It prohibited their ability
Well that was the best laugh I’ve had in a few hours.
Five hours ago: Pangburn Philosophy cancels all the things.
(You remember what “Pangburn Philosophy” is, right? A guy called Travis Pangburn who sells tickets to people who want to see Michael Shermer n Lawrence Krauss [oops] n Richard Dawkins n Sam Harris talking to each other for hours and hours and hours and hours?)
A Day of Reflection conference – Cancelled
Official statement by the Pangburn Philosophy Corporation. pic.twitter.com/7lbFbeDRDy— Pangburn Philosophy (@PangburnInspire) November 13, 2018
“what we believe to be some of the most important conversations in human history” – oh yes Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins agreeing with each other that women can be so tiresome; MOST IMPORTANT IN HISTORY. But despite that importance, they find they can’t remember what they did with all the money, so, soz, tour’s off.
Two hours later:
Off Twitter for awhile. I'll be focusing on the book I've been writing about my experiences with @PangburnInspire. There is much to say.
— Travis Pangburn (@ThePangburn) November 13, 2018
An hour after that:
Travis, have you lost your mind? You have a moral and legal obligation to refund ticket holders. What is your plan for doing this? https://t.co/kLLyxwqpNi
— Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) November 13, 2018
Yes, that was a great laugh.
Well, for once I agree with Sam Harris!
Check out the event. It’s hilarious.
https://www.pangburnphilosophy.com/dayofreflection
Especially this bit: “If one of the speakers can not attend, we will do everything possible to replace that speaker with someone of the same notoriety.”
This guy’s a riot.
Not that I had much respect left for Rebecca Watson after she proved totes OK no-platforming feminists despite Dawkins blackballing her from skeptic conferences, but WTF was she doing signing on with the Pangburn nonsense?
At the bottom of the page, in bright red letters: “No Refunds. No Exchanges. No Exceptions.” Hmm. I wonder what people might have wanted to exchange their tickets for. The Fyre Festival, perhaps?
But how does Harris know that it’s a moral obligation? Has he done the appropriate brain scans on a representative sample of Pangburn ticket holders and *scientifically* determined that human happiness would be increased if they got their money back?
$299 + tax with no refunds for A Day of Reflection
Even Daddy Dearest Harris gave him a kicking! That was very nice.
I smell lawsuits a’comin’. “No Refunds” is only a shield if you can legitimately argue the initial advertisement was made in good faith; at this point, I’m pretty sure it’s been established that a lot of those initially listed speakers had never committed to the event at all.
Mind you, a large number of folks who would want to see a Harris/Shermer/Kraus/Dawkins/Patterson shitfest are the sorts of people I have little empathy for, but litigation would be entertaining to watch.
I know, the “No Refunds” bit is pretty brazen given all those people in Australia who are STILL asking Travis when he is going to give them their money back for the event that was canceled after they’d bought tickets.
I don’t think you can sell a thing and pocket the selling price while not producing the thing sold and then point to your “No Refunds” policy. That’s just…you know…theft.
Yeah, when I make a reservation at a motel, and they have a no refunds policy, it’s because I choose not to go, or am unable to go. It isn’t that they won’t refund my money if it turns out there is no actual hotel there (well, that might be their policy, but I don’t think they’d get away with it. That’s called fraud).
On the legality of him keeping the money; it seems to me’s brazenly stated he’s going to try a Phoenix Company maneuver. He’s trying to transfer the assets to a new company, leaving the liabilities with the old. Perfectly legal if done right in many common law jurisdictions. The trick is to transfer the assets before the old company commits an act of bankruptcy.
It has been quite common among property developers in Australia. The regulatory approach is to identify and sanction directors who are repeat offenders, because transferring assets between companies is too hard to regulate.
Oh, that’s hilarious.
To resurrect a bit of British WWII slang: We should refer to Pangburn from now on as Prang-and-burn.
I’ve always liked “prang.”