Collateral damage


Lots of crazed reactions to Thunderf00t’s misuse of the FTB mailing list, although they’re a minority. There are frank falsehoods saying we tried to get Michael Payton fired, and there is shock-horror that we reacted to his tweets dismissing all of FTB.

That’s just nuts. To repeat – there are about 40 people blogging at FTB. Not all of them are polemicists or controversialists, not all of them are irritable, not all of them agree about everything – in fact none of them agree about everything.

It’s not fair to shit on the innocent just because one dislikes a few of the Freethought bloggers. It’s not even fair to shit on the innocent just because one hates a few of the Freethought bloggers with feverish passion and undying tenacity. It’s not some noble campaign against bullying, it’s just stupid narrow-focus spite. (I mean really. Is Freethought blogs seriously such a major source of evil that it merits hours of monitoring and tweeting and exclaiming every single day?)

It’s unfair to the innocent, it’s clumsy, it’s illiberal, it’s dirty.

Comments

  1. NateHevens says

    You shouldn’t be surprised, Ace. It is Thunderf00t’s blog, which is read by most of his fans. Though to be honest, I’m not seeing a lot of support for him outside of his readers/watchers, so he actually doesn’t have a lot of support. I think maybe FtB has the greater support.

    It’s pretty obvious to anyone who cares who the villain is here, and it’s not FtB.

  2. says

    I’m saying that even on his own blog, support is rather weak with some outright condemnations and some “PZ and Ophelia are just as bad” and very few real defenses of his actions.

  3. says

    Is Freethought blogs seriously such a major source of evil that it merits hours of monitoring and tweeting and exclaiming every single day?

    No, freethoughtblogs is insignificant, that’s why people spend so much time criticising and mentioning them.

  4. scrutationaryarchivist says

    Thunderf00t is losing a little support on YouTube, too. After I learned of the latest bombshell, I checked out his number of subscribers. As I recall, it was around 155,400 this morning. Now it’s 155,278.

    That’s not much, proportionally speaking, but it’s something.

    Is that a large change for less than a day?

  5. NateHevens says

    Dammit. I’m sorry, Ace. For some very strange reason I completely missed the word “lost” in your post @ #1, giving it the exact opposite meaning that you had intended, and leaving me just a little confused, hence my now-obviously-idiotic non-response to you.

    I have no idea how I managed to do that, but I’m sorry…

    🙁

  6. says

    there are about 40 people blogging at FTB

    Ha! There are only 36 blogs! Ophelia Benson has been caught lying and exaggerating and distorting yet again! This clearly means that Thunderf00t did nothing wrong, and that he’s being bullied!

    #FTBullies

  7. astro says

    I think Thunderf00t is right that FTB is a hive mind. I mean, what are the chances that people who care about women’s reproductive freedoms and rights would also care about LGBT rights, racial injustice and protecting free speech? I mean freally. Like one in a trillion?

Trackbacks

  1. […] -Ashley Miller – Thunderf00t: Stealing people’s private information is a major violation -Natalie Reed – All In (I am praying, to beings I don’t believe in, that Natalie is not totally leaving. She is one of the reasons I read FtB. She’s incredible, and worth reading/listening to) -Stephanie Zvan – In Praise of Whistleblowers -Zinnia Jones – Thunderf00t’s unauthorized access and leaking of the private FTB mailing list (this one was my first exposure to this issue) and Thunderf00t admits to sending my private emails to Michael Payton of CFI Canada -Ed Brayton – Thunderfoot’s Unethical Obsession -PZ Myers – Summary of Thunderf00t/Phil Mason’s disgrace and Thunderf00t/Phil Mason, treacherous hack -Jen McCreight – Thunderf00t’s unethical breach of our privacy -Ophelia Benson – Collateral damage […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *