Free Thought Blogs - Autism Plus Boogaloo

[Chemical snorfare]

Sarah Haider, an actual ex-Muslim

One of my favorite ways to wind the posters and bloggers on Ftb up was to point out Maryam Namazie didnt agree with them.

Three was no where they could go from there as she blogged (rarely) on the site and no one could be sure if she was watching them.

 

[AnOminous]

I like how "Free Thought" Blogs are expected to engage in lockstep ideological conformity or else.

You can't just go out and buy irony like that.

 

[Mrs Paul]

Good god. These guys are worse than a bunch of middle school girls.

I was always at a loss as to why this was considered a good idea. It was pretty much on the tier of pissing on the Koran to piss off Muslims.

No Catholic would ever expect transubstantiation to result in some kind of scientific evidence or expect to be committing literal cannibalism.

It's "criticism" on the "lol he believes in God" level.

That's exactly what it was: trolling. The guy just wanted attention. (Granted Bill Donahue is a huge dick who gets offended if you even look the wrong way at a crucifix, so it's pretty easy to offend him)

 

[AnOminous]

(Granted Bill Donahue is a huge dick who gets offended if you even look the wrong way at a crucifix, so it's pretty easy to offend him)

Agreed on Donohue. He's a fucking nut.

Why give a guy like that an opportunity to be right when it's easy to set him off while looking like the reasonable one?

 

[Chemical snorfare]

Just an illustration of the mind set of FtB

First the quality of debate

I get the feeling that so many people need safe spaces because it safe for them to be arseholes without being called out on it.

And a quick "spot the difference" between how people present on FTB and other people's blogs. In this case Ed Brayton on Patheos.
While I was at FtB I heard the phrase "this isn't the oppression Olympics!" so often it was ridiculous, but also it never hurts to wear your gold medal in being a victim if it helps shut others up.

Coincidentally, while i was looking for the caps I discovered WMDKitty already had a lolcow thread
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/wmdkitty.7205/

 

[lurkermouse]

I like to bring up the fact that PZ Myers accused Michael Nugent of defending rapists on his blog while he and his FtB audience defended a self-confessed serial child rapist (Ogvorbis) amongst their ranks.

Whether Ogvorbis is a master troll doesn't really matter, because PZ Myers and other commentators were tripping over themselves to assure him he's a good person who dindu nuffin/not like those OTHER rapists:

Spoiler

At least there was one person in the hivemind who called it out.

 

[PantsOfDesire]

The fun thing about the FTB style of social justice is that pretty much any cognitive dissonance causes the whole thing to fall apart. Issues related to atheism (y'know, the ostensible purpose of the site) are especially good at this. For example:

Ex-Muslims frequently complain about the way ultra-conservative imams are given a platform in otherwise progressive spaces. For your average white "intersectional" type, this presents in unsolvable dilemma: Do you side with a POC and risk being called an Islamophobe, or do you fight Islamophobia by siding with a religious conservative? Too complicated! Better just post more reaction gifs and neckbeard jokes!

Sarah Haider, an actual ex-Muslim, gave a speech about this exact issue at the 2015 American Humanist Association conference.

Spoiler: Long-ass Video

If you don't feel like watching it, there's a transcript here. Don't let the dailykos URL dissuade you.

This has long been a problem. At least in Europe, the government and media would reach out to Muslim groups when they wanted to understand the brown people position. They don't stop to wonder if the groups are in fact representative of a Muslim position on the matter or even if there is a coherent Muslim position to be presented? With Saudi funding, and money from similar minded sources, anyone could start their own group, often with words like "council" in the name to give the impression of representation. In reality many of these groups were simply fronts for a small and radical minority.

