Talk about the Streisand effect. The brilliant minds behind the original #FTBullies must be so annoyed. Poor Paula Kirby, who latched onto it and the malevolent people behind it – she must be in despair. Her ardent efforts to get people to join her in hating on us went so spectacularly wrong!
Well, Paula, that would be because it was a stupid idea to begin with. Think about it. Seriously.
Freethought blogs just isn’t an obviously and thoroughly evil thing, unless you’re a theocrat. Even if some of the bloggers are sometimes careless or dogmatic or biased; even if some of the commenters on some of the blogs are that and more; Freethought blogs the network is still not like Nazis or the Stasi or totalitarian. Claiming it is is a stupid and malicious overstatement – in fact it’s exactly the same kind of stupid and malicious overstatement you seem to be complaining about. If I understand you correctly you think I stupidly and maliciously overstated what DJ Grothe did wrong. Maybe I did, but I still stopped well short of saying and then insisting after being challenged that he’s like the Nazis and the Stasi. (I did say that blaming women for talking about harassment was like blaming Jews for talking about persecution in 1936 Germany, and that was indeed a ridiculous overstatement – but then I withdrew it on being challenged. My intention was not to compare DJ to the Nazis, it was to compare blaming group X for talking about its own persecution with blaming group Y for talking about its own persecution; my mistake was choosing a much much much more drastic form of persecution; I withdrew it.) You didn’t stop short of comparing a blog network to the Nazis and the Stasi, and you’ve been doubling down on the comparison ever since.
And now the whole thing is an explosion of creative hilarity on Twitter, that is doing nothing to turn an indignant world against our Terrible Evil. It must burn.
For the rest of us, who enjoy the hilarity – Jason has a selection of the best tweets. Pteryxx posted one here. Here are a few of my favorites –
JoeZowghi
@JoeZowghi All#FTBullies wanna do is eat your brains. They’re not unreasonable. I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes.Stacy Kennedy
@MsMondegreen Your MasterCard account has been deactivated. Send your card number and expiration date to#FTBullies for reinstatement.and
#FTBullies tore off the Captain’s leg and sank the Pequod.Tom
@Doubting_Tom For all intensive purposes! The tenants of athiesm!#FTBulliesand
Romney was for
#FTBullies before he was against them.and
#FTBullies is too advanced to have been built by ancient peoples without alien help.and
My name is
#FTBullies, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!(Doubting Tom is good!)
Monte Grumwald
@feralboy12#FTBullies are the ones who said your brother was heavy.Dan Fincke
@CamelsHammers#FTBullies are Kenyan Muslim Secular Effete French Fascists Who Hate AmericaWill
@dysomniak#FTBullies said those pastries were vegan, but I think there might have been eggs in there.Kammy
@Procrastinatrx Phase 1: Collect underpants. Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit.#FTBullies know what Phase 2 is.ResearchToBeDone
@Research2BeDone#FTBullies changed the Higgs Boson presentation font to comic sans
It’s all been worthwhile.