You might be wondering who that would be, but the answer is right in your face. It’s ME. Yes! According to YouTube comments, which are clearly an unimpeachable, credible source, I am responsible for destroying the atheist movement. Me! And you regular readers of Pharyngula get a mention, too. It’s all our fault.
(Warning: YouTube comments below.)
I still get people who are resentful and angry that I published a letter from a woman who was mistreated by Michael Shermer.
I’m impressed that you were able to lay so much bullshit in such a concise manner. What you have is a bunch of second hand material you have contrived to fit a narrative you thought would drum up traffic for you shitty blog. You have not only excluded the possibility that women have agency and are able to make decisions – such as choosing to have another drink, but you also ignore the fact that women actually have sexual urges. Did this woman complain? No. The reality is that she had a few drinks, found Shermer attractive and decided to fuck him. I think it’s quite ironic that a biologist could forget the old adage ‘men display, women choose,’ as it is fucking ubiquitous among primates. But I must be forgetting, you’re a ‘feminist’. According to your bizarre set of beliefs, women don’t have agency, sexual desires, accountability for bad decisions, the ability to defend themselves from criticisms, etc.
Edit: Seriously, PZ, you are just a dishonest sack of shit. Circa 2010 this community was about keeping religious fundamentalism out of the classroom. It was growing momentum and had a real chance at making a difference. But parasitic shit-eating cum-dumpsters like you broke that community by trying to co-opt it for your own political ends. You killed the atheist movement, PZ. A collective was united by the idea that education is sacrosanct, and you along with your 3rd-wave cohorts tore it apart by trying to indoctrinate free thinking individuals into your creepy religion. Hope you’re proud of yourself.
So…I’m the one denying women’s agency, but he gets to assert, against a woman’s own words, that she “decided to fuck him”. He had nothing to do with it, it was entirely the woman’s choice.
I have never heard the “old adage” that ‘men display, women choose’ in a biology class. It sounds so sweet, inocuous, and unreal. Men are just passively trying to look good, no pressure, and women are entirely the active agents in all sexual interactions. I’m sure many rapists use this kind of logic to justify their actions. “She made me do it!”
I also kinda suspect that this guy was never much of a fan of education, or that his participation in the movement was entirely about keeping education “sacrosanct”, or he wouldn’t have dived off the deep end at the mention of the word “feminism”.
I don’t want to leave all you readers out of this. You’re also responsible for the destruction of the atheist movement, you know.
+PZ Myers By helping destroy the atheist movement with your retarded beliefs, you have done more to help creationism than the whole CCP combined. You have no place here, PZ. Leave. Go back to your shitty little blog with your shitty little friends an share a pint of piss while you cry into each others arms about patriarchy and rape culture.
I confess that despite all their assertions I don’t feel like I’ve ever been powerful enough to destroy the movement. It’s still an ego boost, though, that the people who hate me so much are such terrible human beings. I’ve got the right enemies.
And don’t ever change, oh tentacled overlord of the left wing, or I’ll have to stop clicking on yer blog.
I guess I’m not atheismiing right.
What can I say except “All hail your Cephalopodliness, what will you destroy now?”
The four horsemen superceded by cthulhu.
Most evil and powerful atheist in the world, huh? I guess congratulations are in order?
They say that as if destroying the (white hetero cis male) atheist movement is a bad thing.
Head… spinning …. dizzy with… power
In other news, PZ’s cat gets second place.
Yay?
Knut is crying. He thought he had a lock on second place.
See what you’ve done?
“And I heard, as it were, the sound of thunder; and one of the Beasts saying, ‘Come and see’; and I saw; and Behold! a pale squid; and he that sat upon him was PZ; and Heck followed with him…”
Finally
Yeah, clearly it was believing a woman who accused Shermer of raping her that was responsible for bringing down the entire atheist movement.
Wow, if that were even true, the only thing that proves is how weak and shaky the atheist movement was.
All but it’s all true ! The Publisher of Plausible Pillaged Protests, Poopyhead teh Phraud, clearly has — probably locked-up in a secret under-volcano-vault guarded by Kraken — the Faerie-Free Fantom, a Force which Frustrates the Fabulated Fakery of Freethinkers !!
Just look at the name of this site…!!!
Release The Fantom !!!! Atheists Shall Not Pass !!!1!
I’m flattered really.
From the OP
Amen PZ.
Many years ago, in my first year at university, I got very drunk a few times, and quickly concluded that Talking to God on the Great White Telephone wasn’t much fun and so vowed never to get drunk again. A pint of beer or a glass of wine is fine, but no more.
