It will come as no surprise to any reader of this blog that hold freethoughtblogs.com in very low esteem. I was very pleasantly surprised then to receive an email from the creator of a spot-on parody site of FtB and Skepchick. It is called freethought blahgs, and it is spot-on. I don’t know who the creator is, but they spent a lot of time an energy relentlessly parodying everything that there is to despise about FtB. They have the smugness down. The arrogance–100% correct. The writing styles–I defy you to tell them apart. And their motto, “thinkin’ so you don’t have to” is exactly the attitude thrown out by PZ, Rebecca, Greta, Stephanie, and the rest. Of course, if you dare to think a divergent thought over on the real FtB, you get banned, like poor Thunderf00t, who had been promised freedom to write about what he wanted.
They even have a portion that perfectly parodies Thunderf00t’s former place of honor on FtB:
It is wonderful that larger and larger parts of the skeptical community are realizing the truth–FtB and Skepchicks have become a cancer on our movement. They want to take over–that much is as clear as glass. Many people, SA included, don’t want that to happen. It is great to see some real thought going into calling them out.
Here is a great example of some of their work. It is from a fake blogger called Femagouge. The post is called:
Why conferences need sexual harassment policies dictated by bloggers
Now let me paint the best-case near-future, if secular and skeptical leaders do the right thing.
1. Feminist bloggers declare the status quo a nightmare, including the trailblazing groups and progressivist leaders. (check!)
2. Failure of any leaders to immediately acquiesce is determined to be unconscionable sexism; disagreement is unacceptable because feminists only want what is right and just and never err in choosing the correct course toward them. (double-check)
3. Fear of being called out pressures secular leaders to comply, as American Atheists has already done. (check)
4. The feminist bloggers promote/author exclusively policies with vague, over-reaching language such as proscribing “unwanted sexual advances” which could mean almost anything. We’ve already largely succeeded in getting to this point. The secular leaders are then exposed to huge new legal liabilities and take on safety responsibilities they have no means to cover, but that isn’t our problem.
5. As time goes on, we push for more and more restrictive, nebulous policies (just as we have done in the last month) which permit us more and more control over the discourse at conferences we do not run. Any resistance to these changes will be taken as overt sexism. Why else would anyone oppose feminists who are trying to make women safer?
6. The new, nebulous policies will be used to “question”, with extreme prejudice, conferences/organizations who have showed inadequate allegiance to the feminist cause. Harassment victims will be located as necessary, and based on their testimony alone, we will conclude the organizers have violated the policies we pushed them to adopt ultimately pressuring leaders to resign, and leaders we like to take their place. This will have the happy side effect of introducing a fear-based atmosphere at conferences. Harassment will markedly decline, as people become terrified of interacting with each other just the way adults are afraid to interact with kids as a result of pedophilia-paranoia. (See, proof that this CAN work)
7. We will use the leverage from harassment policies to influence other key aspects of conferences such as the topics, invited speakers, banned speakers, choice of venue, accessory recreational venues and events, and more!
This is, of course, what I have been saying for quite some time. And yes, I love the link back to SA! Thanks freethoughtblahgs.com,
Go check it out. You won’t be sorry that you did.