Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

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Foolmewunz said:
Really? You live in a world where people with long hair and facial hair who shop in natural food stores are considered freaks - and not in the sense that we "freaks" use it?
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Um, no. I honestly never even thought of this meme in that way, as in denigrating people with long hair and facial hair, considering them as freaks. That might be what Ron does, I guess.

The meme illustrates how I feel when I'm reading A+ posts, the 'freaks', as you put it, are the prominent A-plussers.



Wow, did I just have to explain a meme? That's kind of a downer.
 
TeapotCavalry said:
Um, no. I honestly never even thought of this meme in that way, as in denigrating people with long hair and facial hair, considering them as freaks. That might be what Ron does, I guess.

The meme illustrates how I feel when I'm reading A+ posts, the 'freaks', as you put it, are the prominent A-plussers.



Wow, did I just have to explain a meme? That's kind of a downer.
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Well, the meme read as "Smug ******* makes fun of dudes with long hair" which is like, so 1970s.

And you know, mocking people who are obviously broken and not able to get by in life, I can kind of understand because they can be really annoying when they lash out by way of compensation, but it's still a rather ugly kind of schadenfreude.
 
Amadanb said:
Howdy,

Y'all may remember some time back I asked why everyone here hates A+ so much. After having spent some time on the A+ forums, I confess I also found many of them wearying if not outright dysfunctional (and a few individuals I consider truly toxic) so I don't post much there anymore. So, to a degree, I have walked back my opinion a bit and am a little closer to your perspective.

I am still not sure, however, what the purpose of this thread is other than an extended exercise in pointing and laughing. Which, you know, go on with your bad selves if that's what you want to do (it's hard for me to resist the temptation to add in my own two cents, I just don't think it's very noble). But I think the arguments that you are motivated by a principled opposition to evil censoring fascists who are trying to take over skepticism are pretty weak. They're a handful of people on a tiny board and no one pays them much attention except to mock them.

I still believe the majority of A+ members are intelligent good-hearted people, who are unfortunately too susceptible to being guilted by "privilege" arguments and thus prone to being walked over by a handful of manipulative and entitled individuals.
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Welcome back. You can pick up your privilege at the moderator tent and return to the skeptical fold, now.

And true, there's a lot of mockery here, but there's also some good discussion. Don't you note the irony that Setar's rant on the Vancouver treatment of the mentally ill, totally ill-informed and totally ill-intentioned, segued here into an intelligent discussion of high-functioning autism (formerly d.b.a. Asperger's or Aspie) on these boards as just a sidebar conversation. Over there it turned into a battle of Who's the Crazy? I'm the Crazy? Nunh uh, I'm the Crazy. And when you get a poster who is apparently the very definition of high-functioning autism, the pitiful greek chorus of wannabe crazies tries to shut him down with cheap rhetorical ploys, capped off by a mod, Ischemgeek who's doing zir's absolute best to pick up the gauntlet left by Ceepolk.

See? There was no discussion, in a safe space for persons with high-functioning autism, for a discussion of high-functioning autism. It can't happen there because the authorities on the topic over there are the patients. That's not how science works.

So, yes, we ridicule a lot of their bad science and ill-informed and downright dishonest socio-political musings. But ridicule, as has often been pointed out, is a perfectly appropriate response to the ridiculous. Humor, as Heinlein pointed out, is an instinctive human reaction sometimes when you'd rather weep. Social Justice proponents who don't socialize and don't really support justice? You don't find that painfully humorous? I, for one, do.
 
Amadanb said:
Well, the meme read as "Smug ******* makes fun of dudes with long hair" which is like, so 1970s.

And you know, mocking people who are obviously broken and not able to get by in life, I can kind of understand because they can be really annoying when they lash out by way of compensation, but it's still a rather ugly kind of schadenfreude.
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:rolleyes:
 
TeapotCavalry said:
Um, no. I honestly never even thought of this meme in that way, as in denigrating people with long hair and facial hair, considering them as freaks. That might be what Ron does, I guess.

The meme illustrates how I feel when I'm reading A+ posts, the 'freaks', as you put it, are the prominent A-plussers.



Wow, did I just have to explain a meme? That's kind of a downer.
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I think I got the meme. I'm questioning the use of the picture and the setting. I've lived in counter-culture communities for decades and to me that looks like a dood doing his shopping, so I'm questioning the choice of images used to get to the analogy. Read my posts in this thread. I've harped on how these neophyte 201 students are always picking on the poor 101s, but they're banning and silencing us 301s and post grad social justice participants because they're all tied up in the catechism, a common problem with 201s.

