They’re looking at you, people!


In an article that suggests you can judge a blogger by their commenters, we get a snap assessment of Pharyngula and you, the commenters:

Pharyngula writes smart stuff that looks down on religion; he gets smart and dismissive commenters.

I wouldn’t reject that characterization, but there has to be some appreciation of the diversity of people here. We do have some very dumb people who defend religion blindly, obviously, and some atheists who aren’t very smart, and some smart people who are religious. I can see where the proportions are skewed in predictable ways here, and we’ve got a different character than Crooked Timber or LGM, and we’re nothing like Freeperland, but I don’t particularly care for the thorough lumping of the description.

Obviously, though, I’m going to have to purify the comments section. If you don’t obediently parrot the Pharyngula party line, I’m afraid you’re going to have to go. Sorry. All non-smart and non-dismissive commenters will please immediately report to one of those other blogs, thank you very much.

Comments

  1. chris y says

    But… the whole point of coming here is the ongoing soap opera starring you and Wilkins!

    (Actually the point of coming here is the developmental biology posts. Hint.)

  2. NC Paul says

    Ok – I’m opening a book on how long it takes for the snark in PZ’s final paragraph to be quote-mined. 6 hours will get you even odds. Place your bets now!

  3. Richard Harris, FCD says

    Yesterday, my daughter & I saw a photo, in a neswpaper, of a group of people praying. We both laughed at how STUPID they looked, & discussed what a waste of time it was for them to try to telepathically communicate with a phantasy-being.

    While they certainly looked stupid to us, (probably due to their dopey expressions), we acknowledge that they might be mad rather than stupid.

    (PZ, I hope that was good enough.)

  4. sailor says

    Self-selection would be far too boring. In line with his alter-ego PZ will goose-step up and down the comment thread disemvoweling as he goes.

  5. Eric says

    “purify”?

    You mean, kind of like “ethnic cleansing?”

    Gulags anyone?

    But seriously, I mean to tell ya…this is why are not fit for political office.

    You are dismissed.

  6. says

    Sorry about leaving out the link, it’s fixed now.

    And of course you don’t get to self-purify. My army of obedient Pharynguloid robots is on their way to your house right now, and they’ll be fixing you right proper.

  7. Jazmin says

    Nope. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve already hung curtains and I planned on ordering a pizza later.

  8. Caledonian says

    It’s true – I am a mere reactionary troll, taking the opposite position from sanity, truth, and light for the sole purpose of annoying all who know The Truth of things.

    I would speak further about this review, but who cares what it says? Pffft.

  9. Dahan says

    The Pharynguloid robots are knocking on my door as I write. I knew this day would come. Me, a professor of Art and Design, not a scientist, but only a lover of science, daring to post here. Wait, they’ve broken thorogh, thvegottaaaaaaa

  10. Carlie says

    I’m just here because it’s a proxy for the social life that I don’t have. Someone pass me a beer?

  11. Rieux says

    All non-smart and non-dismissive commenters will please immediately report to one of those other blogs, thank you very much.

    “It ain’t the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I’m smart! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I’m smart and I want respect!”

  12. RamblinDude says

    If you’re smart enough to know that you’re dumb does that mean you get to stay, or leave?

  13. RamblinDude says

    “If you’re smart enough to know that you’re dumb”–Speaking in the First Person, of course. : )

  14. says

    If you’re smart enough to know that you’re dumb

    If you’re really that smart then you’re way too smart for this or any other blog.

  15. says

    My apologies for the lack of fine resolution in my description of your comment section. It was one example among a few and I didn’t develop it very thoroughly. I hope it doesn’t offend you as a rough take, although clearly there is far more complexity here than I captured.

  16. Aaron Baker says

    The description hardly captures the variety that is Professor Myers: the perfect mix of smartness and righteous indignation one minute, and barking mad chihuahua-dom the next.

    As one of your smarter commenters, I have no quarrel with clause 2.

  17. EnzoAntonius says

    Did PZ actually utter the words “smart people” and
    “who are religious” in the same sentence???? Or was that a typo?

  18. says

    No problem, Megan. We aspire to be smart and I know we are also rather uncompromisingly brutal, so I think you’re right about the overall tone.

  19. Sonja says

    Whew, I’m glad SOMEONE had the nerve to say it. There is so damn much pressure commenting here to be both smart and dismissive. At times I can be a perfect ass, but have nothing intelligent to contribute. Or I may nail a creative and witty argument, only to be too accomodating.

    Thank you Megan.

  20. RamblinDude says

    Blake Stacey #15:

    I’ve gotten more comments for these creepy crawly snaky things–darkwinged fungus gnats–than I have for anything else.

    Wow, I can see why. Totally freaky.

  21. says

    Wait – there’s a Pharyngula party line? Did it happen to ship with the new copy of The Homosexual Agenda? ‘Cause I didn’t get that, either.

  22. says

    #25: Or do you have to report to Zeno’s Coffeehouse?

    Zeno’s Coffehouse? Who is this impostor? Some rank parvenue, no doubt…

    Oh. Since 1994. I guess that *I* am the rank parvenue (since 2005, anyway).

