I really, really don’t understand the minds behind this: I’m getting a bunch of messages from sniggering puerile slymepit types who have jumped on a hashtag bandwagon, #wherespzmyers. They’ve got a photo of my face photoshopped onto a plush doll, and then they photoshop that into various scenes.
Warning: the very first image that turned up at that link above is a smiling picture of me spliced into a graphic ISIS beheading photo.
I don’t quite get the point. Do they think I’ll be sitting here, crying “Oh, no…don’t photoshop my picture there! Boo hoo.” Is there sympathetic magic involved? Do they think I’ll get dizzy if they photoshop my effigy upside down? Or do they seek to impress with their amazing photoshop skills? (Hint: their photoshop skills aren’t particularly amazing. They could go back to MS Paint and do the same thing.) Or perhaps they’re just trying to express their contempt as shrilly as they can.
I suspect the latter, but I can only appreciate the fact that people who don’t like me — and really, I already knew you didn’t much care for me — are doing it in such a way as to make their own juvenile incompetence and tastelessness as prominent as possible. Keep it up!
By the way, it’s atheists doing this, which is the only part that hurts. I roused a great deal of hate from the Christian community a few years ago, and got a lot of angry screeds and people trying to tell me how wicked I was, but surprisingly, Bill Donohue did not draw cartoons of me and stick pins in it, and Ken Ham doesn’t smirk while pasting a photo of me in scenes of hellfire. I had to stir up atheists to truly see the depths of inanity possible in human beings.
Keep that in mind when you hear people wonder why anyone would want to associate with those amoral atheists.
On the spectrum of behaviour, it seems some atheists fall squarely in the section labelled “puerile.”
Disappointing. :-(
Primate emotional group-bonding via juvenile attempts to insult with a parody of “Where’s Waldo?”
That’s basically it. The last time I saw it was in middle school in my pre-teen years when some kids would draw insulting pictures of others. This is essentially the quality of the “opposition”.
You look adorable! Surely The Horde will Photoshop you into some lol cat pics?
But…but…they’re grownups, mostly. They have to understand how petty and inane this makes them look!
O_o presumably these are adults?
Maybe they are just trying to tell you they think you need a haircut, but since that is several letters and many syllables beyond their range, they had to hire a plush doll messenger?
(I don’t think you need a haircut. But some of yer claws need attention, they are coated with dried blood.)
I am split between finding it saddening and scary that people are this petty, and wanting to fix the photoshopping errors in those images. Most of me thinks it is sad that people still think cutting someone into a picture of a sewer or murder scene is somehow a point in a discourse, and is scared of how they might treat people they don’t like, but a part of me is just appalled at the lack of artistic effort in the propaganda. No carricatures of PZ as the one Darth Vader chokes, no variation on the theme or positioning of the PZ doll, not even proper resizing!
At least if they’re going to be petty and try to mock people with sympathetic photoshop magic, they could have given us something with some effort put into it. >_<
— Voltaire
I’m both fascinated and embarrassed by this. Why does this kind of behaviour show up so much among high school children and atheist adults? Is there really something to the accusation that personal problems can lead to atheism?
We’ve all seen those kinds of comments, such as “atheists just need a strong father figure”, or they “just want to be able to act immorally”.
Of course, I’m talking about a fairly small group but the Internet can make small groups seem large, if they are loud enough.
Sort of reminds me of the “Bert is EVIL” meme from years back.
I don’t even understand what they are trying to say with this. Is there some in-joke I’m missing?
What I find most troublesome is the amount of time these sniggering puerile slymepit types spend demonstrating their hate. I don’t waste a nanosecond on hating them. There’s too much else to do that is more constructive.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep laughing at their immature antics and scripted posts, and ridiculing their utter lack of logic and reason.
It’s interesting – this segment of the Atheist population seems to be acting in the same petty, twisted manner as the Abrahamic god.
Until you flip the circuit-breaker for the child’s bedroom.
@ hoku
There is no point. I looked at the links and the examples. There is no subtext but petty group conflict.
All disagreements aside, those folks just have a REALLY POOR idea of what’s funny. Like those PZ and Ophelia “cartoons” that never have (a) a punch line or (b) a point. It’s Mallard Fillmores all the way down.
