Comment Policy

art by me

Cartoon image of a nerdy non-muscular version of Blake’s Red Dragon, holding a giant gavel.

If I catch a whiff that you are affiliated with the internet’s sundry hate mobs – goobergate, tha swinepit, men’s gripes activists, whatever – I’m blocking you. You have plenty of places to talk shit about us, you don’t get to do it here. Actually, if you’re conservative at all, I just really don’t need to hear your opinion about fucking anything. The difference between social conservatives and fiscal conservatives is whether they want to kill the gays or kill the poor, so even if we’re in agreement about the subject at hand? Not interested. I’d rather have no comments at all than a conservative anywhere near me.

Seriously, I’m annoyed enough that the average jackass I’m sitting next to on the bus is one change of conversation away from saying something racist, misogynistic, or transphobic, I don’t need it here. I’m treating this blog like I treat my house. If you aren’t family or progressive, you’re not welcome. Other people on FtB and even The Orbit might be more accommodating, in the spirit of debate or whatever.

I am open to criticism. I realize I am not the best or most thoughtful writer around here. But that criticism has to be from a progressive position or it isn’t worth my time, because regressives are wrong about fucking EVERYTHING, except whatever crumbs they snatch from the nice people table. There are other places for you to go. Find them. And talk shit about me from sunrise to sunset there if you want to. Follow your joy.

I don’t have a specific policy about ableism yet. I know even for proper lefties that is a hard thing to shake out of your language, so I’ll tolerate a slip up or two. If you’re using “stupid,” “insane,” or any synonyms thereof, please don’t. I might have to block you. At this point I’m allowing intent to count for something despite its lack of magic, but I might have to get more strict. We’ll see.

Lastly, as much as this may seem at odds with the fire I just spit, I’d like things to be less punchy here in the comments than on Pharyngula. If you’ve got something negative to say about someone who is present / commenting, try to make it about their ideas rather than the individual. Example: “I disagree with what you said” rather than “You are crap / fake / whatever.” If it’s about someone who is not present, less of a problem.

I just don’t want people having a personal row here. For my part, I’m trying to be less ragey here than I have been. Blocking fuckos is a first step towards that serenity.

EDIT TO ADD:
I’m turning off nested comments. I just realized how much of a mess they can become. If you want to respond to a specific comment, at the top mention the user name and post number. Do include both because if someone’s comments need to be deleted, what you mean may become misinterpreted.

EDIT AGAIN:
I did receive one comment on this article that seemed likely to be trollfoolery, but wasn’t completely clear. It’ll hang in moderation unless the person in question decides to follow up in some way. –They did and it’s approved. Leaving this note here to explain how I’ll handle similar situations if I see them.

Morality in Fiction

What’s the moral of the story? It’s a question you probably left behind in high school, sometimes because the morals are obvious (“well I’m all broken up about that man’s rights“), more often because that’s not why you came to the story in question (“there is no spoon“). I didn’t pay it much mind for years, but recently it’s been getting my attention. I’ll just lay out the thoughts in their own paragraphs, whether they reach a conclusion or not…
[Read more…]

No Problem Tuesdays, 15th March 2016

Image of a cartoon devil winking out a star and making the OK sign, with text "no problem tuesdays."
          This image is an homage to chickensnack comix‘s famous dog, redrawn by me to fit the theme.

In honor of an esteemed tumblr meme, I would like to keep Tuesdays positive. I can’t think of anything to write this week, so I’ll just post a cute and funny thing I saw on that site recently. Still getting used to the interface here, so hopefully much more to look at or read next Tuesday.

tweet by trashwtch of two pretty dogs with a funny caption
Tweet from “trashwtch” (twitter deleted) of two long-haired slender white dogs lounging together on grass, text: “what kind of dogs are these, they make me nervous like if I talk to them they’ll speak back but only in riddles”

 

‘Net H8rs R a Bunch of Arch Hall Jr. Characters

This is a reblog from previous versions of G-A-S

Arch Hall Jr. as The Sadist

There’s this old Arch Hall Jr. movie called “The Sadist,” which doesn’t feature a sympathetic portrayal of one who engages in a risky kink ethically. Rather, it’s about a criminal in floods who enjoys psychologically tormenting his victims.

