Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A Correction Not Of My Making

In my long post Sunday, I quoted several passages of PZ Myer's outrageous and, I would imagine, libelous blog post,  "What do you do when someone pulls the pin and hands you a grenade?"   One of them is mentioned on page 3 of  a letter from Michael Shermer's lawyers to Myers, noting that the version I copied from Myer's blog was a version that differs from the one Myer's originally posted.   There is a crucial difference in that the first version says

“The anonymous woman who wrote to you through Carrie is known to me, and in fact I was in her presence immediately after said incident...." 

The version I copied from Myer's apparently revised post reads

“The anonymous woman who wrote to you is known to me, and in fact I was in her presence immediately after said incident....”

Apparently Myers may not have even had the accusation directly from the woman he says made it.  His claim of how he learned of it is certainly deceptive if that's the case

So I’ve been given this rather…explosive…information. It’s a direct report of unethical behavior by a big name in the skeptical community (yeah, like that hasn’t been happening a lot lately), and it’s straight from the victim’s mouth. And it’s bad. Really bad.

So the charge may well have been third hand by the time Myers' posted what he did.   The lawyer's letter indicates that the "Carrie" in the version of the "confirmation" e-mail is Carrie Poppy another person involved in and around the "Free Thought" Blogs, which a number of commentators have said has sort of been sniping at Michael Shermer for a while, now.

In a more recent post Myers' asks "Are We Having Fun Yet?"  discussing what apparently are charges being made against CFI, a  "skeptic"-atheist organization I've been critical of in the past but which, unless they are actually guilty of anything in regard to sexual harassment, aren't guilty of that.  My first temptation was to sit back and watch people and groups I don't especially like fighting among themselves to their mutual and self-inflicted harm - I have been extremely critical of the James Randi "Educational" Foundation that Carrie Poppy makes accusations against a the link above.   But this entire thing has gone far beyond where that would be either ethical or especially edifying.  CFI was mentioned by some, speculating that it was the "organization" charged with sweeping the accusation under the rug on Myers' comments.

That Myers' apparently classifies these charges as "fun" is pretty disgusting.  He does get in what seems to be becoming a habit, issuing preemptive self-pity based on precognitions of future negative consequences for himself and taking the opportunity to get in a final dig.

And now Chris Clarke spurns CFI-LA. The informal offer he mentions was the result of a conversation I had with CFI-LA; they were considering bringing me out for a Darwin Day event, and also snagging Chris to share the stage, which would have been excellent.

It may all be moot now, anyway. I suspect I’m on the CFI blacklist along with a few other speakers whose names you can probably guess…but they won’t be the well-known men who have reputations for womanizing. Funny how that works.

While I'm certainly opposed to what is generally covered under my rather old-fashioned conception of "womanizing" - a word which one might suspect Myers' chose due to its less actionable ambiguity - it's a new one on me to have "free thinking," "skeptical," religion-bashers standing up for old fashioned sexual propriety. In my understanding of the term, it most definitely and absolutely doesn't cover rape, even cads of my and earlier generations would not do that.  Though it definitely covers philandering, and fooling around and even seduction of the willing,  something I'd always thought was one of  the more popular attractions of the "free thought" set.  But these are murky and frequently brackish waters.  If you're going to dip into them, you'd better be careful to point out exactly what you mean and have first hand evidence to back it up or you may find yourself opening long letters from law firms if not the police.   I'd definitely think that the use of alcohol should be avoided before swimming.  Let me put in another plug for acting like an adult instead of a teenager.

But what Myers' did certainly doesn't count as fun and rape isn't anything to center the PZnut gallery fun-time around.

Update:   For any of you who read through large numbers of the comments at PZ's blogs before,  here's his condemnation of .... well.....

Here’s another challenge for the growing atheist movement: can we avoid the trap of charismatic leadership and the cult of personality?

Can we avoid the trap of charismatic leadership and the cult of personality?

Um, PZ?   Or should I say that   PZ?

You really don't get why, from you, that's kind of ironic to about the 60th power?