Wait…this is some reverse ninja double-back psychology thing, right?
It goes like this…
1. Slymers harass PZ.
2. PZ is unfazed by it.
3. Therefore, nobody who is harassed by slymers should complain. Because if PZ isn’t fazed by it, that means harassment doesn’t exist.
Of course, the level of harassment and the sheer buffoonery of the harassers has to be considered.
No they don’t and they don’t have to. You’re a biologist. You understand the concept of neoteny don’t you? It works for brains as well as faces.
#BraveHeroes, each and every one. They use mockery to show how they dare to boldly stand up to the powerful* PZ Myers and his vast army** of #FTBullies who harass*** those who logically refute**** their tyranny.
*-Except in every other context, in which the official Brave Hero position is that PZ is an insignificant figure who is jealous of the scientific and publishing success of others.
**-Again, for all other purposes, FTB has a dwindling readership and is fading into irrelevancy any day now.
***-harass, v. To criticize someone who is not a member of the FTB/A+/Skepchick/AnitaSarkeesian/ReverseVampire/SaucerPeople axis of evil
****-Issue threats and misogynistic insults to
Just you wait. Any minute now, Uncle Mick Nugent will be along to softly scold them.
Yup. Aaaaaaaaaaany minute…
Yeah, many of these are from the same set of people now populating the comments section of Nugent’s blog. He won’t care.
UnknownEric@15:
I never thought a day would come that a joke even remotely connected to Mallard Fillmore would make me laugh. My hat is off to you, sir.
Don’t I feel silly for thinking so many of your critics are tedious, self-absorbed douchebags.
UnknownEric the Apostate @15
I dunno – I think that is a bit unfair to Mallard Fillmore. Even though Mallard Fillmore is actively anti-funny, it still seems unfair.
(Hopefully this link works and doesn’t actually embed the media part) *crosses fingers*
Isn’t that a picture of Thunderf00l? I swear I remember seeing a picture of him like that years ago. Either way, I don’t understand what the point of that is? I get where they are going with the sewer ones. I don’t get where they are going with the sex worker ones, seeing as how we are supposed to be the stuck up prudes. The one where they put you in one of those little red&yellow cars that you push with your feet is just adorable. But this one I can’t seem to wrap my head around in any way.
If I wasn’t already firmly on this side of the deeeeeep rifts, I would hope this shit would make me so embarrassed that I’d just have to rethink my position.
What is, links I’ll never click on, Alex?
Is it just me, or have the Slymepitters, #GamerGate, and the MRA’s all started to fall together into a Bose-Einstein Condensate lately?
I know just what you mean.
Obviously I’m missing the big picture (as well as the little and medium sized pictures). Could a Brave Hero stick their head out from under the bridge and explain #wherespzmyers?
I… just…
*headdesk*
That’s the intellectual elite there.
Yep.
Well played guys, well played.
*thud*
All atheism means is lacking belief in god. I have nothing in common with these losers. I have nothing in common with them. Oh fuck, but it’s on me! The inanity just won’t wash out!!
@Athywren — 20 October 2014 at 2:46 pm
“The stupid, it burns!”
>”Is there sympathetic magic involved?”
I’m pretty sure this is the correct answer. Which is kinda funny coming from atheists.
Well, the stuff is at about absolute zero intelligence, made of bozons, and acts as a big lump rather than a bunch of independent small twits.
Welp, I clicked the link before reading the warning about the ISIS photo. I went from eye-rolling to being incredibly disgusted with these people. What an extremely horrible way to edit a photo just for laughs. I’m sure the victim’s family would appreciate that disgusting fucking joke.
@blf – 20 October 2014 at 2:51 pm
Somehow they’re all in the same quantum state at the same time!
@17 kevinalexander
Except that brain neoteny happens to be a very possitive thing that has allowed our species to become what it is. The hability to learn throughout our lives is a neotenic characteristic…
These people aren’t neotenic, they are just infantile and silly…to an embarrashing degree…
Railing against FTB is actually a full on hobby for some of these people. I have no idea what happens when they date, or interview for jobs.
“So, what do you do in your spare time?”
“Well, I really dislike this feminist leaning blogsite, so I photo-shop one guy’s head into various photos . Oh, and also I make up hilarious nicknames for the bloggers, often involving slurs or insults about body type or age. Good times.”
