CONvergence: Rebecca Watson ruins everything

I noticed something shortly after the very well-received Don’t Feed the Trolls panel at CONvergence’s SkepchickCON, once ZOMGItsCriss posted the video. People who otherwise have never seen the level of anti-Watson hatred that her mere existence incurs, were surprised and angered by the fact that the comments on Criss’ video largely ignored the fact that there were five other panelists present. As such, Watson only comprised a smallish fraction of the discussion — and yet, some folks’ comments ran along the line of “why would I listen to That Skepchick bitch whine hysterically about nothing for an hour? She should get raped so she loosens up, the prude whore.” (This is, of course, a composite of real comments on that video. Edit: For skeptics of this exceptional claim, like “…” in the comments, click this to see a Youtube comment that’s very, VERY similar.)

That sort of shit was exactly our point, and it appears to have catalyzed at least one bystander to radicalize against that sort of trolling.

The last night I spent in Minneapolis, Skepchick Kammy held a barbecue at her place for the participants of the SkepchickCON track. At one point, Kammy’s son pressganged his parents into moving the attendees into their driveway so they could set off the remainder of the fireworks (left over from the celebration a few days prior, when Minnesotans celebrate Three Days After Canada Day in a sweet, but odd, gesture to your neighbors to the north). We pulled our chairs out from their back yard and set them up to watch the firework display, and I found myself setting my chair up near enough to Watson to pronounce loudly:

“Well, I was really looking forward to seeing this firework display, but now that I’m stuck here next to Rebecca Watson, it’s just ruined for me. I mean, who wants to listen to her sit quietly for an hour?”

She made a pouty face and picked up her chair and shrank back into the background, behind some low branches of a nearby tree. “Nope, still ruined.”

Conversation quickly turned to other things she ruined, like that time she blew up the natives’ tree of life to get at the Unobtanium under it. Which you have to admit was a kinda douchy move on her part.

“Or you remember that time that she was on a rope bridge and pulled the heart right out of that guy’s chest and ate it? ‘Kali mas!'”, offered one anonymous participant whose initials are RW.

So what other experiences do you folks have with Rebecca Watson ruining things?

(Side bets on how long ’til trolls appear?)

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CONvergence: Rebecca Watson ruins everything
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508 thoughts on “CONvergence: Rebecca Watson ruins everything

  1. 501

    Rebecca Watson keeps calling me up and telling my it’s my last chance to reduce my credit card interest rates and that my car warranty is about to expire.

  2. 502

    It is Rebecca Watson’s fault that they never came out with Left Guard for the other armpit.

    “Lather. Rinse. Repeat.” was a cruel joke Rebecca played on computer programmers.

  3. 504

    I dislike Rebecca Watson for abusing accidentally obtained moderator rights on the JREF forums to ban people who disagreed with her.

  4. 505

    […] July I went to CONvergence! That is, after all, part of my July routine. What’s novel, though, is that I was on three panels: Don’t Feed the Trolls, Doomsday Scenarios and Growing Up Online. I also continued talking about the harassment policies campaign pushback, with a piece on how they protect religion from criticism, and how they require consent forms written in triplicate. Richard Dawkins made a sidelong stab at Skepchick over the vaccines-for-hugs campaigns they run, and I expressed my disappointment once again. The harassment policies campaign wound down to a close, with dozens of orgs and conventions adopting policies, the last of which being TAM’s “secret police” policy which, while it certainly counts, was just a monkey’s-paw wish misinterpretation of the campaign. Lastly, we collectively unearthed all the ways Rebecca Watson ruins everything. […]

  5. 506

    Some say her father was German. Nobody believed she was real. Nobody ever saw her or knew anybody that ever worked directly for her, but to hear the Skepchicks tell it, anybody could have worked for Watson. You never knew. That was her power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world she didn’t exist. And like that, poof. She’s gone.

  6. 507

    Two big thumbs up.
    And this crap is still going on, taking her jokes about the issue and trying to turn them against her by quote mining out of context. It just goes to show that humans, all humans can act like little children when they let their emotions trump their reason.

    I think some people don’t like Watson because she’s funny, quick witted and probably much smarter then them-selves.
    I like her. I don’t always agree with her, but I don’t agree with anyone on all issues. But that doesn’t drive me to be throw an ugly tantrum towards her.

  7. 508

    […] In atheo-skepticism, we have the continual conflation of Rebecca and Atheism+. Forget that Atheism+ is Jen McCreight’s brainchild. Forget that Rebecca said at the time that it wasn’t her preferred means of dealing with the problem, that she’d rather start from humanism. No, when Atheism+ was the big bogeyman, people kept complaining to Rebecca about it. But that’s just one example. For more, try this. […]

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