It’s hazardous duty, writing on FreethoughtBlogs. There’s a small squad of vicious trolls waiting to make up stories about you, and the latest target of their venom is Avicenna. It’s gotten ridiculous: the myth they repeat over and over again is that he’s constantly lying on his blog. The latest “evidence” is that some of the email from haters that he has posted can also be found on public sites.
I hate to be the one to break the terrible news to you, but trolls are the most uncreative, tedious people you’ll ever encounter. I get lots of hate mail, too, and one thing you’ll discover is that they typically aren’t bright enough to write something on their own, so they’ll just copy and paste some other rant they find, or they’ll write one grand essay they’re very proud of and they’ll spam it everywhere.
So to announce that because they found duplicate copies of some incoherent angry rage-mail means pretty much nothing. It definitely is not evidence that Avi is making stuff up.
That’s the quality of their arguments, and to further reinforce my argument that trolls or uncreative, it’s getting repetitively spammed all over the place. They’ve got a lie and they’ll stick with it, in hopes that dishonesty will be overcome by volume.
Furthermore, they’re now making other absurd arguments.
Would be funny if Avicenna turns out to be some unemployed white guy in Edinburgh, a la Amina A./Gay Girl in Damascus #ftbullies #charlatans
— The Other Atheist (@TheOtherAtheist) January 1, 2015
Would be funny if Avicenna turns out to be some unemployed white guy in Edinburgh, a la Amina A./Gay Girl in Damascus
They know nothing about Avi; they believe it’s possible he’s an unemployed white guy in Edinburgh
. Yet at the same time they’ll announce with absolute certainty that all of the details of his personal life are false, that he’s not actually a doctor, that he hasn’t actually been active in Indian health care, that he wasn’t actually born in Kuwait, etc., etc., etc.
It’s all just pure lashing out without cause, throwing shit at a wall in hopes that some of it will stick. And I suspect there’s a fair amount of racism behind it. They also claim that because he’s a prolific writer, he can’t possibly be a real doctor; strangely, they don’t make that same argument about Orac. I guess only white people are capable of being productively literate.
For the record, I’ve personally met Avicenna, and I know his real name, making me a million times more informed than these wankers. And yes, he is what he says he is.
Would be funny if the trolls on Avi’s blog turn out to be merely trying for a reaction rather than actually working to uncover some sort of telling truth.
(Word tells me that’s 154 characters, including spaces, and so might be 14 characters too long for comprehension by your average troll. Maybe if I replaced the “to” with “2”…)
I heard that Avicenna was actually born in Kenya and is a secret Muslim raised by a terrorist sympathizer father to destroy America. WHERE’S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!?!?!
And how can we trust you? For all we know, you are just an unemployed white guy in Edinburgh! Are you even a doctor in Indian health care? Your house of lies is falling down, Meyers!
Actually, to be fair, antivaxers and quacks do use that same argument about me. However, it should tell “The Other Atheist” something, though, that he is using an argument favored by pseudoscientific cranks and quacks. Sadly, it probably won’t.
Gee. I can’t imagine why Avicenna would so carefully guard his real name and face. It’s not like there are frothing assholes out there trying to tear him down at every turn.
(Please stay safe, Avi.)
Yes, their preferred M.O. is to come up with lies and then expect Avi to rebut each lie painstakingly, while they continue to a.) repeat the old lie as if it’s never been refuted and b.) come up with new lies and demand they be refuted. It’s beyond ridiculous. See the comments here
http://freethoughtblogs.com/amilliongods/2014/12/21/i-am-truly-disgusted-by-avicenna/#comments
for this in action
…so basically, Sea Lying.
Pteryxx:
Win.
I met him too, even ate food with him and his (presumably) mythical OH .. Latsot was there to witness this, so I think this means we are all PZs sock puppets. It’s the only rational explanation, if ur a pitter…
I’d hate to be accused of implying that minorities can’t deal with the issue without help, but I think that it’s past time we brought in a great white.
Gen, Uppity Ingrate and Ilk,
Oh boy, johngreg, the most boring of internet whiners and pompous asshats anywhere.
Here is another tweet by The Other Atheist (@TheOtherAtheist):
Look, if Alex Jones suddenly started ranting in favour of my side, I wouldn’t call it a victory. I would seriously question my own point of view.
This guy probably has delusions of being an intellectual powerhouse, I would feel sorry for someone like him, except he bullies good people like Avicenna. Fuck that guy.
Do we have any evidence that Avicenna is actually human? Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that he is some blue-green algae floating in the pacific ocean? I mean, I’m not saying he is, but I’m just asking questions.
Actually, do we have any evidence that Orac is actually human and not a Plexiglass box of multicolored blinking lights, like his namesake on a 35 year old British SF serial? :-)
Orac is bluffing. Orac and Avicenna are the same person. It’s all a conspiracy.
So I missed all the drama. What caused the trolls to lie about Avicenna?
Sigh. That’s all I can come up with. Just a big sigh of disgust.
Then there’s also the issue of this other Indian guy whose personal pictures Mr White Guy from Liverpool * is constantly stealing…
*insert English city of choice here
I heard that Avicenna is a demonic extension of the hivemind used to bait trolls into screwing up.
Maybe I need to check my sources…
No my sources seem fine.
“The Other Atheist” is an incarnation of our old friend Victor Ivanoff, also known as Franc Hoggle, Felch Grogan, PZ Menses, and Barf Simpson.
Would be funny if Avicenna turns out to be some unemployed white guy in Edinburgh…
Given that a huge proportion of these trolls are unemployed white guys, and given that some of them are almost surely in Edinburgh, it would indeed be funny if Avicenna was able to live among them for so long undetected.
ibyea: I think it’s because he overtly opposes MRAs.
I’m guess it was their poor character traits.
ing. Guessing.
hyperdeath:
I swear that the entire anti-FTB brigade is just a group of six or seven people and their dozens of sockpuppets.
Ah, but see, you are the evil master behind this blog full of sliminess and corruption! That means, if you make claims like this one, obviously you are lying.
Unimpeachable logic… these guys are masters of it. (In their own minds, at least)
Raging Bee
Of course.
Didn’t take Hemant Mehta long to jump on the Avicenna-must-go bandwagon. Perhaps not surprisingly, the comments contain gleeful ‘pitters.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/01/03/another-atheist-caught-in-case-of-serial-plagiarism/
Orac,
I watched your TV show. The part i didn’t get was why you were vulnerable to a take-over by transdimensional baddies. Surely that part could have been sorted out by a minor modification less drastic than the one Blake did on you.
— — — —
BTW I am not human. I am a sentient software bot prorammed to destroy Real Merica(TM)
@28 mhiggo
Some of the examples cited in hemants post are serious
Vague accusation. Care to clarify?
Nerd
Go to the link in #28.
I haven’t double checkeded the plagiarism accusations on Hemet’s blog, but if they are true, it’s serious stuff.
Avicenna is gone.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2015/01/03/avicenna-has-been-removed-from-freethought-blogs/
I’m having some fun at Hement’s place. Regardless of the outcome with respect to Avicenna there is still a huge amount of unfounded anit-FTB bullshit being slung around as well as some dumb rationalizations for beliefs. It’s quite amazing.
While I hope that there is some rational explanation with respect to Avicenna, it will be what it will be. I will assess the evidence fairly and call out all the other bullshit. Monkey politics is sure messy.
Well
fuck