It's Skepticon's Turn

Wow. You good folks floor me. The Skeptics for Ada fundraiser hit its goal in the first day. That means Valerie Aurora of the Ada Initiative will be coming to Skepticon to run their Ally Skills Workshop. So now that we’ve paid for the Ada Initiative to do their thing, it’s time to help pay for Skepticon itself. With the conference just over a month away, it’s only two-thirds funded. There is still over $13,000 to be raised.

Because Skepticon is a free conference in the south-central U.S., it’s the only conference that many of the attendees can afford. But someone still has to pay for the whole thing. If the attendees can’t, funding Skepticon falls to those of us who think access to these events shouldn’t be limited to those who can pay hundreds of dollars. Are you one of those people?



If you need another reason to donate, keep reading.

[Not sure why the button is blowing itself up, but I’ll look into it.]

The success of the Ada fundraiser also means that I will help Valerie deliver the workshop at Skepticon, with the aim of being someone in our community who can deliver the workshop at other events. I was holding out the idea from the initial fundraising pot, keeping it in reserve as a sweetener for when the fundraiser needed a boost after the initial run of donations. As it turns out, that was completely unnecessary.

Also unnecessary was my plan for forfeits at various levels of donations. I had a campaign planned out for last week that you generous people made entirely unnecessary. But I am loathe to let that planning go to waste, so I’ll let you make me do this for Skepticon instead.

What will I be doing if you donate to Skepticon? I will be creating Slyme Pit poetry.

(Everyone’s monitors and keyboards still intact? Good.)

Yes, that’s right. For every $50 worth of donations to Skepticon made through this donation button, I will post a poem created by scrolling through the pit and grabbing snippets of their conversations on various topics that I will compile into distillations of absurdist inanity. The title of each piece will be mine.

Here’s one freebie to get this started. CN: This is the pit talking about race.

How Black Is Leigh Alexander?*

A black person.
Black.
Oh, haven’t you heard. She’s black.
Ethnically, she’s Adria richards, but less black.
I think this makes her an octoroon.
This blackwashing is making me uncomfortable.
“What’s up in the hizzy, my African sista?”
little difficulty telling whites and black from each other
problem with some Mexicans. I just get their faces confused
a few real racists in my time, the vitriolic, spitting
most racist of those have been black (largely African) and Pakistani
there is only 2 groups of people who use the “one drop rule”
the candid photos of her make her look visibly mixed
Half human, half orc?
is Leigh Alexander mixed race just as bad if not fucking worst
she claims she’s oppressed and subject to microaggression
I would argue that black people are not oppressed
does not make it sure I can not think critically about the subject
I find it hard to believe her “lived experience” of casual racism
bear in mind she didn’t grow up in 19-fucking-40
talks about feeling “alienated” because of her mixed racialosity
i just don’t really get what “black” means then
a proud African Sista from the hizzood. (My words.)
also benefits from the race and gender-based programs

*Because “gamergate” is all about journalistic integrity.

Is it good poetry? Oh, no, no, no. But this is what I’m willing to subject myself to in order to get all of you to donate to Skepticon. So won’t you please?



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It's Skepticon's Turn
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4 thoughts on “It's Skepticon's Turn

  1. 3

    Hmmm. I’d like to ask if you could please choose something else? It’s not fun for you, and it’s not fun for your readers, or I should say that*I* certainly don’t want to spend any time reading the “poems. “

  2. 4

    If there’s something else you’d like as an incentive to donate, feel free to ask. I’ll try to accommodate requests.

    However, this isn’t about being fun. There are still people and places that treat slimepitters like reasonable parties in the discussion of where the atheist and skeptic movements go. This is about that. The poetry part keeps me entertained while I do it.

Comments are closed.