Comments

  1. opposablethumbs says

    If people like this put a fraction of the energy into, say, supporting secularist causes that they actually do put into harassment campaigns they might actually achieve something worthwhile instead of wasting oxygen.

  2. says

    Opposable – they can’t. Gnu Atheists are devoid of historical knowledge. Thank Dr. Dawkins and his philosophical constructions which little differ from the self-righteous and ignorant pronouncements of the average 14-year-old who thinks he’s getting a rise out of his parents.

  3. sarahmoglia says

    They also have been making fun of my health problems and calling me a dude because apparently talking about health problems “isn’t very ladylike.” Special of them.

  4. says

    Seems to be mostly Capital-i for lowercase-L usage. Maybe a 1 in place of either. They are… ever so clever. Class clowns minus the funny, and bullies minus the real-life repercussions.

  5. says

    They also have been making fun of my health problems and calling me a dude because apparently talking about health problems “isn’t very ladylike.” Special of them.

    That is low, really low. They did the same for Rhys with his Crohns disease. Anything to illicit emotion and threaten/shame/scare you off the internet or out of the conversation is fine by them. I’m no saint, I take the piss, but if I ever resort to those tactics I’d hope I have the moral compass to feel ashamed at least.

  6. Janine: Hallucinating Liar says

    I see that they worked a “cunt” in. And PZ Myers. And Rebecca Watson .I guess it would be less funny and freeze peachy without it.

  7. Bjarte Foshaug says

    But it’s only “disagreement”. It’s only “dissent”. It’s only a “difference of opinion”. It’s “free speech”. It’s “criticism”. It’ says so right her in The Asshole’s Dictionary, oh, wait….

  8. Hamilton Jacobi says

    The person who did this is probably feeling very proud right now. It’s kind of sad to imagine inhabiting a mind where this is the highlight of your day.

  9. Francisco Bacopa says

    Does Twitter have a policy about faking accounts of established users? Take it down if they do. I suppose even if they have such a policy it couldn’t be taken down because it clearly says it’s not really you.

    What I wonder is why is this current non-issue so important to them that they take the time to do this shit? A few months ago there was s deluge of anti-Jen McCreight videos. WTF? This is important enough to post videos about?

    This all began with Elevator Guy. I wish he would come forward and say something like: “Yo, people! Chill the fuck out! Yeah, I did something that was clueless and might even have bordered on the creepy. At first I was happy to have so much support. But then things got out of control and I came to hate my “defenders”. This last year and a half has been an eye opener for me. I now see that Watson’s rebuke was measured, mild, and appropriate. What was I thinking?’

  10. says

    It doesn’t matter that the profile page says it’s not me, because the tweets look exactly as if they are from me. People don’t look at the profile page for every tweet they see.

  11. says

    So why do you care? I learned a *very* long time ago while on social media outlets that people will create accounts to attempt parody or “Poeing”. Exactly how does this affect you? If you find out, tell people, and then move on, it doesn’t really matter, right?

  12. jose says

    Remember, the one being impersonated and mocked is the bully. The people mocking and impersonating her are the victims of bullying. #FTBullies. Also, war is peace.

  13. Stacy says

    So why do you care?…. Exactly how does this affect you?

    Did you miss the part where it was explained that this account looks exactly like the real one?

    Apparently you did. Your bad.

    Ophelia Benson OpheIia Benson. On Twitter you cannot tell that the second “Ophelia” is written with a capital i instead of an l. And he uses the same avatar. Therefore, the accounts are indistinguishable to anybody who isn’t paying attention.

    Besides, why do you care why somebody else cares?

    In conclusion, fuck off, Hendricks.

  14. Wowbagger, Antipodean Dervish says

    But both sides are equally bad! Look at all those photoshopped images of Justicar and Hoggle and Renee Hendricks and Sara Mayhew; how Ophelia and Rebecca Watson and PZ jump on every tweet by Russell Blackford and Jeremy Stangroom, even when it’s on a completely unrelated topic; and the fake Twitter accounts set up to mock all the other people who are only engaging in valid criticism of their actions.

    Oh, wait…

  15. Martha says

    I followed PZ’s lead and blocked them as spam. Which meant I had to find the account and see a couple of their adolescent tweets. Brain bleach, please!

    I’m sorry you have to deal with this, Ophelia. I do wish they’d grow up.

  16. Aratina Cage says

    SFA Renee Hendricks, parody accounts and fan accounts for celebrities are not the same as harassment accounts.

    But both sides are equally bad! Look at all those photoshopped images of Justicar and Hoggle and Renee Hendricks and Sara Mayhew

    I know! Our side is so bad when we link to malicious things others have done, label them and their behaviors appropriately, or kindly lead them to the exit and hold the door open for them on their way off whichever blog they are trolling that day.