  23. another says

    As missives go, I prefer the smart and dis-. I try to avoid the dull and sub- like they were the sick and trans-.

  24. Kagehi says

    Hmm. Well I tend to be uncompromising. Then again, I have, on some issues, not towed the party line, so I suppose I am going to get the *armed and giant* robots at my house? Being as I might be considered more dangerous. Unfortunately, what PZ doesn’t know is that I have my own army of armed giant robots! And I didn’t like the local city council or all the old people that want to turn our resort town into Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for retirees anyway, so the devastation to the surrounding city from the battle isn’t a big deal. ;) lol

  25. Triumphal_Thusnelda says

    Graculus: (#10) Thank you for making coffee come out my nose. I wish I’d written that!

    But PeeZed, I’m neither smart, nor dismissive and I don’t believe in Happy Mr Giant Ghost and the Blissful Land in the Sky. Oh wait – hyuk! – you already included me: “atheists who aren’t very smart”.

    Now I can sit and drool quietly, watching the fun from my cage.

  26. says

    Ooh, I like the idea of a party line…wait, I’m thinking of a conga line. Never mind.

    I consider myself smarter than quite a few people, and I’m pretty dismissive, but I’m also stubborn as a mule. If you try to kick me out I won’t go quietly.

  27. Peter Ashby says

    The way to foil a pharynguloid robot is simple. You put a sign on your door instructing ‘Both shoes must be removed on entry’. Since a pharynguloid robot will have at least eight appendages this instruction will engender the dreaded paradox bug which all good scifi enthusiasts know is how you foil evil robots/computers.

    Not that I am worried, but should I rehang the degrees? they got taken down in a redecoration and never reinstalled. Or can I simply hit the robot with my PhD thesis? it is unnecessarily heavy (that is another story) so it should suffice.

  28. Kagehi says

    Wouldn’t do me any good to do that Peter, the only one I have is a BS in CIS, so it would probably attract both kooks and robots. lol

  29. CortxVortx says

    All non-smart and non-dismissive commenters will please immediately report to one of those other blogs, thank you very much.

    Loo: And who are they?
    Dr. Klahn: Just lost drunken men who don’t know where they are and no longer care.
    Prisoner #1: Where are we?
    Prisoner #2: I don’t care!
    Loo: And these?
    Dr. Klahn: These are lost drunken men who don’t know where they are, but do care! And these are men who know where they are and care, but don’t drink.
    Prisoner #3: I don’t know who I am.
    Prisoner #4: And I don’t drink!
    Dr. Klahn: Guards! (move prisoners) Do you care?
    Prisoner #5: No.
    Dr. Klahn: Put this man in cell #1, and give him a drink.
    Guard: What do you drink?
    Prisoner #5: I don’t care.

    Substitute “non-smart” and “non-dismissive” where applicable.

  30. Christian Burnham says

    I am happy to represent the dumb atheist contingent.

    Our motto: Aithesm- it’s not just for smart peeple, like totally.

  31. Gary Bohn says

    Any suggestion for which blog we slightly less than smart atheists should go to?

  32. Automath says

    I am happy to represent the dumb atheist contingent.

    Same here, so you’ll have to tell us what to believe on a regular basis, erm, say once a week?

  33. Christian Burnham says

    Automath: There ought to be a Pharyngula-Lite for us intellectually-challenged. Instead of commenting, we dumbsters could be allowed to tick check-boxes that best represent our views on any given topic. At the end of each week we would be assigned scores rating our choices according to a free-thinking index. Full marks would earn us access to the Friday Cephalopod. Poor marks would mean restarting the week from the beginning and a letter to our parents.

  34. Maronan says

    I dismiss your dismissal of my dismissal of your dismissal of religion!

    (Well, not really. I just needed that one last meta.)

  35. autumn says

    Well, I don’t have to worry too much, ’cause I’m so smart. But I’m a little concerned because I’m not dismissive… I like to be the one with the whip.

    Oh, wait..

  36. Torbjörn Larsson, OM says

    Ouch! Why do I have this deep imprint of a rubber stamp in my forehead?

    It sez “Pharynguloid” too. Hmm. Must be something I ate.

    I don’t particularly care for the thorough lumping of the description.

    Don’t you know that lumping is the new framing™? Oh… maybe you do.

  37. Torbjörn Larsson, OM says

    Ouch! Why do I have this deep imprint of a rubber stamp in my forehead?

    It sez “Pharynguloid” too. Hmm. Must be something I ate.

    I don’t particularly care for the thorough lumping of the description.

    Don’t you know that lumping is the new framing™? Oh… maybe you do.

  38. says

    The comments here so far are uninteresting and unnecessary.

    My IQ is somewhere in the mid-150s.

    (I guess the above makes me dismissive and smart, rather than the other way ’round. If someone would be so kind as to direct me to a more appropriate blog for persons such as myself, I would surely reward them with a supercilious snub.)

  39. Tam says

    I think it’s important to note that you don’t have to be smart to be intellectual, or to be interested in science, or to be empirically-minded. I’ve run into plenty of people who seemed dumb but had a great mindset towards learning and knowledge.