{"id":3410,"date":"2015-06-14T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T05:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2015-06-12T20:14:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T01:14:10","slug":"the-great-fire-of-atheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2015\/06\/14\/the-great-fire-of-atheism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Fire of Atheism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like I’ve been called out<\/a> once again by one of the\u00a0bloggers at FtB. As per usual, I’m not allowed to reply there, so I’ll have to reply here.<\/p>\n

Misogyny has been the great fire of atheism. 2012 saw a pitched fight for smoke detectors to be used at cons, in which, as thick<\/a> plumes<\/a> billowed<\/a> from every window, DJ Grothe said TAM was totally fire-free<\/a>, no one having caught so much as a whiff of smoke, and women shouldn\u2019t assume too much<\/a> from the sky high column of it over the building.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If I\u2019m following Alex\u2019s analogy correctly, \u201csmoke detectors\u201d are intended to be analogous to anti-harassment policies at conventions. I\u2019ve never objected to well-crafted policies, and I am on the record<\/a>\u00a0here in support of them. As\u00a0part of the organizational team for FreeOK (some years ago) I argued in support of their adoption of a reasonable conduct policy as well. Maybe others were involved in a \u201cpitched fight\u201d over the placement and availability of smoke detectors,\u00a0or maybe that expression is\u00a0just bit of hyperbolic artistic license.\u00a0Moving on:<\/p>\n

Later, Reinhardt et al decided piles of soot and ash<\/a> wherever some male skeptics went didn\u2019t conclusively prove fire damage, and so there was no reason at all to check for any.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, assuming I\u2019m following the analogy correctly, \u201csoot and ash\u201d represent the barrage of allegations of sexual impropriety, sexual harassment, and sexual assault which poured forth back\u00a0when the floodgates opened<\/a>. Allegations such as those against Bill Nye<\/a> and Lawrence Krauss<\/a>, which were hastily retracted or redacted when no one stepped forward as an eyewitness. Allegations such as those against Steve Packard<\/a>, which proved to be nothing more than rumor built up on a foundation of fearful speculation. Allegations such as those against Benjamin Radford<\/a>, which were recently publicly retracted<\/a>. Not to mention random\u00a0allegations of cyber-harassment that I cannot even begin to understand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maybe the piles of soot and ash aren’t actually what Alex presumes? Perhaps\u00a0they are, in fact, mostly dust in the wind?<\/p>\n

If rather than Bindel, Jane Clare Jones<\/a> or other transphobes<\/a>, someone on this network promoted men with antifeminist records \u2013 Shermer<\/a>, Reinhardt, DJ Grothe \u2013 would she accept their history wasn\u2019t worth mentioning?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Assuming feminism<\/em> means what what I think it does<\/a>, it’s a fairly damning accusation to say that someone has an “antifeminist record” and a history worth mentioning. Then again, maybe antifeminist<\/em> is\u00a0code for\u00a0anyone who dares to openly\u00a0question the veracity of the factual claims and the utility of the moral pronouncements ringing forth from Freethought Blogs.<\/p>\n

In other words, a freethinker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like I’ve been called out once again by one of the\u00a0bloggers at FtB. As per usual, I’m not allowed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-plus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}