The SJW world definitely crumbles when faced with the nuance inherent to considering people as individuals. They'll calculate their response through the progressive stack, which considers oppression points. To override their position on the progressive stack they have to do something pretty extreme, such as Hirsi Ali - a black (+20 points), female (+15 points), critical ex-Muslim (-60), former refugee (+30), victim of genital mutilation (+40), a critic of "trivial BS" third-wave feminism (-600), and this is approximately their process by which a social justice poster girl becomes Hitler. She was also part of the old guard of atheism, so she had to be removed to make way for new heroes, like Myers, Carrier, and Watson. FTB, being a bastion of Atheism+, followed the trend in excommunicating anyone who wasn't onboard with the SJW movement

 

[AnOminous]

Free Thought Blogs: Where You're Free to Agree With Everything We Say. . .or Else!

 

[Tsunderplane]

At least there was one person in the hivemind who called it out.

Of course, Elyse Anders is a lolcow in her own right (dunno if she has a thread here). Eventually she got ostracized by the FtB/Skepchick bloc for being a little too loony even for them. But you probably know that if you're familiar with the Nugent/Myers spat and the Ogvorbis stuff.

 

[chimpburgers]

Of course, Elyse Anders is a lolcow in her own right (dunno if she has a thread here). Eventually she got ostracized by the FtB/Skepchick bloc for being a little too loony even for them. But you probably know that if you're familiar with the Nugent/Myers spat and the Ogvorbis stuff.

I could always look into her and see if she has enough material there to give her a thread. This is one of the reasons why I created the thread to see if there was anyone overlooked that we haven't covered yet in Lolcow. Maybe you have some of Elyse's funniest/craziest moments saved somewhere. Some of this is still relatively new ground to cover for the site.

 

[Tsunderplane]

I just did some quick googling and I think most of the historical evidence of her cowitude is in places google doesn't index, esp. the Slymepit. But since the Slymepit apparently doesn't believe in having more than one active thread, actually finding the stuff would be a nightmare. Probably more effort than it's worth given her relatively low profile.

 

[chimpburgers]

I just did some quick googling and I think most of the historical evidence of her cowitude is in places google doesn't index, esp. the Slymepit. But since the Slymepit apparently doesn't believe in having more than one active thread, actually finding the stuff would be a nightmare. Probably more effort than it's worth given her relatively low profile.

That might be a challenge I'd be willing to take up. I can go around maybe asking some people who also might have heard of this person later.

 

[Chemical snorfare]

if there was anyone overlooked that we haven't covered yet in Lolcow

Ophelia Benson would be a good one.
She blogged on FtB under Butterflies and Wheels for years before she broke one of the cardinal rules by suggesting a man with tits doesn't count as a real woman. There was a massive shit storm because in true Lolcow fashion she doubled down and started claiming everyone was harassing her. For years she had said people like Sherma were big babies for claiming she was on a witch hunt against them, then used exactly that phrase when she was on the pointy end. She now blogs here.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/notes/
where she is still grinding the axe over being harassed off FtB, even though she never really liked the place honest. She often posts Cathy Brennan links to support her arguments even though anyone calling her a TERF is a witch-hunting harasser.

Some points:
She gets incredibly salty if anyone disagrees with her and is quick to block/ban hammer but usually with a lulz worthy passing shot.
She thinks that everything revolves around her, even to the point of calling out completely unrelated sites claiming posts they made were about her.
She claims to be an intellectual but isn't the sharpest tool in the box.
She is in her sixties but has only ever had one short term job in her twenties, and decided work "wasn't for her"
She believes as a woman that she is the most victimized person on the planet (as a sex and personally), and don't go suggesting there's anyone worse off cos that causes salty sperging.
She comes from a very wealthy American family and went to a private school in the UK, she now lives in Seattle with a view over the harbour which I'm guessing is pricey. She is supported by her hard working successful husband, however if you suggest she has any privilege...SALT!
Her "blogging job" consists of spending all day in front of the internet finding things to become worked up over, copypasta them into her blog and writing the bare minimum of commentary to avoid looking like the online scrapbook collector she is. Her articles can be 70 or 80 lines long but only contain 3 lines of original comments, but that still "blogging" and journalism and dont youi suggest otherwise= salt.
She's released private back channel info from FtB after she left like Thunderturd did, but Pz Myers has completely failed to notice , even when it was pointed out to him with links and screen caps "didnt happen".