I’ve only been been seriously drunk one time since: a friend took me to a swanky restaurant where the waiter kept topping up my wine glass. It was amazingly easy to underestimate how much I had drunk – and in this case the waiter wasn’t even actively manipulating to get me inebriated.
So yes, go screw yourself, Shermer.
https://imgur.com/r/HighQualityGifs/cJlBUVL
So now that atheism is gone, do I have some time to think about which religion to adopt, or do I just default back to the last one I believed in?
That would be atheism, according to great sky faeries-believers.
Oh, that was easy. What’s next? Capitalism? We can has the Fully Automated Luxury Space Communist Revolution now?
Ive been an atheist for over fifty years. Never heard of this Shermer character until recently. And what movement is this guy talking about? Where is my membership card, when are the meetings, and most importantly, are there going to be donuts? I too am a feminist, but that hasn’t anything to do with my not believing in someone’s sky pie.
Evuul atheists:
#1: P Z
#2: PZs cat
#3: Me!
Hmm.
Er.
Wot?
Guh?
City Sushi?
Paging Dr. “R”, code blue.
About drinking… I have a story (and before I start, it ends well). A friend of mine, when he found I’d never been drunk before, encouraged trying it once. This was at a time when both of us lived with a couple other people in a big rambling house. The short version is I got drunk, he got drunker. I remember returning to the room we’d been drinking in but walking down the hall a few times to check on his progress as he slowly, with many breaks, crawled towards his bedroom. During this ridiculous but amusing in retrospect scenario I have to admit that several things never occurred to me.
Groping him
Seeing what he had in his pockets (if being drunk means you let someone else do what they want with your body as some asshats suggest, how is it meaningfully different if they do so with your wallet as well?)
Doodling
Basically anything else that requires starting from a position lacking in basic respect for another person
I think you have to try pretty hard to make the case that drunk means “do what you want” and apply it to real people in real situations. It sounds fine as an isolated, simplistic theory in a vacuum but make it interact with the complexities of the real world and it’s true colors quickly emerge: being drunk means predatory assholes will see you and think “I’d like to do whatever I want and now there are less barriers to that”
loop @17: God’s name is Ralph? I thought it was Harold Wishart.
YES! WE MADE IT! hi-fives everyone
Now, what’s next on the feminist-gay-pinko-communist-muslim agenda?
Pestering Soros, Big Pharma, whoever’s in charge of climate change, and others for the missing cheques.
Oh, and the revolution is in about 24 hours…
“Ms Chokesondik” in OP: … you have done more to help creationism than the whole CCP combined.
Uhh… Community College of Philadelphia? Chinese Communist Party? Concealed Carry Permit?
That first commenter, who is Australian, decided it was a rational decision to vote against legalizing gay marriage in his home country even though he supports it, just because he was pissed that (supposedly) an “SJW” got an opposition TV ad banned.
Even his fellow bros though he was being an idiot.
The “House of Atheism” strikes again. Divide this shit up, nobody wants to be in the same house as Sam Harris and his ilk.
This reminds me : can anyone explain me why Shermer is still around ?
In the US it is my understanding that journalists or actors or comedians have had their careers more or less put to a stop by accusations of sexual misconduct. Bur Shermer was accused of rape, no less. And yet to my knowledge he is still around.
Also, why does nobody get sued about this ? This is a very serious accusation. I am aware that the answer to that question might be very legal-technical and above my head.
Really Doc ,i always had you down as a peaceful ,flower smelling kind of guy .Didn’t realise you were the devil himself .
On the other hand ,anyone who loves critters with eight limbs has got to be suspect .
Ms Chokesondik
1 day ago
+PZ Myers By helping destroy the atheist movement with your retarded beliefs, you have done more to help creationism than the whole CCP combined. You have no place here, PZ. Leave. Go back to your shitty little blog with your shitty little friends an share a pint of piss while you cry into each others arms about patriarchy and rape culture.
3
SHITTY LITTLE FRIENDS ,SHITTY LITTLE FRIENDS ,how very dare you.
I knew you could do it, PZ! :)
@damien75:
Well, ultimately it’s a decision that Shermer makes, presumably with a lawyer. We’ll never know, really. But PZ has blogged here before about a certain amount of evidence that there’s probably a pattern Shermer has of sending cease & desist letters but not following up with lawsuits when those letters are disregarded.
Though I can’t know, the most plausible explanation I’ve got is that he knows he can’t prove that anyone is defaming him and that the costs of such an action are too high to pay (though it might be economic cost or maybe threats to his reputation that he wants to avoid). In that case, what we’ve got is a bully making intimidating threats without any intention of following through – which makes him a liar as well.