“…..OK….”
@ azhael
It’s true that neoteny has been a positive for our species from our perspective. But that is a context specific thing and for the last 80,000 years or so selection has been very different. Just the existence of logical fallacies and the way our politics devolves into polarized, us-versus-them, hyperbolic, group-level pathology shows that what was once useful needs some cultural work to make compatible with modern living.
Let me put it this way. Tourette’s Syndrome involves a stage of cognitive development that occurs around age seven (adrenarche). The obsessions include violence, aggression, sex, and religion which I basically think of as a set of human social behaviors. That primitive, squalling, thing that overacts to everything that I have banished to an advisory role in my mind looks, smells, and feels just like this sort of behavior. I am sure that there will be parallels between this sort of behavior and developmental processes that are very interesting. I could be wrong, but I would bet money on it.
Ah yes, the slymepitters.
Once again proving that indeed some people really CAN’T be good without god.
(As yet untested if they can be good WITH god either)
atheist @25:
Lately? The two are playing from the exact same playbook of internet fascism.
Though now I wonder who came up with the playbook first. Certainly, neither one of the ‘Pit nor GamerGate.
For anyone as confused by this as I was….
It’s from Mykeru, a slymepitter, who managed to make a 40 minute video about how much he dislikes PZ Myers.
The call to action for #wherespzmyers occurs towards the end.
@39 Hj Hornbeck:
Are we talking about Faux News now? Oh wait, I am suspecting that there is some overlap as well. They are following their idols on Faux News – without the religion.
@Hj Hornbeck
Fundamentalist Christian homophobes?
Coded language: family family family – check.
Emotional arguments: WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!! – check.
Ethical gray areas: I’m not saying they deserve to be killed; God is – check.
Swarming – check.
Dirt gathering/fabrication – check.
Praise and kindness: sweet little Christians, just following God’s love, and just look at all our charitable donations… *cough*to our own church*cough* – check.
No idea if they were the originators, though.
Who invented conservatism? Edmund Burke? And what did people do before that, just burn witches?
This is brilliant. Given the discussions of “conservative humor” on FTB this past month, I’d say that this piss poor hashtag qualifies for almost every, if not every, part of what makes conservative humor unfunny.
39, Hj Hornbeck
You’re doing it wrong. Your supposed to use amount of physical exercise and public-ness of discourse to determine who is a Nazi! /sarcasm.
#40: 40 minutes? (and hey, you picked that comment # on purpose.) Don’t they know it’s supposed to be a TWO MINUTE hate?
And sorry, no, I’m not going to waste my time listening to all of that trying to figure out what’s was sloshing rancidly inside his cranium when he came up with this bizarre campaign.
Just been shut out of threads on a discussion board because I dared to post Anita Sarkeesian’s comment, criticised the atheist demigods (Dawkins, Hitchens, Thundert00t et al) and saying that atheists should try to stop being creeps. Previously, by the same group, I have been accused of being no true atheist, a White Knight and not really interested in women’s rights. Others atheists have been accused of being religious apologists, too middle class to be a real atheist or a real feminist …
… and this is (nominally) a left wing message board
atheist @26, Hj Hornbeck@39
If I had to guess, the basic parts of the behaviors were part of the smaller groups of humans that eventually started forming city-states. A lot of this looks like the way religious texts talk about their competitors in the area.
It was probably in the cities as well. Once the groups of people got too big to get to know on a personal level this was probably a common sort of occurrence. The internet is a whole new way for us to interact and still underdevelopment. This sort of psychology will need solutions.
These fuckwits really do live down to the AssholeAtheist™ stereotype, don’t they?
Scratch that, they’ve plunged way further down.
“it’s atheists doing this, which is the only part that hurts.”
It doesn’t surprise me at all, especially the timing. You have, recently and without reservation, broken ranks with multiple well-known atheists such as Dawkins and Harris (and I see a willingness to put principles in front of personalities as a *good* thing, of course). Both of those guys have thousands of adorers, and among those adorers are invariably at least dozens of dogmatic types whose worshiping of either or both of those guys is as rigid and emotionally driven as that of any theist. Keep in mind that all it would take to give the appearance of a “sizable” disenchantment with PZ Myers is a small handful of dudes smarting over the fact that you’ve criticized their heroes, and with ample time on their hands, to create the impression that you have loads of enemies among the loose online atheist community.
