Examples


Here’s me “bullying” or “internet trolling” the Global Secular Council.

Secular Council @SecularCouncil May 24

Sorry you missed this, . We responded many times to Ms. Ophelia. We are many women, & more joining soon. www.secularcouncil/team

Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson May 24

@SecularCouncil @VitaBrevi

Actually you didn’t. You typed words but they were consistently non-responsive.

Also, I don’t call myself “Ms Ophelia” – I don’t know what that’s supposed to be.

Secular Council @SecularCouncil May 24

@OpheliaBenson @VitaBrevi How would you like us to respond? Is there a way we could respond that would actually have you talk nicely w/ us?

Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson May 24

Honestly, fairly, and substantively.

Secular Council @SecularCouncil May 24

We don’t believe our org is a mistake. We believe it needs expansion. That is in earnest!

Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson May 24

But then – again – why did you go public before expanding?

Not very bullying or trolling is it? Not trolling at all, in fact; I was absolutely serious.

I’m sure there are others that are more belligerent; I know I said “fucking” at one point, and the Council got all outraged. I’m sweary, and since I’m a civilian, I didn’t feel I had to maintain a completely “professional” manner the whole time. But that “fucking” was as belligerent as I got. Mostly it was just repetition – of questions they didn’t want to answer. But they’re a non-profit, doing good works, supposedly representing us as secularists – they should be willing to answer questions.

Comments

  1. says

    The “Ms. Ophelia” is such fucking obvious passive aggressive response to the blowback they must have received from fair-minded people regarding “Ofie” bullshit they tried to pull earlier. I’m sure the Slymepitters are loving them right now.

  2. says

    No the Ofie bullshit comes after that. The tweets in this post are from their early days – I looked through some to see just how “bullying” and “trolling” I had been. Calling me “Ofie” was just a couple of days ago.

    They did call me “my dear OpheliaBenson” once in the early days too. Yup.

  3. says

    Ah, I thought they replaced one with the other. It’s all still really ridiculous on their part, especially if they want to be taken seriously.

  4. tonyinbatavia says

    It really is mind-boggling that they consider themselves a professional organization representing all of us. Had they, after acknowledging that they were working on the issue (with a nice side of apologies for not having their act together from the outset), just shut up, or just provided updates on their progress, or just any number of things that would have reflected professionalism, then cool. I could give them the benefit of the doubt for a bit. But for them to be outright assclowns toward you like that? Really?

    It’s clear these people are not serious about representing anything besides their own personal interests and glorification. Instead of looking big and impressive, with awesome aims and wondrous potential for all the good they could do, they look like sniveling blowhards with petty personal vendettas.

    I fucking loath these people.

  5. Al Dente says

    Ophelia Benson @4

    If they want to be taken seriously it’s pretty foolish to hand their Twitter duties over to volunteers.

    The thought leaders were merely giving the thought followers something to do.

  6. iiii says

    That’s so… odd. I mean, the on-line norm I’ve seen is to use people’s screen names, or, if those are too long, to use initials. If they were desperate to save characters in twitter, wouldn’t “OB” have been the way to shorten your nym?

    Perhaps they are not aware of all internet traditions? The most charitable interpretation, to my mind, is that they’re trying to communicate on-line without bothering to learn the relevant customs and etiquette. Just Ugly Americans, too ignorant to know how rude they’re being. I can’t see a way to impute to them any cultural literacy without implying an equal leaven of malice.

  7. chigau (違う) says

    Oh the horror.
    Somewhere a new job description is growing in a pod.
    Official Tweeter.
    or maybe a consulting company
    Tweets R Us

  8. Kevin Kehres says

    @8…you are WAY behind the times. Most large corporations have a Twitter specialist as part of the corporate communications department, social media division. Some have many more than one. I know some very serious people who have this as a major part of their job description. Heck, my local city government has a social media person (not full-time, but it’s part of her job description).

    And, of course, Twitter is becoming passe. Pinterest, Snapchat and such are the new things with the hep cats.

  9. Anthony K says

    We don’t believe our org is a mistake.

    Looks like someone needs to read their copy of Micheal Shermer’s Why People Believe Weird Things.

  10. latsot says

    Clearly I’ve been doing it wrong. Every tweet I send to the GSC from now on (and I think you know me well enough to know they will be manifold) will include the word “fucking”, “fuck” and/or “fucktangle”.

    I’m hoping for a “Dear Ms Latsot” at the very least.

  11. John Horstman says

    @latsot #13: I nominate “fuckery”, “fucktagon”, and “fuck-a-dee-doo-da”. (It’s such a beautifully dynamic word.)

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