It’s been a strange couple of days. The Trump camp is going down in flames, and I think they’re lashing out in frustration at totally irrelevant people, including me. I’ve had a sudden surge of off-the-cuff email from people angry about something, and they’re just randomly yelling at me. Dozens of emails all at once, all carping about something — transhumanism is good! You’re a goddamn cultural Marxist! Of course women and black people are biologically different from white men…and inferior! Are you Jewish? — it’s just gotten weird. Here’s one example; apparently, everything is my fault.
Richard Carrier
Your social justice warrior bullshit is making the entire atheist community look bad. If Richard Carrier hadn’t participated in the same kind of thin skinned, self-righteous bullshit you’re practicing right now, I would feel sorry for him.
Sent from my iPhone
Roger Ward
This is so typical. None of the current emails include a specific reference to anything, or even so much as a link or a quote — it’s all just furious blaming for something that has annoyed someone somewhere, and that something has provoked them into targeting me.
Which actually makes me kind of happy. I’m glad to steal the credit for social justice ‘bullshit’ anytime.
I’m also amused at the assumptions. There is an atheist community, and they’re looking bad, because someone is demanding equality and respect for all of its members? I don’t think the problem is one old nerd cocking an eyebrow and criticizing the normally uncriticized bad behavior of a few people, guy.
The mildly deranged penguin is annoyed at poopyhead — nothing usual there, she’s annoyed at most things / people / Universes, et al., and poopyhead is one of the usual annoyees, someone to rant at / about whatever his (or your) demons, kraken, and mysterious things bubbling in the vats — currently, I think, for the blog not being all about cheese, the rumours poopyhead eats peas even where or when there is cheese, and moar stuff to do with cheese, plus the anticipated complaints this sentence is a long paragraph, convoluted with many asides, rambling, and contains — probably (almost certainly (on typical form)) — offers to Typos, all of which are good reasons for annoyance, so invoke a usual annoyee, poopyhead, which makes sense.
Maybe that bubble that so many used to pretend that everything was fine with the Trump campaign finally burst. If that is the case I hope it does not get too bad as the message turns to doom and gloom.
I wonder if many other communities are going to get the same thing? In many ways the Trump supporters look like a collection of similar sorts of people from lots of social places with an emphasis on Rs.
It is with great sadness that I now predict that, fifty years from now, there will still be “trump won” conspiracy believers. The movement will begin before the election, peak on inauguration day, and never decline. It will never end in my lifetime. It may outlast the human race.
The life expectancy of the human race is longer if Trump is not elected.
I feel vaguely insulted that none of them is blaming me for the world becoming a slightly better place.
I mean, they could at least blame me for the Nobel prize going to that long-haired commie hippie, or something. Also, we have sunshine here in Umeå…and since evereyone knows that absolutely everything is a zero-sum game, it obviously means that I am stealing the sunlight from America, and inflicting rain on the U S of A.
“The Trump camp is going down in flames”
never mind the water, let the motherfucker burn,
burn, motherfucker, burn.
Isn’t there a sketch with John Cleese being extremely angry about something, but it is never revaled exactly what about? That is a great symbol for the Tea Party movement.
PZ, you could probably use some good news to cheer you. So here’s some good news:
You are going to receive a free book in the mail. This is a first edition copy of Michael Shermer’s Why People Believe Weird Things. You may recall that this was discussed in comments to a previous thread about Shermer. This first edition copy has this gem of wisdom from Shermer about genetics:
You can
a) Verify the existence of this passage, altered in subsequent editions
b) Have a good chuckle
c) Perhaps offer it as a prize or auction it off, so that one of your readers can also get in on the joke. I know Ichthyic would be eager to have this.
Found it in a used shop. Should arrive within a week or two.
@birgerjohansson
This one, maybe? Actually, he seems to make a more coherent argument than some people.
PZ, I seem to remember that you wrote something about male chessplayers not speaking out against participants of the WCh for women being obliged to wear hijabs. Perhaps it’s time for a rectification?
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/us-female-chess-champs-iran-hijab-protest-gains-ground
Ex WCh Gary Kasparov is according to many the strongest player in history.
It hasn’t for the hardcore.
In lunatic fringe land last night, Trump is ahead in the polls, Hillary will be arrested any minute, unless she dies first, and Trump will win the vote in all 50 states and Canada and Mexico as well.
Those people within the right wingnut bubble truly do live in an alternate world.
@raven
I don’t disagree about the hardcore. But it’s probably more like an onion than a bubble.
Some of them have enough social awareness outside of thier affiliations to realize that the Trump is looking worse and worse to people outside of themselves. They will start getting panicky before the hardcore and want to talk about it, as well as find someone outside of themselves to blame.
The reactions of the hardcore to them and the rationalizations will be interesting. I just hope the effects don’t get too “interesting”.
re 11:
I saw that map too. Presented by Eric Trump, where he painted each state with the color of their nominee, IFF [nb] only men could vote. Almost all the states were painted Trumpublican Red, with only a couple sporting the HRCBlue.
They surely are in a delusional world, while all verifiable polls show most Red states dropping Drumph in favor of HRC, with only Fla and Ga, clinging to Drumph.
Election results on the 8th, will be very interesting. I’m betting Drumph’s plan for a potential concession speech is pure vapor.
I’ll bet [sarcastically] his concession speech will be a tweet “you voters lost by not picking ME, I will find out who stole the potus from me. Believe me. I know. Stolen. Don’t turn out the lites, BRB”.
{tweeted at 3:30 am, of course}. /s
pfffft
The latest story circulating among the loons, is one about Bill Clinton’s abandoned child. This is actually an old story, dug up by ghouls. And….it is false.