  17. says

    Francisco: I have had the same fantasy – in my version, EG got himself a girlfriend who taught him a thing or two. But in real life, I don’t think it would help. He would just become a target himself. But it would still be great if he found the courage to do as you suggest.

  18. opposablethumbs says

    Jack Blair, what on earth are you going on about? Not only a non sequitur but makes no sense whatsoever. The square root of intransitive turnips fly east for the spring? What?

    As for the harassers, well I’m sure I’d be tempted for a moment to pull some kind of shit on genuinely evil people like, oh I don’t know, say the pope or William Lane Craig – but I hope and I think I’d refrain from actually stooping that low even if I were guaranteed to get away with it. I’d call them mental adolescents but then I remember that most adolescents are a hell of a lot more mature than this. And what does it say about them that they’re behaving as if they think the FTB bloggers are as evil and dangerous as people like the pope and wlc?

  19. No Light says

    Ugh. Hugs to you and sarahmoglia. They are pathetic.

    ReneeHendricks – you have no worth. Piss off back to the ‘Pit.

  20. says

    Renee @ 19 – or, as you put it less pseudo-politely on Twitter,

    Renee Hendricks‏@reneehendricks
    She bitches and kvetchest in both tweets and a blog post. WTF? Grow a fucking pair, @opheliabenson and move the fuck on.

    Fuck you. I don’t want “a pair” and I also don’t want creeps using a Twitter handle that looks identical to my real one to send out “Poe” tweets. That’s not difficult to understand.

    And as for moving on – that from you? When you spend a startling amount of time and energy on Twitter every day monitoring and jeering at The Usual Suspects including me? Move on yourself.

  21. Parse says

    *nods* I assumed you had, but I tend to err on the side of caution and restate the obvious. (See? Just like that. (And like that, where I’m pointing out that I’m stating the obvious (And again – oh good grief, I had better stop this before it gets too ridiculous.))
    Good luck. Last I had dealt with the Twitter helpdesk was helping to report somebody being abusive towards Jen McCreight, and of course everybody except Jen seemed to get responses. Which all were of the sort ‘You need to have the affected individual file a report.’

  22. says

    Hmm. I agree with you on this one.
    It is a shit trick to impersonate someone online in a non-obvious way. Regardless of issues and disagreements this kind of thing is out of order and does noone any favours.

  23. says

    Well I think a lot of what they – which often includes you – do is out of order. I think the disproportionate attention and incessant sniping is out of order. I think the endlessly repeated lies are out of order – like the one that claims I compared TAM to Nazi Germany, for instance.

    But I agree that using my real name to impersonate me is an extra level of badness.

  24. says

    Well I think a lot of what they – which often includes you – do is out of order

    I wouldn’t really have expected much else. What I will say is that I either say what I earnestly believe or I say nothing. I never represent an argument purely to get a rise out of someone. I also try to never willfully misrepresent anyone (and always gives links and encourage people to check them out in case i do)- in fact i would go far as to say that on YT amongst my theistic opponents I am probably mongst the most respected atheists out there for this very reason. It is literally only here that i am disliked and regarded as scum.
    Impersonating you is twattish in the extreme. It is one thing to hold you to what you publically say, it is quite another to attempt to trick people into thinking you are saying things you are not. I’d be pretty pissed if it happened to me.

  25. says

    In the US “twat” is a slightly milder version of “cunt” – in short, a sexist epithet. Please don’t use it here.

    For the rest, I’ll take your word for it, but in a context of relentless harassment, your attentions seem disproportionate. That’s one of the many problems with campaigns of relentless harassment: it becomes difficult to tell who is a dissenter and who is part of the campaign.

  26. says

    Okay, my apology. In the UK terms like twat, cunt, prick and dick dont set nerves jangling like they seem to here (in fact saying to a male friend something along the lines of ‘now then, you old cunt’ is a perfectly friendly greeting where i live!) so i will be more careful in my language usage here.

  27. No Light says

    Oh look, it’s Jimmy Noplums, big-noting himself and using sexist language as an insult. Must be a day ending in ‘Y’.

    Jim – shouldn’t you be off somewhere with your tag-team buddy ReneeHendricks, telling women that they should stay at home playing house, rather than attempt a career in the military, or any other “man” job?

    Wazzock,

  28. No Light says

    . In the UK terms like twat, cunt, prick and dick dont set nerves jangling like they seem to here

    Hahahahahahah. No. You are kidding, right? If you’re actually being serious then:

    1) The “It’s OK in Britain” trope is older than any of the tropes on the ‘Tropes’ topic.