In short... minus my shorter hair, I'm the guy in that picture. And I'm one of the people doing the most mocking and pointing at A+ for their remarkable achievements in the field of YouJustDontGetItology. I think the choice of settings and images was strange and as noted by Amadanb (who is going to have to explain that choice of names, I think, so I can remember how to spell it), it harkens back to the East Village in the 60s when the tour buses would come through so the "straights" could get a look at the hippies.
 
Foolmewunz said:
And true, there's a lot of mockery here, but there's also some good discussion. Don't you note the irony that Setar's rant on the Vancouver treatment of the mentally ill, totally ill-informed and totally ill-intentioned, segued here into an intelligent discussion of high-functioning autism (formerly d.b.a. Asperger's or Aspie) on these boards as just a sidebar conversation. Over there it turned into a battle of Who's the Crazy? I'm the Crazy? Nunh uh, I'm the Crazy. And when you get a poster who is apparently the very definition of high-functioning autism, the pitiful greek chorus of wannabe crazies tries to shut him down with cheap rhetorical ploys, capped off by a mod, Ischemgeek who's doing zir's absolute best to pick up the gauntlet left by Ceepolk.
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I confess I don't read all the threads any more, but certainly much of what Setar posts is... ironic.
 
Derail

Amadanb said:
I usually go by Amadan, but it was taken, so.
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That's, in its way, how I wound up with Foolmewunz. I hadn't joined any boards in dogs' years and the previous experience I'd had was that my actual aliases like Cerberus and Master Yoda were always taken, so I'd spend an hour trying to come up with a "screen name" - now "user name". Both of those were actual nicks that co-workers or staff had given me, for different reasons. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't use either because I kept my previous work life quite separate from these boards. So when I was signing up here, on a work break in Hong Kong, rather than going through a hundred rejects, I just figured to mis-spell the opening of my favorite skeptical adage. And thus was born, Fool Me Once, Shame on You - Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me - shortened to Foolmewunz. How was I to know that yutz Dubya was going to mangle the expression and make everyone think I'd chosen a political name. I didn't post in politics for my first several years here.

End Derail
 
Foolmewunz said:
I think I got the meme. I'm questioning the use of the picture and the setting. I've lived in counter-culture communities for decades and to me that looks like a dood doing his shopping, so I'm questioning the choice of images used to get to the analogy. Read my posts in this thread. I've harped on how these neophyte 201 students are always picking on the poor 101s, but they're banning and silencing us 301s and post grad social justice participants because they're all tied up in the catechism, a common problem with 201s.

In short... minus my shorter hair, I'm the guy in that picture. And I'm one of the people doing the most mocking and pointing at A+ for their remarkable achievements in the field of YouJustDontGetItology. I think the choice of settings and images was strange and as noted by Amadanb (who is going to have to explain that choice of names, I think, so I can remember how to spell it), it harkens back to the East Village in the 60s when the tour buses would come through so the "straights" could get a look at the hippies.
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I guess this is an example of perspective bias. I had no idea that meme could be offensive or in poor taste. I automatically kind of filtered the third panel out, the joke would work for me even if you'd replace it with a brick wall. Cause to me, that looks like a dood doing his shopping, too.

LiGUba7.jpg
 
I haven't been following this thread or what's going on at A+ lately. Can somebody tell me if it's true as I read above that ceepolk has dropped her ban hammer and left A+? Was it a meltdown? :)
 
recursive prophet said:
I haven't been following this thread or what's going on at A+ lately. Can somebody tell me if it's true as I read above that ceepolk has dropped her ban hammer and left A+? Was it a meltdown? :)
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From what I've read - only here as I don't follow any of the A+ Fanboy sites - if it was done at all publicly it was publicly in the sooper sekret inner sanktum.

I don't trust the rumor mills, but the illogic sounds perfect... "too many white people" is the sort of drivel she'd spout. One has to wonder if she walks around Calgary in a cocoon. Last I recall it was one of the whitest places I'd ever been.