And this armchair analysis entirely omits your also taking on gamers and hackers, which is a whole other bucket of shit. Talk about people who know how to nourish and hold a grudge.
Tee! Hee!
I for one find these pix to be Absolutely Hilarious Humour.
If you do not, it is likely because you are a humorless Feministinazyist with smelly pit-hair!
hahahaha
I think we could take the opportunity and turn this into a “paste PZ’s face in random scenes” thing. Like Godzilla, or Disney movies.
Mykeru is one of the slymiest of the slyme. Shit, I think it pre-dates Elevator-gate…
So…boring troll is boring.
Athywren @29:
Ah, maybe that’s their game; forcing PZ’s hand on the “dictionary atheist” position.
In a way, this reminds me of a far-less-benign version of the fun everyone had with “Steve” at the ScienceBlogs.com meet-up in NY City over seven years ago.
They’re ours. Just some atheist epsilon males pretending to be housebroken. But the evidence says otherwise…..
I’m sorry we live in a world where this is even a thing. O_O I can’t fathom it, either.
Mykeru is like every other coat-tailer. And that’s all the slyme-types are – coat-tailers. I’d have no idea who any of them are if their schtick wasn’t to be as loud and obnoxious about people who have worthwhile things to say. In fact, I can say with 100% certainty that there have been no positive contributions made to atheism or secularism or skepticism by anyone faintly stinking of slyme.
@toska #33:
Ah, but you see the point is that PZ is the real misogynist because he promotes Gender Feminism and White Knighting and tentacle porn and he said something sexual to a woman once somewhere. The Slymepitters are the real feminists, because they believe in equality, which already exists except in the places where women have female privilege over men, and they stand up to the radical feminazis because they actually respect women as equal people.
And they proved it by photoshopping PZ into a picture of a brutally decapitated woman. Respect!
atheist @26,
It is kinda surprising since they lack that quantum “coherence-building extra estrogen vibe”.
Athywren @42:
That’s not what I had in mind. Think more along the lines of Zoe Quinn sleeping with a game journalist. It’s not unreasonable to worry that this might lead to a favorable review by said person, or favorable reviews by others done ass a favor. There are ways to handle this, such as announcing conflicts of interest, but you can see how there are shades of gray.
The vicious portion of GamerGate exploits this by hopping on the “unethical” side of the dilemma and pushing hard. The intellectual portion gets to play the “there’s two sides” and “Devil’s Advocate” cards against their opponents, and paint them as black-and-white thinkers.
Brony @48:
I’ve heard a few people claim fascism started back in Roman times, but there’s something fundamentally different about this type. Rather than organize around a state or heroic leader, there’s an emergent, ad-hoc organization around a perpetually shifting common foe. You really need cheap, rapid mass-communication to pull that off, which makes it a very modern phenomenon.
So when I say “fascism,” I mean it along the lines of Umberto Eco’s “Eternal” or “Ur-Fascism.” Not all of his 14 points apply, or apply well, but:
It’s not a perfect fit, but pretty damn close in my opinion.
Hj Hornbeck@61:
Damn, I notice this with american conservatives all the damn time. Liberals can be limp wristed, latte drinking, bleeding hearts while at the same time they are sneaky and devious enemies of freedom forcing their insidious agenda of tolerance, diversity and big government down everybody’s throats and will surely destroy america if they are not stopped now! They are pacifist wussies who are also extremely dangerous and are at war with capitalism, family and traditional values. Jesus, the American Right really are a terrifying bunch when you actually examine the way they use propaganda.
Oh, man, they are raging now.
• I’m a coward because I won’t watch the 40 minute video.
• I’m a liar because I’m saying that all the goofy photoshops are about beheadings.
• And I’m butthurt.
Please, please, hurt me some more just like this. I love seeing my antagonists so impotent.
Atheist @ 26: The Venn Diagram is nearly a perfect circle.
