[edit/update: It seems that most of the people I was hoping to reach out to here are either incapable, or unwilling, to be so friendly and continue to talk rubbish. So, although I won’t delete this post, I certainly don’t intend to hold back on my views in the future. "Apparently, the gloves are off."]
Drama happens, and this week it’s happened in droves. Whether it’s irrelevant people like me and what I both didn’t (and did) say to respected people in the skeptic/atheist community, or more prominent people like Thunderf00t vs PZ Myers et cetera.
The simple fact is that we know who each other are because of certain common aims. We will disagree, and we probably will say things that aren’t helpful or true. I’m willing to make a commitment to 2 things:
- a) Attack the ‘argument’ and not the ‘person’ from now on.
- b) Unblock, re-friend, work with EVERYONE and ANYONE who can collectively make a positive difference.
Sounds fair to me, regardless of personal differences.
Let’s work together to tackle important issues like secularism, alt-med, psychic fraud, and real misogyny? I’m happy to do this if you are.
7 Comments
This is sensible and mature. And no one has commented yet. Clearly people are only interested in the drama. That saddens me
I think pretty much everyone, on every side of the argument should be reflecting. Some people say debate and discussion is good- it is VERY good. But a lot of the time it descends into childish behaviour and arrogance. That doesn’t help and it is very important we learn the difference.
Right now the PZ Myers vs Thunderf00t (Or as it seems to be going FreeThoughtBlogs vs Thunderf00t) is gtting pathetic. back and forths that don’t do anything or help in anyway. How is any of this helping to tackle real incidents of sexism and harrassment? It;s not, it’s only helping to polarise and widen the gulf – that’s not me saying don’t talk about it, before anyone jumps in, but that when we do talk about it let’s try and do it in the right way. That doesn’t seem to happen very often.
Ash. It is mature.
However the idea that people are ‘clearly only interested in the drama’ is a huge assumption on your part. I personally haven’t commented, though I wanted to, because Tony apologised once before to me in person at QEDcon in March 2012.
Weeks later he was back to making passive aggressive comments on his Facebook wall and through Twitter, and calling me an idiot etc.
Don’t assume I’m only interested in drama simply because I am skeptical, from experience, of an apology.
Nice! Just wanted to respond. I thoroughly loved your post. Keep up the great work on coffeelovingskeptic.com .
Hayley, my point is more that when something inflammatory is posted people leap at it like pirhana. When something sensible is posted (like this, or Simon Clares Rock Tumbler post) they get little comment or spread.
I’m not at all interested in the drama. I hate it. I hate how badly people I used to respect and enjoy have shown themselves up. None worse than Myers, in my opinion. I have no more time for him, nor the foul crew of abusive, bullying hyenas that soil his comments section. The whole sorry lot of them are beyond the pale, and they will remain so, for me. Just another bunch of bigoted, insolent, arrogant blowhards who think lying, belittling, condescending and lockstep doctrinaire tub-thumping are reasonable ways to advance a cause. They’ve disrespected you, they’ve become a huge embarrassment to genuinely reasonable people and they have shat on any sense of atheist/rationalist solidarity that might once have existed. So to hell with the lot of them.
I wholeheartedly agree. The behaviour this week in particular has irreparably sullied their reputations in my view.
It seems that most of the people I was hoping to reach out to here are either incapable, or unwilling, to be so friendly and continue to talk rubbish. So, although I won’t delete this post, I certainly don’t intend to hold back on my views in the future. Apparently, the gloves are off.