 

[Tsunderplane]

Well, if you're interested, this is about when she was kicked off Skepchick, but she was in a downward spiral both before and after.

This is also classic Elyse, from the same time.

 

[NegaCWC]

@Chemical snorfare, I noticed that you mentioned Ed Brayton in one of your previous posts. A couple of years ago I used to follow his blog on FTB because he had some interesting commentary about politics and constitutional law (he's not a lawyer but seems somewhat informed on the subject), he was the only FTBer I used to follow. Are there any interesting stories revolving this guy that you'd like to share? I still have a generally positive view of him so I'm interested in knowing.

 

[Chemical snorfare]

he was the only FTBers I used to follow

Conversely he was one of the only ones I didn't.
I found him funny but as you say he concentrated on politics and constitutional law, but not those of my own country so it wasn't really interesting to me. Unlike that yankee cuck Kevin Logan, I am not desperate to become an American (but then I'm not living with my mum in Birmingham).

He's blogging on Patheos now for more money (according to PZ Myers) or less drama headaches (according to him) and covering the same stuff.
enjoy
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/

There is also a brilliantly funny video where he goes over the story of the Kitzmiller V Dover board of education trial, that he covered as an interested journalist. He's really funny and likable although the quality is a little shaky.

 

[chimpburgers]

Ophelia Benson would be a good one.
She blogged on FtB under Butterflies and Wheels for years before she broke one of the cardinal rules by suggesting a man with tits doesn't count as a real woman. There was a massive shit storm because in true Lolcow fashion she doubled down and started claiming everyone was harassing her. For years she had said people like Sherma were big babies for claiming she was on a witch hunt against them, then used exactly that phrase when she was on the pointy end. She now blogs here.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/notes/
where she is still grinding the axe over being harassed off FtB, even though she never really liked the place honest. She often posts Cathy Brennan links to support her arguments even though anyone calling her a TERF is a witch-hunting harasser.

Some points:
She gets incredibly salty if anyone disagrees with her and is quick to block/ban hammer but usually with a lulz worthy passing shot.
She thinks that everything revolves around her, even to the point of calling out completely unrelated sites claiming posts they made were about her.
She claims to be an intellectual but isn't the sharpest tool in the box.
She is in her sixties but has only ever had one short term job in her twenties, and decided work "wasn't for her"
She believes as a woman that she is the most victimized person on the planet (as a sex and personally), and don't go suggesting there's anyone worse off cos that causes salty sperging.
She comes from a very wealthy American family and went to a private school in the UK, she now lives in Seattle with a view over the harbour which I'm guessing is pricey. She is supported by her hard working successful husband, however if you suggest she has any privilege...SALT!
Her "blogging job" consists of spending all day in front of the internet finding things to become worked up over, copypasta them into her blog and writing the bare minimum of commentary to avoid looking like the online scrapbook collector she is. Her articles can be 70 or 80 lines long but only contain 3 lines of original comments, but that still "blogging" and journalism and dont youi suggest otherwise= salt.
She's released private back channel info from FtB after she left like Thunderturd did, but Pz Myers has completely failed to notice , even when it was pointed out to him with links and screen caps "didnt happen".

That's quite a history and linking to Cathy Brennan automatically tells me that there's possibly a lot to work with, I'll get on that one and look more into Elyse too.

 

[AnOminous]

There is also a brilliantly funny video where he goes over the story of the Kitzmiller V Dover board of education trial, that he covered as an interested journalist. He's really funny and likable although the quality is a little shaky.

Sad. Kitzmiller v. Dover was back when these guys did shit that was actually useful in the real world sometimes.

 

[chimpburgers]

Ophelia Benson thread is up. Let me know if there's anything else that should be added to the OP.

https://kiwifarms.net/threads/ophel...rflies-and-wheels-blogger.16260/#post-1197588

 

[systemlord_baal]

So FtB went the same way RationalWiki did, huh? How sad