@PZ #63: Just to spare other people having to look at the other images, a brief rundown includes:
*PZ at a Nazi rally
*PZ and a tentacle in what appears to be some kind of sex act
*PZ and poop in several iterations (PZ in the toilet, PZ in a sewer pipe, PZ standing next to his book which is in poop)
Clearly, the mature discourse of a thoughtful, rational crowd.
When I became enthusiastic about rational skepticism I thought it was The Solution of Most Problems.
Now I feel humbled, the same things I loathed about religion are now coming out in the atheist movement.
It doesn’t feel anymore such a worthy cause, something I’d be happy to fight for. It’s a bit depressing.
@F.O. #66: <blockquoteWhen I became enthusiastic about rational skepticism I thought it was The Solution of Most Problems.
It still is. People just have to actually practice it, rather than adopting it as a label.
In other words, we aren’t letting you keep your old and comfortable male privileges. Humbling, isn’t it? Now, is the world better with you not expressing those privileges, or unconsciously writing them on the internet and unknowingly demeaning women?
Your choice cricket. Choose wisely.
Tom Foss
Clearly, the
maturemanure discourse of a thoughtful, rational crowdTer hurr hurr hurrrrr
I’m going to modify what I said earlier a little,
Humor suppresses fear. They would not be doing any of this unless they were afraid of something. Like a changing culture for example. So they have to fear PZ on some level.
@ Hj Hornbeck
Those are good points about the Ur-Fascism.
Framing it as a way to get what you want socially no matter the cost or self-delusion it’s almost like the ancient holy-book version is a really slow primitive form, and what you posted is a more streamlined modern version. The internet lets it organize at the speed of gossip as the threats and motivated reasoning shift all over the place.
That link bears some comparing to things. “Disagreement is a sign of diversity.” is so descriptive of so much of this.
What’s awesome to note is thus:
1) Most of the atheist rage at you comes from MRA assholes.
2) One of the figureheads of the MRA asshole *bowel* movement is Thunderf00t.
3) A few years back Thunderf00t threw an epic tantrum of a hissy fit because Coughlan616 and a few cohorts photoshopped Thunderf00t’s face onto the bodies of men doing kinky sex acts, and made a profile on a sex site with said photos. Nevermind that the photoshops were obvious and such; Thunderf00t tried to threaten legal action for “impersonation” as I recall.
What the fuck did I just look at.
I tried watching that video with the cow skeleton dude.
My big question is why the obsession with the “four horsemen.” It’s like he demands to have idols to worship.
One of the reasons why it took me so long to accept my atheism is because all of the atheists I ever knew were Ayn Rand cultists. I wanted nothing to do with these people at all.
One of the major planks of my identity is as a progressive. I was a progressive long before I became a skeptic, and I was a progressive long before I left behind supernatural beliefs.
If I were exposed to these new atheists now and their young MRA atheist rage toadies, I would probably never accept myself as an atheist. I’d probably still call myself a Christian in the vein of a John Shelby Spong.
Permit me some armchair analysis. I think these sad sacks have nothing of value to offer the world, and they know it. Their impotence revealed, they become enraged.
The irony is that the more they express their rage, the more clearly their impotence is revealed. They create their own Hell.
HAHA, you loser! I got a NINETY MINUTE video about how awful the block bot, the BBC and I are … 40 mins is barely an episode of Dr Who, I got the whole feature length hatefest. Which I’m proud to say I still haven’t watched, not even the first few minutes cos who is going to watch 90!!
Hj Hornbeck, w00dview (62, 63):
Kinda like Christianity as well.
The Good Guys are overwhelmingly, unstoppably powerful… and are locked in a day-to-day, desperate, last-ditch struggle for their very existence.
Aw. those unfortunate scared-of-cooties eejits.
Cooties! Cooties!! BOO! COOTIES!!!1!!
I’m not sure if I should laugh uproariously at how beyond ridiculous the Brave Heroes are acting, or if I should be sad that there really are people out there that are this pathetic.
#78:
I choose sadness ;_;
Well, it’s not really for you, it’s for them. Destroying effigies of you seems to bring them together. Isn’t it just so harmonious? Think of it, we could eventually unite the entire PLANET, against just ONE person, then kill that person and reset everything back to zero. I mean, ONE person’s life would be worth that, right?
Just to be clear, the above was meant sarcastically.