No lie is so ridiculous that they won’t repeat it.
I refuse to consider myself part of the same “community” as these anti-SJW anti-PC whiners. If that means the “atheist community” is divided, then that’s a good thing. I have more in common with progressive Christians than some of these atheists, for fuck’s sake.
15. @Saganite
It’s that simple, isn’t it? Authoritarian personalities think it’s more important to be united against the bad guys than to make sure that you’re not a bad guy yourself.
I’ll absolutely stand up for the pro-opression shitheads when they’re the ones being oppressed for their atheism. But I don’t think that’s likely to happen again any time soon, unless they poison the rationalism well so much that everyone thinks atheists are racist asses.
birgerjohansson:
How about Donald Duck flailing his fists about while quacking incoherently?
re birgerjohansson‘s question about Cleese:
YES, indeed, a plethora. View any episode of Fawlty Towers and Cleese’s Fawlty exemplifies anger about even the most trivial conundrums. While being a very polite *gulp*: “Oh excuse him, he’s from Bar-Se-Lona *wink*”, being his most ubiquitous comment about the Spanish servant he employs.
Being an arrogant B&B owner, who declares, ” I knows everything, I be watchin you” makes Fawlty temptingly conceivable as a prescient parody of that creature Drumph that has infiltrated our system. But woops, not even close enough to a Drumph caricature to be considered a parody. oh well.
Cleese, I’m sure, would abhor having Fawlty denigrated to being a parody of Drumph.
Fawlty was actually funny, to laugh WITH, while Drumph can only be laughed AT.
@slithy tove:
In fairness, E. Trump did not create the map; he reposted it from 538 — where it was contrasted with a mostly-blue “if only women voted” map:
• http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-women-are-defeating-donald-trump/
Owlmirror:
It wasn’t a repost of 538’s map. The Trump map shows the same red and blue scenario as the 538 map, and was clearly drawn from it since no actual survey published shows that scenario. However, the actual image is a novel one created by the campaign, and it was– crucially– presented as actual standings, not a counterfactual hypothetical.
@Nentuaby:
OK, thanks. I’ve been reading fivethirtyeight, and I’d just seen those maps — and I figured that Eric Trump wouldn’t have been so dishonest as to erase the context.
More fool me.
@davidnangle #3: get the T-shirts printed now, you’ll make a fortune come November. “Trump Won 2016”.
@PZ, why not cover this for the actual reason that the idiots will follow?
“Your a commie”?
Or other Russian employee?
A hell of a lot of this tripe can be directly traced back to St Petersburg.
I’ll not discuss my sources, as I don’t want to be sitting in the cell next to Manning, whose adjacent cells should be full of those who ignored regulations that removed his (at the time) access to classified information.
Upon flagging of personnel for deleterious personnel action, such service member shall have all access to sensitive information terminated.
Such didn’t happen, a *lot* of people entirely failed to perform their lawful duties, punishable equally.
Hell, despite some playing about that was shenanigans, damaging to the nation, this former IASO would let him or her go home (Information Assurance Security Officer). The rest, remain behind bars.
They failed to perform their duties, he/she got to act out, our nation had sensitive information disclosed, in a highly guided way (contact me personally for a discussion, can mod or PZ facilitate it? some things won’t be discussed, but technical legal issues and specific regulations will be discussed, along with “chewing the fat”).
I’d also like Caine along, the kid keeps me honest. ;)
OK, Caine doesn’t like me at all, hence, my preference for adjudication.
Yeah, I’m dead serious.
Just remember, US centric, I work east coast midnight shift, so there’ll be time delay. I’m off on Thursdays (but, tired, as the last quarter hour is what counts for start of shift) and Fridays.
That said, I’d enjoy more time with Caine.
I’d love face time as well. I’d, of course, bring my wife. One or the other would swat me with a trout or three, when I go off of the wire. ;)*
*She gave up when she accidentally swatted me once with a cast iron frying pan that was a century old. The bottom fell out when she tried to make gravy.
She was trying to replicate a scene from “Roseanne”, her wrist cracked and the pan followed momentum. Seeing that, via a reflection from our Philadelphia row home kitchen window, I acted as if nothing happened.
Besides, my head is actually notoriously hard.
Thanks for all contributors for drilling through, keep up the excellent work!
But, yeah, true story.
I’ve a few military stories, along similar lines, although, density would’ve been a failure mode. ;)
I might play hard headed, it’s for a reason.
Education.
From Caine, I’d love a year or ten together.
There are a few others that I’d also love a decade or two with. Some, due to philosophy, which I’d love to learn. Others, for pure, distilled knowledge.
One singular goal, at a minimum, is to learn something new each and every day.
One other option, which I am guarded, an open invitation for my wife to visit a specific familial group of the Hopi for my wife, I’m not invited (I’m comfortable with that).
I’m very protective of my disabled wife, hence, some concern, along with some concern over the US government ignoring damned near every treaty with those who came with the continent. I’ll trust the latter with her before the government that I’ve served for nearly 30 years.
I know for damned sure, both of us would *love* a couple to few weeks time to meet and actually learn each other.
Something odd, but, we’ve learned to trust odd feelings.
Those kept me alive during things, erm, unfortunate. She’s grown, but ungrounded.
The rest, we’ll discuss in person only.
If it’s any consolation, I happen to agree with Hbomberguy’s assessment that the vociferous anti-“SJW” mob will troll and scream themselves into irrelevance.
http://ask.fm/Hbomberguy/answers/139608468267
davidnangle wrote:
Believe it. Trump has been planting that idea in the minds of his supporters and stoking their racist fears: RIGGED!!! | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS
– Trump
Dangerous.
I have also noticed this effect.