Arch Hall Jr. as The Sadist

The character has a catch phrase which I think befits the underlying psychology of the internet’s sundry hate mobs perfectly: “You think you’re better than me?” Then he’ll stalk menacingly at you, looking like he’s carrying a massive deuce in his drawers. No offense to AHj, this character was supposed to be creepy and job well done.

There’s clearly a sense of aggrievement on their part. They feel upset at being scorned. Our side is motivated by compassion for the victims of abuse and the desire to make the world a better place. The less self-aware on their side might feel like they’re into these goals as well, but find that overwhelmed by the outrage that someone might be looking down on them. You especially see this in the response to things like Schrodinger’s Rapist. No matter how kindly or carefully parsed, any idea that could be perceived – correctly or not – as a criticism of them (or the kind of person they imagine themselves to be) raises this knee-jerk response. You think you’re better than meee?

So then they start doing the poopy pants walk while waving guns around (metaphorically and literally) and make things so much worse. To borrow a much more sensible catch phrase, guys, don’t do that. Seriously, even if you fundamentally disagree with social justice advocates on every issue, just agree to disagree and strut. If you honestly believe your position to be the right one, you have a million motherfuckers to agree with you and coddle your shared privilege. You wouldn’t feel the need to freak out about the fact someone else has a different belief unless – on some level – you think they might be right, and that their rightness would make you feel bad.

You don’t have to feel bad about yourself to accept the truths SJWs be spittin’ – at least, not much. Because no one has to be perfect, we can all learn from our mistakes, all try to be better people. And honestly trying is good enough. Doing something racist/sexist/transphobic/etc doesn’t make you a bigot, outside of that moment. Being unrepentant, being so chickenshit of the possibility of your own imperfection that you double down and make it worse – even make it a part of your raison d’être – this is deciding to wallow in bigotry.

Come off yourself, calm down, drop the fucking keyboard, take a day off. Even if your beliefs don’t change, at least recusing yourself from participating in a hate movement is a step in the right direction. Be cool. Get steppin’.

Great Galloping Satans!

Hello FtB, I’m Great American Satan.  Two or three of you might recognize me from my time at atheismplus dotcom (dead).  I also have a tumblr, which is mostly reblogs of short insightful posts from random people and longer articles / excerpts from various people more thoughtful than myself.  Occasionally I make art.

My handle represents a bit of punchy immaturity on my part.  As I’ve said elsewhere, if you ain’t living your life in a way that would piss off an ayatollah, you ain’t living right. That said, I stand against islam only as much as I personally reject all abrahamic faiths.  Islamophobia is for cowards.  I also refuse to capitalize religions, as you may have noticed.

What you will ultimately see here:  At least one post a week of some kind.  Most will be writing, some will be art, and some will be shameless self-promotion of merchandise I’m currently developing with social justice themes.  If I ever start to make more money than poverty level + medical needs of family, I will start donating a good part of proceeds to charities that benefit various oppressed groups.  It’s hard to know what the future will bring, but this doesn’t seem too likely as of yet.

My greatest struggle in advocating the movement is anger.  It hurts my ability to write persuasively, sometimes just hurts my mind.  Once you’re clued in to the kinds of oppression that affect those you care about, the world is full of landmines.  Because I can’t always write anything of use to the cause, I will use my art skills and provide other services.

See you around!

 

Note on moderation:  At A+, I used to change the words of slymers and regressives into funny harmless things.  That was too much work – more than they deserve.  So here, I’m just going to set any offensive or sealioning crap to go straight to a garbage bin that I’m not even going to look at.  You’re welcome.  <3

EDIT – They’re heeee-eeere.  I just added my first crap human to my spam filter.  Congrats, you know who you are.