#FTBullies: When Hashtags Go Bad

If you’re on Twitter, you have to check this out.

If you’re not on Twitter, you might want to join now, just to check this out.

A couple/ few days ago, someone (I lost track of who) who doesn’t like Freethought Blogs started the Twitter hashtag, #FTBullies, for Twitter discussions of how… um, I guess how Freethought Blogs are bullies.

The hashtag has now been adopted by a number of people who like Freethought Blogs — including some of the Freethought Blogs bloggers — with silly, absurdist, over-the-top accusations of all the horror and evil perpetrated by us.

A few of my faves:

Crommunist ‏@Crommunist: RT @QueQuoi: “If you asked #FTBullies if they had any Grey Poupon, they would say no.” || But we TOTALLY have a WHOLE THING OF IT!

sardjt ‏@sardjt: #FTBullies stole my 15 minutes of fame and gave them to a squid

RahXephon ‏@rahxephon231: @Mona_Albano #FTBullies made me go vegetarian just to support Big Tofu.

Improbable Joe ‏@ImprobableJoe: Grandma got run over by #FTBullies

Bastion Of Sass ‏@bastionofsass: You know how one sock of a pair goes missing in the washer? #FTBullies steal them and think that’s really funny.

Erülóra Maikalambe ‏@Erulora: #FTBullies stole the cookie from the cookie jar.

Bastion Of Sass ‏@bastionofsass: #FTBullies Told unicorns there was no big rush to get on the ark.

Momo Elektra ‏@MomoElektra: #FTBullies rigged the Kobayashi Maru, so nobody would win

Ophelia Benson ‏@OpheliaBenson: #FTBullies ordered pizza with PINEAPPLE.

Rebecca Watson ‏@rebeccawatson: Lots of talk on Twitter about how bad the #FTBullies are. I don’t want to pile on, but: they wrote Prometheus.

Sasha Pixlee ‏@sashapixlee: .@szvan suggested a book to me once. It was super good but the sequel isn’t even finished yet! #FTBullies.

Stacy Kennedy‏@MsMondegreen: Your MasterCard account has been deactivated. Send your card number and expiration date to #FTBullies for reinstatement.

Jessa ‏@jessa_bell: #FTBullies killed Kenny. #youbastards

TerriWillis-Gardocki ‏@thetwillis: #FTBullies told everyone what I’d do for a Klondike Bar.

Chris Clarke ‏@canislatrans: Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But with mien of #FTBullies, perched above my chamber door.

Dan Fincke ‏@CamelsHammers: Luke, #FTBullies are your father.

Veritas ‏@VeritasKnight: @CamelsHammers Nooooo…that can’t be, #FTBullies…that’s impossible!

I got in several licks before I realized that I had actual work to do. But this is the one that seems to have established my claim to fame:

Greta Christina ‏@GretaChristina: #FTBullies are never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around & desert you. Yeah I went there.

Some other good compilations are at Lousy Canuck, Butterflies and Wheels, and Pteryxx in a comment on B&W.

The Internet. Providing smart, creative, hilarious people with hours of wasted time since 1995.

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#FTBullies: When Hashtags Go Bad
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25 thoughts on “#FTBullies: When Hashtags Go Bad

  1. 1

    Great moments in trolling, is what that was. ((trolling isn’t always bad despite it being necessarily destructive.))

    Loved the rick roll btw. One of my favs after all the firefly jokes.

  2. 2

    The hashtag has been around for awhile, actually – some weeks, anyway. Just one guy tormentedly adding it to a whine occasionally. Then Jeremy Stangroom and one or two others started helping out, then Paula Kirby got in on the act, so then yesterday I decided to mess with them – and BOOM eleventy million people joined me.

  3. 3

    Can we please stop for a moment? We need to discuss the very serious issue of who is more sad: Jeremy Stangroom or Paula Kirby? Paula has a more popular Tweet overall, but Jeremy has more Tweets in the top 20. Neither of them is making a lick of sense, and both have sacrificed any possible credibility in the name of trying to turn around the surreal mockery of their position back to a serious “discussion” of a position they cannot hope to rationally defend.

  4. 4

    The Internet. Providing smart, creative, hilarious people with hours of wasted time since 1995.

    I haven’t wasted my time. I’ve learned all sorts of interesting and important things on the internet like…um…well…like…er…. Could I get back to you on this?

  5. 5

    The Internet. Providing smart, creative, hilarious people with hours of wasted time since 1995.

    To be fair, I was wasting time on the Internet back in 1992… oh, you meant “creative, hilarious people.” Never mind, carry on. 🙁

  6. 6

    To take your question literally for a second, Joe – I can’t form an opinion on that because I can’t see any of this through their eyes. I can’t see what they’re seeing. I try and it doesn’t work. FTB as this terrible frightening Invasion of bullying that demands serious dedicated planned opposition, and in fact destruction…I can’t see it. Their vision seems warped to me, so who knows how they see anything. Maybe they both think everything is going swimmingly, and FTB will soon disappear and I will be sentenced to life without parole for Felony Bullying and resembling the Stasi. Maybe that’s what they think and the thought makes them wildly elated. I have no clue.

  7. 7

    Ophelia…can’t top the hilarity of your last post.

    Eleventy bazillion shall show up at next skeptic women conference if we can just throw a rick roll in the middle of it!!

  8. 8

    Ophelia, I agree with you completely… that’s sort of why I framed it as a Twitter popularity contest between them. I just can’t wrap my head around any sort of rational basis for either of them to be attacking FtB on the grounds they are claiming. If anything, I’ve seen FtB’s aggressive bits as being insular and protectively inward-directed, which is sort of the opposite of what Kirby and Stangroom seem to be claiming. You bloggers protect your spaces, and we commenters protect each other, and bloggers and commenters protect each other, even when we’re arguing among ourselves.

    I’ve never seen that projected outward except in response to direct external attacks. No one here ever seems to be looking for a fight, but people like Kirby and Stangroom like to pretend that our defensive moves are some sort of offensive attack on them that carries the weight of some magical non-existent force that can silence them in THEIR spaces by disagreeing HERE.

  9. 12

    @Kels:

    I have no illusions. My wife can just barely tolerate me, and my dealings with everyone else is downhill from there. And I’m a semi-crippled shut-in so I’m really pleased when I can say something divorced from someone “knowing” me and thinking it is even mildly clever and worth repeating.

    I’m hardly no one’s favorite… but every now and again I’m worth mentioning, and I’ll take it.

  10. 13

    OT

    Comparisons of male and female CEOs

    Just read this, thought I’d bring it to the attention of FTB. Greta, you won the lottery on whose thread it got placed.

    Interesting discussion on the different ways men and women acquire the skills needed to reach the top of the business world.

    It’s very troubling that childhood trauma seems to be the most common way successful females learn to be self-confident – indictment of both society and business practices?

  11. 20

    I must not #FTBullies. #FTBullies is the mind killer. #FTBullies is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my #FTBullies. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the #FTBullies has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

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