No.
Please don’t diss MS Paint.
It’s crayons for those who cannot be trusted to not eat the real things.
@Dark Jaguar
I know of at least two anime series with that premise.
@blf #84
Don’t
diss
crayons.
Totally OT below.
Okay, Nerd. Can you explain something to me? So, F.O. writes @ #67,
So you respond with,
Where the fuck did you read this from the statement above? I know you jumped all over F.O. in another thread recently, and despite your usual level of inanity in responding to people that you just don’t like (and you’re getting better at that, I’ve noticed, since your comments started appearing again after the hush function broke), F.O. was being an asshole. Still, do you think perhaps that chasing someone around only to take up the beef you have with them from other threads is the least bit childish and perhaps unproductive? Especially when that person hasn’t actually said anything like the words you put in their mouths? You’re not even making an argument, you’re just being mean and whether you can see it or not, you’re literally turning something someone said into something else entirely merely to make a rhetorical point to gaod them into responding to you in the way you want about something else entirely.
You want F.O. to start digging again? I don’t think they’ve fully processed the last exchange they had on that subject. Maybe they’re even capable of responding at a time when they have thought about everything they said and everything everyone else said.
In this thread, on this matter, F.O. appears to share the same feelings others have expressed, without subtext. I don’t imagine that you’re going to read into their words, pretend that they’ve said something else entirely in hidden text and post that in order to get them to say something so that you can call them a misogynist or whatever you intend to do in response? Hey, I also am disillusioned with a movement I had thought years ago was ‘The Solution of Most Problems’. Now I’ve found something different. F.O. could still do that and drop the confused baggage they’re carrying.
I don’t think what you’re doing is good.
Adding on to @Thomathy, Such A ‘Mo #87
Commenting rules: V 5.
Yeah Nerd isn’t being productive here. FO. expressed what was obviously an agreement that “Rational Skepticism™” hasn’t saved the atheist movement, even expressing fuckin’ contrition as having been perhaps part of the problem. Big clap here and frown at Nerd.
My personal favourite. Reminds me of creationists crowing about various biologists not wasting time dealing with them.
Jacob Schmidt, I’m utterly lost. What, exactly, is Mykeru proposing to talk about?
On that note, have I mentioned that I’m glad We have (mostly) gotten beyond verbal fucking seppuku as the bare minimum standard of “not a ‘not-pology'”?
Azkyroth, you think we’re even mostly beyond that? You have much better glasses than me.
@Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) #92
I’m not exactly sure what you meant by that. For me “apology” for things I’ve done wrong during my life is part of an ongoing process. Expressing contrition in public is part of that, but not of course everything.
For instance on issues of online harassment, misused satire, harmful messages and images and the like, I think most people who’ve ever expressed themselves online have had to learn to reject some stupid thing they said or did in the past. All of us are a part of the culture, the sexist, violent, racist, abusive, bigotted culture. F.O. was expressing some of that feeling, as well as disillusionment, and distancing himself from part of it. I don’t see any “beyond” past that, other than a continual restatement of that reality.
I’m being challenged to a debate? About what???
PZM@95,
About where you are?
I just saw a reference to gamergate on a hockey fanblog (that mighty bastion of feminism that is sports fandom) and the general reaction over there is one of abject horror at the level of vitriolic hate directed against women than the gamergaters are displaying.
PZ, I think you’re supposed to debate about how low you have come to respond to such low tactics as photoshopping you onto random images. I mean come on, where’s your integrity! As a manly man you should’ve just crushed #wherespzmyers between your manly thighs!
45: shockna
Random question but was this gone into detail in any specific thread? Conservative “humor” is one of my favorite subjects.
I don’t think he has anything to talk about. I’m pretty sure it’s just bluster: make a vague “challenge,” and then accuse the challengee of cowardice when the challenge is refused.
=8)-DX @84 & 87
Those are gorgeous!
Given that the You Can Play project for acceptance of gay athletes and reduction of locker room slurs started out of the NHL, hockey fandom at least may be a little more up on social issues than you might expect at first.
@#95 – PZ Myers
Debate Topic: “Does PZ Myers Suck?”
I dunno PZ, it could be good debate! (I jest)
It’s not his lack of faith they find disturbing.