will have at least eight appendages this instruction will engender the dreaded paradox bug which all good scifi enthusiasts know is how you foil evil robots/computers.
Not that I am worried, but should I rehang the degrees? they got taken down in a redecoration and never reinstalled. Or can I simply hit the robot with my PhD thesis? it is unnecessarily heavy (that is another story) so it should suffice.
Wouldn’t do me any good to do that Peter, the only one I have is a BS in CIS, so it would probably attract both kooks and robots. lol
Loo: And who are they?
Dr. Klahn: Just lost drunken men who don’t know where they are and no longer care.
Prisoner #1: Where are we?
Prisoner #2: I don’t care!
Loo: And these?
Dr. Klahn: These are lost drunken men who don’t know where they are, but do care! And these are men who know where they are and care, but don’t drink.
Prisoner #3: I don’t know who I am.
Prisoner #4: And I don’t drink!
Dr. Klahn: Guards! (move prisoners) Do you care?
Prisoner #5: No.
Dr. Klahn: Put this man in cell #1, and give him a drink.
Guard: What do you drink?
Prisoner #5: I don’t care.
Substitute “non-smart” and “non-dismissive” where applicable.
Kagehi and Peter, you’ll be laughing out the other sides of your mouths when the metal ones come for you!
I am happy to represent the dumb atheist contingent.
Our motto: Aithesm- it’s not just for smart peeple, like totally.
Any suggestion for which blog we slightly less than smart atheists should go to?
Same here, so you’ll have to tell us what to believe on a regular basis, erm, say once a week?
Automath: There ought to be a Pharyngula-Lite for us intellectually-challenged. Instead of commenting, we dumbsters could be allowed to tick check-boxes that best represent our views on any given topic. At the end of each week we would be assigned scores rating our choices according to a free-thinking index. Full marks would earn us access to the Friday Cephalopod. Poor marks would mean restarting the week from the beginning and a letter to our parents.
Dissmissive?
That would be me.
I like Christian’s idea, since I’m more of a carpenter than a cabinet-maker in the house of Science.
I dismiss your dismissal of my dismissal of your dismissal of religion!
(Well, not really. I just needed that one last meta.)
Well, I don’t have to worry too much, ’cause I’m so smart. But I’m a little concerned because I’m not dismissive… I like to be the one with the whip.
Oh, wait..
Ouch! Why do I have this deep imprint of a rubber stamp in my forehead?
It sez “Pharynguloid” too. Hmm. Must be something I ate.
Don’t you know that lumping is the new framing™? Oh… maybe you do.
Ouch! Why do I have this deep imprint of a rubber stamp in my forehead?
It sez “Pharynguloid” too. Hmm. Must be something I ate.
Don’t you know that lumping is the new framing™? Oh… maybe you do.
What party line? I’m just here for the party.
(Ooh! Scott brought pizza!)
The comments here so far are uninteresting and unnecessary.
My IQ is somewhere in the mid-150s.
(I guess the above makes me dismissive and smart, rather than the other way ’round. If someone would be so kind as to direct me to a more appropriate blog for persons such as myself, I would surely reward them with a supercilious snub.)
I think it’s important to note that you don’t have to be smart to be intellectual, or to be interested in science, or to be empirically-minded. I’ve run into plenty of people who seemed dumb but had a great mindset towards learning and knowledge.