    2) It’s a flat out lie. How often do you call your GP/newsagent/postie/boss a “Twat” or “Cunt” in daily discourse? As I don’t recall Ophelia being one of the lads down the pub, the same courtesy should be extended to her.

    3) Some of us are British. So we know that you’re full of shit, like some sort of arsehole.

    (Note the gender-neutral insult there.)

    4. ) The word ‘trope’ has lost all meaning. Trope tropey-trope.

  29. says

    Sigh. Yes, that is Noel/Jim playing stupid games again. Since he pays so much attention to us radfem bullies, he probably knows perfectly well what I think of sexist epithets, and that I’ve heard the “oh in the UK we” bullshit at least 700 times, and that he would annoy me and others by using the fucking word. No I don’t believe the feigned innocence and suprise.

  30. No Light says

    It was almost cute the first 8743 times he tried it. But now? The inner rad-fem is gleefully eyeing that roll of emergency barbed-wire that the er… outer rad-fem* keeps beside the couch.

    Jim – you’re gross. GB2youtube to bask in the ~respect~ over there.

    *The “Every type of woman amassing to smash the fucking patriarchy” kind, not the horrific bigots of the “trans women are bad” variety. I’m trying to reclaim it from both them and the Pit shits, in the same way I’ve reclaimed ‘dyke’ and ‘cripple’ from the haters.

  31. says

    No Light @39

    How often do you call your GP/newsagent/postie/boss a “Twat” or “Cunt” in daily discourse?

    and

    Oh look, it’s Jimmy Noplums, big-noting himself and using sexist language as an insult.

    To answer your question, with respect to my boss, fairly often.

    Perhaps you can now tell me how often you tell your GP/postie etc that they are ‘full of shit, like some kind of arsehole’?

    Personally I don’t find being likened to an arsehole any less offensive than being likened to a twat. Yet YOU feel enabled to liken me to an arsehole (not extending any of your beloved courtesy to me) presumably on the grounds I called Ophelia a twat.
    The only problem is I never called Ophelia a twat. I never called ANYONE a twat. What I DID do was to say that the behaviour of those who were creating fake accounts in her name was ‘twattish’.

    Ophelia @40

    Since he pays so much attention to us radfem bullies, he probably knows perfectly well what I think of sexist epithets, and that I’ve heard the “oh in the UK we” bullshit at least 700 times, and that he would annoy me and others by using the fucking word.

    You know what, I was aware that some of you seem to have an issue with the word cunt. I didn’t know whether it extended to other words like ‘twat’, or to words like ‘prick’ and ‘dick’ (clearly asshole is ok it seems, or at least when aimed my way) but more’s the point I hadn’t realised that even when used as an adjective it would invoke the same hysterics.

    Like I say, I am sorry. Your blog, your rules. I have posted many times on theistic channels where it is ok to tell someone they will burn in hell but use a mild swear word and you get a rebuke: I am used to maverick rulesets. I won’t use the word again and offend either you or your pet house troll here.

    Jim

  32. No Light says

    I don’t owe you any respect Jim, because you’re a sexist, a bigot, and a troll.

    What is it that’s so hard to understand about not using sexist rhetoric and gendered insults? It’s obvious you’re simply trolling at this point, when you respond to complaints about your use of sexist language with:

    hadn’t realised that even when used as an adjective it would invoke the same hysterics

    Can’t help yourself, can you?

    And you wonder why people think you’re an arsehole.

    You’ve spent months here playing the “I’m a big shot on YouTube” card, dribbling your sexist puke about what you think women should do with their lives, and then mansplaining your ridiculous views, and concern trolling with nonsense like “It’s bad for women to do [job] because they could get injured”.

    The worst thing of all is that you never stick the flounce. You stomp off, and then make dozens of “One last thing…” comments, with the assumption that your thoughts are so novel and interesting that your detractors will fall back in amazement, and say “Oh my god, he’s right!”

    Not gonna happen. Stick to YouTube, and babbling about the easy targets. YouTube needs you Jim, you’re the only person doing the hard work of debunking Christianity for an audience of flapping sealions.

    Such a brave and courageous stance, especially here in our terrifying British theocracy where atheists are reviled and shunned.

    Oh, wait…

  33. Nancy says

    Someone posted these two separate comments and I would honestly like to know why their first comment isn’t criticized but then someone else is criticized for using other gender insults.

    1. Oh look, it’s Jimmy Noplums

    2. Some of us are British. So we know that you’re full of shit, like some sort of arsehole.
    (Note the gender-neutral insult there.)