The real limiting factor on filing a lawsuit is mere willingness. Whether or not someone wins a lawsuit is up to many factors – including the law, the judge, the lawyers, and not least the facts. That would be technical. But whether or not a lawsuit is filed is just dependent on willingness and a couple hundred bucks.
@33, damien75
It’s wildly inconsistent. There have been some high profile instances lately, but sexual assault by no means ends your career (hell, sometimes it doesn’t even stall it).
James Franco, Jeremy Piven, Brett Ratner, Tom Sizemore, Kevin Spacey, and Jameis Winston (I could go on, but you get the point) all still have careers or projects in the world despite their sexual misconduct issues. Shit, look at Roman Polanski. Dude straight up raped a minor, pled guilty, fled the country when it looked like his sweetheart deal was in jeopardy, and kept making movies for the next 40 years and is still celebrated by many American Hollywood types.
You want to get really depressed, look up lists of celebrities who have committed domestic assault. It’s CRAZY just how many there are.
World = works
Ever since I got my new phone the autocorrect has been really off.
@36 Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden and @37 Matrim
Thank you.
To Matrim I would say that Kevin Spacey’s career does look in jeopardy.
Nobody will sue Shermer ?
@37 Matrim
I tried to follow your advice. Maybe it would go faster to read a list of (A-list) celebrities who did not commit domestic assault.
If it were true, I’d thank you, but this “atheist movement” is one whose commitment to, enough recognition of, the very notion of truth (or even facts) I hold in the same respect I hold creationists, anti-vaxxers, or even Republicans.
May the current “atheist movement” die and leave no trace.
From the end of PZ’s last Ask Me Anything video. True story.
Funny enough, I would have thought that “he got me drunk and then raped me” counts at least as a complaint, but what do I know?
Rebecca Watson’s going to be pissed that you’re taking credit for all her hard work in destroying atheism, PZ.
Matrim wrote:
Including Johnny Depp, who is still working with Disney. The hypocrisy of this one is particularly apparent given the recent firing of a certain other individual (I don’t especially have a problem with the firing itself, only the situation and context around it).
I recall similar claims that the nasssssty SJWs (or feminists, or someone similarly evil) caused the failure of Reason Rally 2016. (Note: I have no idea whether anyone who matters considered it a failure. Having been to both, I know it wasn’t anywhere near as big as RR 2012). What struck me then, and again with this latest, is just how little credit these clowns give their fellow rationalists. The movement has only been split (or “destroyed”) to the extent that a largish fraction of it decided, for reasons that seemed good to them, to concentrate on other issues, or deprecate certain Thought Leaders[tm]. Apparently, that could only be because we’re all a bunch of gullible idiots who are duped by obvious frauds like PZ and Rebecca Watson and “indoctrinated” into a “religion”, yadda, yadda. Seems to me Superior Intellects like Malefica and Chokesondik should be glad to be rid of us, if we’re that easily fooled. Either that, or they’re just pissed off that they didn’t fool us all first, and so get to call the shots.
Early one morning before the sun did rise
And the birds sang their sweet song
The trolls proposed to the professor
They had a false deceitful tongue
Poopyhead, Poopyhead won’t tell me true
For all that I’ll gladly give you
You may answer only yes or no
Will you do so or no
To you I will give the twelve great squids
That lurk in a shady cove
Never has a saddle been mounted on their backs
Nor had a bit in their beaks
To you I will give the twelve fine stills
That brew all hours of the day
The liquors are made of the best grains
And the quaffing mugs are silver
To you I will give the gilded sword
That jingles from fifteen gold rings
And strike with it in debate as you will
On all the stages you will conquer
To you I will give a brand new shirt
The lustrous best for to wear
It is not sewn with needle or thread
But crocheted of the coarsest hair
Gifts such as these I would gladly receive
If you were truthful
But I know you are the worst troll
From the spawn of Harris and the Dawk
The trolls ran out the door
They wailed and they shrieked so loudly
“Had we gotten the poopyhead
For their torment I would have joy”
Poopyhead, Poopyhead won’t tell me true
For all that I’ll gladly give you
You may answer only yes or no
Will you do so or no
(The above is based on a translation of Herr Mannelig (video, showing a possibly slightly different translation).)
I’m sorry if I missed it, but when was the last time a Creationist or other Fundie used the allegations against Shermer as a point against science or atheism? And even if they did, it seems to me the fault lies not with PZ but with Dr. Bicycle-Shorts for not being in able to keep his libido in check? It seems that like a petulant 7-year-old, it’s worse to be tattletale than to be a rapist.
We’re the most evil and powerful Atheists in the world! We did it guys! We’re finally more powerful than the Lizardmen and Illuminati! Golf claps all round!