Qwints and Apos are assiduously avoiding the topic, as I would were I either of them, as they'll find themselves dinged or banned for "not posting in good faith on other forums". That's A+ speak for the revised rule that they wanted to make forbidding members from talking about A+ on other forums. They changed it to "posting in good faith", meaning that you don't post as a special snowflake or special snowflake ally on A+ and trot off to the ebil JREF or your blog and make posts critical of the place.
 
Kwalish Kid said:
I know many of you do not care, but it really is impossible to take seriously the positions that anyone here puts forward because of the support you offer to misogyny and racism here (especially in threads like this one).
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...and this is why the A+ boards cannot be described as sceptical. The sceptical thing to do is to evaluate arguments on their own merits - on their logic and the evidence which supports them - not on what other opinions you believe the person putting the argument forth may hold.
 
Foolmewunz said:
So give us some examples of misogyny in this thread. And be sure to find ones where the poster hasn't been called on it by other posters. 'Cuz, ya see, we're not a hive mind. There are, we admit, misogynists on these forums. But we don't line up behind them, nor the racists, nor the anti-semites and say that everyone who posts here thinks the same. We don't.
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I doubt we'll be getting any examples of misogyny on this thread as the post was worded "in support of" rather than hurling a direct accusation of misogyny and racism.
 
Amadanb said:
Howdy,

Y'all may remember some time back I asked why everyone here hates A+ so much. After having spent some time on the A+ forums, I confess I also found many of them wearying if not outright dysfunctional (and a few individuals I consider truly toxic) so I don't post much there anymore. So, to a degree, I have walked back my opinion a bit and am a little closer to your perspective.

I am still not sure, however, what the purpose of this thread is other than an extended exercise in pointing and laughing. Which, you know, go on with your bad selves if that's what you want to do (it's hard for me to resist the temptation to add in my own two cents, I just don't think it's very noble). But I think the arguments that you are motivated by a principled opposition to evil censoring fascists who are trying to take over skepticism are pretty weak. They're a handful of people on a tiny board and no one pays them much attention except to mock them.

I still believe the majority of A+ members are intelligent good-hearted people, who are unfortunately too susceptible to being guilted by "privilege" arguments and thus prone to being walked over by a handful of manipulative and entitled individuals.
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This thread isn't just about the A-Plus forum, it's about the concept as well as its backers on FTB and Skepchick hence the expanded title. I agree that there is a fair bit of pointing and laughing of late but it's hard to resist.
 
I suspect that among the support of misogyny alleged in this thread, our expressed doubts about the adequacy of the evidence offered that a specific individual is a rapist ranks high on the list. Clearly any non-misogynist would find the fact that someone says that a woman said that she was unable to consent sufficient.

As for racism, well, we have criticized the public conduct of various individuals, some of whom are not white anglo-saxons. That's support of racism, right?
 
Dissolution said:
I'm guessing that Kwalish thinks that not instantly eliminating anything misogynistic or racist is actually supporting those things.
Addressing them is acknowledging them and that's somehow wrong or something.
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Weirdly their own FAQ claims to be addressing those issues.

Atheism Plus is a term used to designate spaces, persons, and groups dedicated to promoting social justice and countering misogyny, racism, homo/bi/transphobia, ableism and other such bigotry inside and outside of the atheist community....
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So, somehow, their "safe space" is also countering misogyny and racism...by not engaging at all...somehow.

as an aside this was never updated:

... a number of respected atheist writers and speakers such as ... Matt Dillahunty...have already come out in full support of the venture.
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Matt Dillahunty did come out in full support of the venture.
He then tried posting on there anonymously and was instantly banned! :D

How did that situation end up? I lost track of it after laughing too much.
 
Thanks for the response, foolmewunz. I did a g-search after posting that question and got most of the skinny on it from here. I'll have to log in there and do a search to see when was the last time she posted.

Does anyone know if she's a Canadian? Given her disgust with privileged whites it is strange she choose a place like Calgary. Turns out I've interacted with quite a few from the university there in evo forums.

Squeegee Beckenheim said:
This is his post on the subject. It still seems that you need a secret decoder ring to understand it all.
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This is classic A+. Citing someone you've banned in support of the site, lol. My biggest laugh came at the end when he says he would come back if the staff apologized. :boggled: Like that has EVER happened in da safe zone.

I agree pointing and laughing here is kind of a guilty pleasure, but A+ is truly the lolcow that just keeps on giving. What still amazes me is the amount of effort put into it by a very small cadre of zealots. Never have so many owed so much knee slapping laughter to so few?? :D
 
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