  34. No Light says

    Jesus wept.

    His name on YouTube is “NoelPlum”, and he insists on signing his comments. as “Jim/NoelPlum” anyway, despite having a username like everyone else.

    “Plum” is cockney rhyming slang for “good”, as in “He managed to get a plum job”. “NoPlum” ie. ‘NoGood’ is a summation of his sexist attitude, rampant misogyny, arrogance, delusions of superiority, and general wankery.

    Jim/ NoelPlum/Jimmy NoPlum.

    The ‘s’ is because I type all my comments on a phone, and rarely notice autocomplete substitutions. The ‘s’ was automatically appended the first time I typed it, and the entire thing was saved in the VPDs dictionary. The phone typing is also why my comments are littered with bizarre punctuation errors.

    Oh, and the added ‘s’ makes the name have a character count that’s a multiple of 3, this pleases my OCD, but don’t worry, you can fly back to the Pit now, and tell them I’ll endeavour to edit my VPDs dictionary and remove the ‘s’. Or I could just call him “Ambulatory Arsehole”, I’m willing to go. either way.

  35. No Light says

    VPDs = ‘user’.

    Apparently I talk about vaccine-preventable diseases a. lot.

    My kingdom for the ability to use a qwerty keyboard again, instead of numberpad predictive text.

  36. [fake name] says

    #47:

    Is this the kind of quintessential questions you deal with here, No Light? How to best make fun of someone’s name? It’s very hard to take someone’s opinion seriously when they essentially revert to third-grade name calling.

    Matter of fact, considering the number of participants in these threads, nobody actually does take you seriously. And thus, nothing of value is lost.

  37. No Light says

    Oh yay, more pitizens.

    I had no issue with your little friend until he proved himself to be an utter slimebag. I don’t like bigots, I hate bigots who try to defend their bigotry.

    When said noxious individual spends months stinking the place up, deliberately antagonising the author and readers after already flouncing a dozen times, he deserves nothing.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to weep bitterly because Jimmy’s flying monkeys don’t like me.

  38. says

    Is this the kind of quintessential questions you deal with here, No Light? How to best make fun of someone’s name? It’s very hard to take someone’s opinion seriously when they essentially revert to third-grade name calling.

    That is hiLARious! Right, because nobody of the slyme school ever makes fun of someone’s name! No “Twatson” no “Stefunny” no “Tibbiedibbiedido” no “Peezus” no “SMELLody” no “Alex GAYbriel” no “Lamey” no “Ophi” no “Jen McWrong” – none of that!

    Such a bunch of geniuses.

  39. [fake name] says

    I have no idea what half of what you’ve said means, but are you really surprised that I’m not willing to associate myself with this nonsense by using my real credentials here, Benson? I also find it rather surprising that you consider it reasonable to disrupt the continuity of discourse by deleting comments that called your behaviour childish, which it certainly is. Or is this all satire? I honestly can’t tell.

  40. says

    Say what? You don’t have to comment here at all, fake name. And using a real email address wouldn’t “associate” you with anything here. I take it you want us to think you’re just a random stranger who wandered in and staggered in shock at all the nonsense? Then had to report your shock-horror, using my initials to do so? Yeah right; that didn’t happen. When random strangers comment they don’t sound like you; they don’t sound like the slyme pit community. They sound like strangers.

    A very feeble effort. No score.

  41. OB says

    Benson, I don’t even know who you are and haven’t heard of you until two hours ago. Looking at your Wikipedia page, I’m still not quite in the clear what it is you do exactly. I will of course call my mother, telling her that you’ve complained about her poor choice of my first name. Can’t do anything about the B.

    I’m afraid this has gone from infantile to delusional and clearly not what I came here for. I’m sorry if I have to leave at this notice and I don’t mean this as an insult, truly, but you might want to seek counselling. I understand that you would be reluctant to do so, but it’s better for you in long run. There’s something very wrong with you.

    Regardless, I wish you a pleasant evening. Good bye.

  42. says

    So how did you get here? How did you see this post, what motivated you to comment on it?

    Good diagnosis though. Naturally you can tell that about me, from reading my replies to you on this thread. Certainly.

  43. Anthony K says

    I was under the impression that it was a blog run by Dr. Meyers. I must have been mistaken.

    I fail to see how it’s anyone’s fault but yours that you’re lost and stupid.

  44. No Light says

    Dr Meyers? I think you’re on the wrong blog network altogether, because AFAIK there’s nobody by that name here.

    Ophelia – you forgot the huuugely clever ‘Opheliar’. If only Slyme insults could be nominated for the Comedy Awards, that would sweep the boards.

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