The first news I got in the new year was that someone at JREF was drunk-tweeting–or that their Twitter account was hacked. Given that two tweets got out, I suspect the latter. They weren’t bad tweets, but the wording wasn’t what I would suspect even if the sentiment had been sincere.
Tweet 1: New years resolution: don’t attack women for speaking out about feeling uncomfortable.
Tweet 2: New years resolution: don’t mock and scapegoat my allies.
I just don’t think they’d be talking about scapegoating that baldly. Given that the tweets came down very quickly, someone at JREF appears to agree with me.
As a drunken joke involving accidentally pressing Tweet–twice–they would be kind of funny. As someone hacking the @jref account, they are, of course, much less so. The reactions to them from the usual crowd of Twitter anti-feminists, however, are hilarious.
One was relatively rational given their prior stance.
Others were just bizarre.
Yes, “RIP JREF”. Because if the organization can’t scapegoat anyone, there go all their programs. The million-dollar challenge is doomed (DOOMED!!!) without scapegoating.
Because a rape joke always makes a bad situation better.
Because caring about whether women are uncomfortable in our movements is strictly limited to Atheism+ and not attacking is swearing fealty to…things.
And a response to that last tweet:
Feminism is now practicing medicine without a license.
Not attacking = suspending rationality.
Anyone still wonder why we don’t consider the anti-feminists to be skeptical or, indeed, able to cobble together a basic argument?
10 comments
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Improbable Joe
January 1, 2013 at 10:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
… or why we don’t consider them to be decent people, or why we don’t consider their bullshit claims of “merely disagreeing” to be remotely honest?
cethis
January 1, 2013 at 10:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The tweets are gone, so I think the account was hacked.
I’d consider supporting the JREF again if the tweets were real. It would mean that they reconsidered their actions, and wanted to work for a skeptical movement that reaches out beyond the old boys club.
Instead, by someone hacking the account, the jREF can claim that they’re being attacked. They might use the attack to say, “Both sides are doing it.” That hacker didn’t do us any favors.
A Hermit
January 1, 2013 at 11:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
What do these people think it says about them that a resolution to “not attack women” is seen as a bad thing?! Do they think at all?
Aratina Cage
January 1, 2013 at 12:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you for the new list of slimes to block. Happy New Year!
Tom Foss
January 1, 2013 at 2:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Add Sid Rodrigues to the list of skeptics who have apparently lost the plot:
https://twitter.com/SidRodrigues/status/286011722811191297
https://twitter.com/SidRodrigues/status/286136433318711296
screechymonkey
January 1, 2013 at 2:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In before some idiot shows up to complain that no one here has condemned the (alleged) hacking of the JREF Twitter account.
(Seriously, though, that kind of shit is Not Helpful.)
WMDKitty (Always growing and learning)
January 1, 2013 at 7:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dude. What Joe and The Hermit said at #1 and #3.
jimmy russel
January 2, 2013 at 4:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The objections are not to the literal content of the tweets, to those who understand nuance and context it’s clear. Because this stuff is the “lite” version of the views expressed, the stuff that on the surface is not hard to agree with. It’s the stuff you throw up when accused of being radical and irrational “we just want to be safe”, but people outside of the in group understand that it isnt as innocent as that. It’s about controlling peoples interactions beyond that. It’s about policing words and thought in the name of “free thought” and visciously attacking those who don’t conform, both on the internet and their personal/professional lives.
That is why people protest, not because of the words said, but what the implications of those words would be.
Stephanie Zvan
January 2, 2013 at 4:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ooh, jimmy, they haven’t handed out the secret marching orders that will go into effect once JREF adopts a reasonable anti-harassment policy for TAM. Tell me, pretty please, what will I get to do? Is it any different than what happened at the four cons I attended this summer and fall that had policies? Are we just waiting for all conferences and conventions fall in line before we jump out from behind a bush, screaming, “Suckers!!!!”? Will we start banning sex everywhere on Earth?
What will we do? Huh?
Anonymous Atheist
January 5, 2013 at 2:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Secret plan: All men attending conferences/conventions without Atheism+ credentials will be blindfolded, gagged, and handcuffed for the duration of the event.