Because I was raised Catholic, I sometimes feel the call to do penance for my sins. If I have done something mildly naughty, I say a few ‘Hail Mary’s. If I’ve done something particularly bad, I might wear a hair-shirt for a couple of days. But if I have sinned so egregiously that nothing but the most severe punishment will do, I read the things people write about Ophelia Benson. The level of brain-exfoliating stupidity evinced by her committed claque of ‘enemies’ is usually painful enough to ensure that I will never transgress so profoundly again.

Today’s bit of mental self-flagellation comes courtesy of a podcast host by the name of Reap Paden:

Ophelia Benson was offered a guest spot on the A-News podcast today. She accepted too.  Then when she learned  the details ( I am a co-host on the show) She pulled out (so to speak) Ophelia has done public speaking before right? So it isn’t that she is unable to speak in public. What is it with these people who gleefully libel and slander people left and right showing no ability to grasp the concept of responsible behavior in even its basic form? They can spout off constantly claiming they want the world to be a better place but can’t be bothered to actually talk about it with anyone who doesn’t already subscribe to their thinking. What is Ophelia Benson worried about? Does she think I am  going to come through her computer monitor and steal all her cat food from her or somethin?  Even if I was a ranting prick to her all she would have to do is hang up. She would then have a REAL example of someone behaving the way she has been claiming. That would also provide her with something else she yearns for. I think you could call it the “holy grail” of freethought blogs , credibility. No one there has it but they all long for it. Over and over again they have tried to claim they possess it but it always turns out to be made out of the same stuff you find in Mr Rodgers neighborhood, make-believe and sock puppets. I find it laughable that any of these ‘social justice warriors’  really think that by avoiding human interaction with anyone except those who smile and nod the world is going to give them any consideration. What a huge waste of time. I have a standing offer to anyone who wants to offer their side of things and have a real back and forth conversation. No one can claim I am unable to do anything but rant, all they need to do is take a look at the list of people who have been guests on my podcasts.

Auuughh… the pain is bracing. Paragraph breaks, Reap. Why are the angriest people always the shittiest proofers?

So Reap, as is the constant refrain of his audience, doesn’t understand why Ophelia would choose not to engage in a dialogue with him. After all, it’s not like he’s an unreasonable person or someone who has, time and again revealed himself to be nothing more than a particularly barnacle-like troll who confuses abusiveness with wit. Why on Earth would Ophelia not want to appear on a podcast with such a luminary? It must be because “credibility”.

But the cadence, the syntax, the use of repetitive phrasing and personal abuse… I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before:

Obama isn’t against bullying. Neither is the left more broadly. After all, when someone stands up to a bully – say, Israel standing up to Islamic terrorists, or even George Zimmerman standing up to a young bully pounding his head into the pavement* – the left goes berserk.

Actually, the American left has become the greatest purveyor of bullying during the last half-century. That’s the dirty little secret: buried beneath all of the left’s supposed hatred for bullying is a passionate love for bullying—the use of power to force those who disagree to shut up, back down, or face crushing consequences up to and including loss of reputation, career destruction, and even death.

In order to accomplish their bullying tactics, however, the left has to portray itself as the defender of victimized groups. Those who oppose their political agenda are then portrayed as oppressors of those victimized groups, morally deficient folks who deserve to be run out of town on a rail. The agenda supposedly starts with anti-bullying. It ends with bullying the hell out of everyone on the other side of the aisle.

The left’s goal is to shut down the political debate by decrying their opponents as victimizers. They label their opponents racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, benighted, backwards bitter clingers. They liken them to Nazis, KKK members, terrorists. Then they cast them out like lepers from the political debate. Because who would bother debating a Nazi, or a KKK member, or a terrorist?

Projection, paranoia, faux-victimhood, accusations that everyone else is “bullying” and trying to “force” those who “disagree” out of “the movement”… yeah all of a sudden this is very familiar territory for me.

So I guess congratulations go out to Reap Paden for identifying himself as the Andrew Breitbart (or, in this particular comparison, one of Breitbart’s acolytes) of the atheist movement. Your nearly note-for-note impression of right wing talk radio is sure to attract exactly the same calibre of audience. Unfortunately, you won’t have the luxury of getting bankrolled by a pair of rich billionnaires, so you’ll have to settle for your impotent and childish anger to keep you warm at night. But don’t worry, the accolades for your bravery – standing up to the minority in the face of inevitable social change – are sure to pour in eventually, just as they did for your ideological predecessor.

And this will be the first and last time I bother to pay any attention to you ever again. Unless I’m feeling particularly in need of having my brain excoriated by stupidity again – then I know exactly where I can do some one-stop shopping.

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*Can I take a minute to invite you to join me in hating the shit out of this motherfucker for even thinking something like this, let alone writing it?