10 comments:

  1. Well, that's a lawyer's letter, alright.

    Now I wonder if Myer's will do as the letter demands?

    I guess we'll know by the end of the week.

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  2. Sorry, here I go cluttering up, but from the new Myers' post you referenced, this sentence:

    Who do you trust?

    O noes! The question of faith!!!!! ("Faith" in the koine Greek of the New Testament is more properly translated as "trust." And really, even in English and outside religious circles, they mean the same thing).

    That, actually, is the fundamental issue: who do you trust? Anonymous allegations made on a popular blog? Or the people who deny those allegations?

    It's amazing to me how some people have answered that question.*

    *(Spoiler alert: I don't trust either party. I remain, one could say, agnostic on the question. That is, I need much more information than is available to me.)

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  3. Oh, clutter away with abandon. It's such a new experience to have comments. I guess if I'd decided to abandon registration and moderation before I'd have had more.

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  4. Oh yeah, it's exciting to have comments.. and check my IP. You're getting readers and comments from Central Asia!!:) You're world famous.

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    1. Oh, oh. Looks like I'd better be more careful with my editing then. Fame carries responsibilities I've always been able to avoid up till now.

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  5. I almost wasn't going to forgive you for linking me to that "thing" in the update, but then I read this:

    One of the joys I celebrate in escaping from religion and church is no longer participating in this unbridled authority and reverence given to the pastor; the position of entitlements. Their needs and desires are always met or a concerted effort is attempted by the membership with much toil and sacrifice. The pastor is doused with honor and respect, given a god-like public image, and proclaimed a truth teller. A celebrity is added to the culture.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOHOOOOHOOOHOOOO!!!!!! I laughed 'til my sides split!

    58 years in churches, man and boy; four years in seminary, another four years in active parish ministry; raised in the Belt Buckle of the Texas Bible Belt, known more different kinds of Baptists and Methodists and Foot Washers and Primitives than you can shake a stick at!

    And I have NEVER known a church like the one described in that passage. Known lots of churches to chew pastors up and spit 'em out, to chase 'em out and treat as mean and foul and vicious as any group of people ever could (known some really nice churches, too, don't get me wrong). But that description is COMPLETELY from La-La Land!

    I mean, that's comedy gold, it's so ridiculous!

    You know what else? Suddenly I don't care so much about what these "atheists" think! They're dumber'n a box o' rocks if that's what they think reality looks like! "God like image"? Labelled a "truth teller"! Lord above, son, that's the last thing people wanna hear is the truth! "God like"? Are you crazy? Hell, I had people in a church tell me I talked about God too damned much! A celebrity! the only "celebrity" you get is that everybody has an opinion about you, none of 'em really know you, and all the opinions are bad ones! (You don't hear about the good ones until you leave.)

    Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!

    My sides hurt. I gotta lie down.....:-)

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    1. I've been tempted to see how many of the "Free Thought" Bloggers have either denied the possibility of free thinking or thinking or consciousness. It's like that Corrente post about what a brilliant move it was for Snowden to set up in safe secure Hong Kong while noting the triad gangs who, if the CIA paid them to do it, would deliver Snowden tied up and gagged. It's like they figure their superior scienciness and atheism exempt them from cohering.

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  6. Since I won't go there on a bet, you're gonna have to tell me if Myers succumbed to legal pressure and decided his hide was more important than the moral cause of protecting defenseless women from brutal rapists with bottomless wine bottles, or whether he stood strong as the defender of female everywhere by continuing to be a beacon in the darkness warning women (who apparently don't know any better) away from the horrors that are...well, I can't say. I don't want to be accused of libel, now, do I?

    But inquiring minds want to know.....

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  7. As of 10:25 PM EDT he hadn't removed it. I'm wondering what will happen next, I hope someone puts any documents online. They're so much more reliable than rumors. One thing that is reliable is that PZ is an ego-maniacal attention-seeking missile.

    I've been looking around the "Free Thought" blogs. They make the ScienceBlogs look something like intellectually serious.

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  8. Well, now we have a chance to see it go on for awhile.

    One more reason to go on living....

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