No, it was just the validity of the argument...
Put it this way, the harassment of people like Natalie Reed had boiled down to "Claims He Is A Woman" level of stuff which is pretty hurtful for a trans person (It's like posting a picture of me or Ian Cromwell and going - Thinks they are people). People are honestly sat there claiming that "Acid Throwing" is a joke.
My criticism of A+ was not the same as others. I pointed out technical aspects, the inability to grasp that feminist theory is often inapplicable in practice and that they criticised some things and wanted me to do things in specific ways that would actually HARM women outside their experience. I do not agree with their concept of safe space ONLY, the inability to keep a regular debate is a major problem.
Thunderfoot joined a group of people he hated. Then ranted on about feminism and the whole network he was on and leaked backroom conversations and the email addresses of people who subscribe and read along with IP addresses.
That was ALL he did. Imagine all your posts were just slagging people off and then you basically leaked documents that we try and keep secure for a variety of reasons.
Many of my initial readers were from parts of the Middle East since I was born there. Many can be hit with death penalties. Leaking their like Thunderfoot did would have not been cool at all. A lot of the reasons you post on a website in such a way is due to trust that they won't leak your emails to all and sundry, and Thunderfoot sought to damage that.
Thunderfoot also outed people like Natalie Reed by doing this who was writing under a pseudonym because surprise surprise, she is trans and many people are scared or biased against them. In fact one of my massive concerns was that I write under a pseudonym because I have pissed off Animal Libbers who have tried to harass me before (I actually believe I lost a previous syndication because they harassed someone I was talking to.) I used to get death threats and I live in a place where insulting religion can get you jailed. Getting my actual name put up there is "fucking stupid" because I do not want to deal with the kind of crap Taslima has to (And she deals with a lot of crap. At least once a year someone takes umbrage to something she says and they send the cops after her). Think of it this way? Who the hell names their kid Avicenna?
However, I have also stood against A Voice for Men who are currently running a series of posts of outright lies blaming the rapes in India on women. Quite a few atheists hang out there, quite a few of them hate FTB and anyone by association. The Amazing Atheist even had the founder of that site on his show. Which was what caused the FTB vs Thunderfoot "fight". Reap is a friend of his and FTB quite rightly was critical of Atheists giving voice to professional misogynists. AVfM is not running things to make things better for men, it is throwing bricks at women, often women who really need help.
I don't think Atheism Plus functions properly because it's tried to be separate and it's use of ONLY Safe Spaces means that discourse on any topic is near impossible as is correcting someone. That is it's problem. You can literally hold stupid views and no one can tell you otherwise.
Damage Control? Okay that may be the case but I am a feminist too. I agree that Atheists should take the same steps that geeks have taken to try and stamp out sexism within our communities and activities so that we can progress as a group. It's not someone diametrically opposed to A+, it's someone who has been doing frontline medical care in a developing country recognising flaws in a plan and who cannot point out those flaws.
I was never as popular as Thunderfoot was. I don't have blog posts that have hit a hundreds of thousands of views. In fact I was asked to join because I was writing relatively new stuff outside the western hemisphere and writing about things that atheists across the world are struggling for. If it was damage control there are umpteen bloggers who would fit the bill more perfectly than someone who posted two or three posts about it then stopped because I had said everything that needed to be said and anything else is just a repeat.
Many of the people kicked out basically broke rules of house bloggers. And even A+ers have been kicked... Everyone has a comments policy of their own, if you break it you take it. Same as any forum. There are rules here too, break them and you get banned. People broke explicitly stated rules.
Put it this way, the harassment of people like Natalie Reed had boiled down to "Claims He Is A Woman" level of stuff which is pretty hurtful for a trans person (It's like posting a picture of me or Ian Cromwell and going - Thinks they are people). People are honestly sat there claiming that "Acid Throwing" is a joke.
My criticism of A+ was not the same as others. I pointed out technical aspects, the inability to grasp that feminist theory is often inapplicable in practice and that they criticised some things and wanted me to do things in specific ways that would actually HARM women outside their experience. I do not agree with their concept of safe space ONLY, the inability to keep a regular debate is a major problem.
Thunderfoot joined a group of people he hated. Then ranted on about feminism and the whole network he was on and leaked backroom conversations and the email addresses of people who subscribe and read along with IP addresses.
That was ALL he did. Imagine all your posts were just slagging people off and then you basically leaked documents that we try and keep secure for a variety of reasons.
Many of my initial readers were from parts of the Middle East since I was born there. Many can be hit with death penalties. Leaking their like Thunderfoot did would have not been cool at all. A lot of the reasons you post on a website in such a way is due to trust that they won't leak your emails to all and sundry, and Thunderfoot sought to damage that.
Thunderfoot also outed people like Natalie Reed by doing this who was writing under a pseudonym because surprise surprise, she is trans and many people are scared or biased against them. In fact one of my massive concerns was that I write under a pseudonym because I have pissed off Animal Libbers who have tried to harass me before (I actually believe I lost a previous syndication because they harassed someone I was talking to.) I used to get death threats and I live in a place where insulting religion can get you jailed. Getting my actual name put up there is "fucking stupid" because I do not want to deal with the kind of crap Taslima has to (And she deals with a lot of crap. At least once a year someone takes umbrage to something she says and they send the cops after her). Think of it this way? Who the hell names their kid Avicenna?
However, I have also stood against A Voice for Men who are currently running a series of posts of outright lies blaming the rapes in India on women. Quite a few atheists hang out there, quite a few of them hate FTB and anyone by association. The Amazing Atheist even had the founder of that site on his show. Which was what caused the FTB vs Thunderfoot "fight". Reap is a friend of his and FTB quite rightly was critical of Atheists giving voice to professional misogynists. AVfM is not running things to make things better for men, it is throwing bricks at women, often women who really need help.
I don't think Atheism Plus functions properly because it's tried to be separate and it's use of ONLY Safe Spaces means that discourse on any topic is near impossible as is correcting someone. That is it's problem. You can literally hold stupid views and no one can tell you otherwise.
Damage Control? Okay that may be the case but I am a feminist too. I agree that Atheists should take the same steps that geeks have taken to try and stamp out sexism within our communities and activities so that we can progress as a group. It's not someone diametrically opposed to A+, it's someone who has been doing frontline medical care in a developing country recognising flaws in a plan and who cannot point out those flaws.
I was never as popular as Thunderfoot was. I don't have blog posts that have hit a hundreds of thousands of views. In fact I was asked to join because I was writing relatively new stuff outside the western hemisphere and writing about things that atheists across the world are struggling for. If it was damage control there are umpteen bloggers who would fit the bill more perfectly than someone who posted two or three posts about it then stopped because I had said everything that needed to be said and anything else is just a repeat.
Many of the people kicked out basically broke rules of house bloggers. And even A+ers have been kicked... Everyone has a comments policy of their own, if you break it you take it. Same as any forum. There are rules here too, break them and you get banned. People broke explicitly stated rules.
What difference does it make to be an atheist of 999,999 gods rather than a 1,000,000?
A Million Gods
A Million Gods
