That’s something to look forward to

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Justin Vacula is raising money to attend Women in Secularism 2.

He posted about me on his Facebook page a few times yesterday. He incited quite a few enraged comments.

(Images of disfigured women are added to a recent blog post from Ophelia Benson who writes “Maybe I should start wearing protection,” seemingly opining on the criticism, ridicule, and disagreement she experiences because she operates a blog… and makes statements people disagree with).
Get a grip, Ophelia. Women who have acid thrown in their faces are in a much different situation than you are and face real quantifiable abuse – much unlike what you talk of as being abuse and the ‘threats’ you claimed to have received. Even if we grant that people ridicule you, say nasty things, and make fun of you on the internet this is — by no means — tantamount to acid splashing.
[Warning: horrible pictures of women with acid-melted faces below the fold]

Photo: (Images of disfigured women are added to a recent blog post from Ophelia Benson who writes "Maybe I should start wearing protection," seemingly opining on the criticism, ridicule, and disagreement she experiences because she operates a blog and makes statements people disagree with).</p> <p>Get a grip, Ophelia. Women who have acid thrown in their faces are in a much different situation than you are and face real quantifiable abuse – much unlike what you talk of as being abuse and the ‘threats’ you claimed to have received. Even if we grant that people ridicule you, say nasty things, and make fun of you on the internet this is — by no means — tantamount to acid splashing.” src=”http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/c48.0.403.403/p403x403/230644_10151222875229327_1690518903_n.jpg” width=”403″ height=”403″ /></p> </div> <p></a></div> </div> <div> <form id=

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  • 3 people like this.
  • Gary Schmauss … I have no words for this…
  • Tami Carter This is a blogger being an attention whore, and doing it on the backs of victims of abuse, usually domestic violence.
  • Robert Pogo Suski Not to be an asshole, but seriously why is anyone giving her any attention, even criticizing?  It’s obvious she’s just doing it for attention, so the best thing would be to ignore her.
  • Justin Vacula Ignoring the nonsense doesn’t make it go away. Ophelia has a large platform, is respected by many, and shouldn’t get a free pass – especially when she continues to engage in character assassination campaigns against fellow secularists.
  • Robert Pogo Suski Fair enough on the character assassinations, but if an entitled moron is an entitled moron and nothing anyone says will convince them otherwise, hell to them any criticism is just an indignation they they’re right.  Plus anyone that wants to fill her hugbox is likey of either the same mindset or feeds off it in some way.
  • Katie Graham Wow. I’m absolutely disgusted.
  • Justin Vacula Let’s also not forget PZ Myers recent post comparing, as it seems from his post, people who critique femnism and feminists online to mass murderers:

    http://www.freezepage.com/1358546643PFGFKNQXAX

    “And these anonymous monsters on the internet who shriek affrontedly about women and feminists and moan that any feminist allies are ‘manginas’ — to me, every one of them has the name Marc Lépine, and is just hiding it in shame and fear and hatred and cowardice.”

    www.freezepage.com

    Free online service for freezing web pages. Save, share and prove what is on the web at a specific point of time.
  • Justin Vacula “To date, I have stayed out of this witch hunt against our most prominent leaders, thinking that “this too shall pass.” Perhaps I should have said something earlier. As Martin Niemöller famously warned about the inactivity of German intellectuals during the rise of the Nazi party, “first they came for …” but “I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a….””

    Michael Shermer

    http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=fi&page=shermer_33_2

    www.secularhumanism.org

    When I got involved in the skeptical, atheist, and secular movements in the 1980…s, one looked out over the audience and saw mostly old white guys. Today it is a different picture entirely. At the last Skeptics Society lecture at Caltech on December 16, for example, an audience of three hundred was r…See More
  • Dominick White What’s wrong with this fucking woman
  • Max Driffill That PZ post was simply ridiculous. Criticism = murder. Keep it classy.
  • Ophelia Benson Why did you add those phtos and why did you include my photo? And for that matter why are you persistently harassing me?
  • Justin Vacula Persistently harassing you? What are you talking about? (Anyway, this image is from the Slymepit)
  • Ophelia Benson What am I talking about – this! And all the other shit you talk about me. You never stop.
  • Matthew Justin Yeah, really, Justin? Why did you use her face instead of the pineapple? lol
  • Richard Murray WHERE’S THE TRIGGER WARNING, OPHELIA?!
  • Max Driffill Ophelia,
    I think your face was used, to demonstrate the strangeness of your comparison.
  • Justin Vacula Opehlia – you’re the pot calling the kettle black.

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels?s=justin+vacula

    freethoughtblogs.com

    Hahahahahaha Justin Vacula explains why what Michael Shermer said about atheism …as a guy thing was totally reasonable and ok and fine. He explains it in a comment on Jacques Rousseau’s post accusing me of misrepresenting Shermer, hyperbole, and failure to read charitably. Unfortunatly, the principle…See More
  • Justin Vacula I voice disagreement with you, you voice disagreement with me. How is this harassment?
  • Justin Vacula Ophelia – looking at search results of my name on your blog, I appear 17 times from August 19 of 2012 to the current date.
  • Ophelia Benson I wouldn’t voice a damn thing with you if you hadn’t lied about me on your podcast and then started cyberstalking me. You could always just leave me the fuck alone. But none of you shits will do that, then you dare to say we’re self-important if we object to it!
  • Daniel Waddell Come on now Ophie McPrune criticism is not harassment. If you stop saying stupid shit people will not criticize you any more therefore your so called “harassment” will end
  • Richard Murray Is cyberstalking what the cool kids are calling google now?

    Is anyone else amused by the “leave me alone” gambit played by someone who went out of their own way to BE not left alone?
  • Renee Hendricks Yeah. No pass on this one, Ophelia. You made this horrible incident about you. You’ve taken something that has fuck all to do with pissing matches within the online atheist community and twisted into something that garners you more pro-vic points. Disgusting.
  • Richard Murray I heard it expressed elsewhere today (NOT on the Slymepit, not by Myerku)…

    “The longer an Internet discussion goes on, the more likely that Ophelia Benson will appear and attempt to make it all about her”
  • Justin Vacula Ophelia, was discussed this podcast issue months ago. Your objection, as it seemed, is that I didn’t real the full content of the e-mails you received. Is that right? That’s not a lie. At the most, I would say, it wasn’t fully representing the issue, but the same conclusion is drawn nonetheless. People can find the e-mails, read the posts you had written, etc. I didn’t want to read all of the e-mails on the show because it would have taken way too long (and the show went over time, anyway).

    Either way, I felt you handled the issue poorly and that backing out of TAM was a poor idea. Obviously I am not you, as was stated many times, but from the information given I come to this conclusion as do many others who have listened to the podcast or not.

    –

    What is this cyberstalking you speak of? What do you mean ‘leave you alone?’ I’m simply, as I usually do, responding to your writing online (public information). I’m not sending you threats, intimidating you, or engaging in any criminal activity. If my communication (and not even directly to you) upsets you so much and you want me to leave you alone, why are you engaging in direct communication with me on my Facebook profile?
  • Ophelia Benson Well someone posted it on my wall and I thought you’d tagged me. That part was just confusion.
  • Justin Vacula I’ll put the invitation out once again, Ophelia, and even extend it. I’m very open to having a recorded discussion with you about all of this stuff…and I’ll even go on someone else’s podcast to have it. Hell, we can even chat at Women in Secularism (which I am planning on attending – so I would be available in person). If you want to talk about these issues, I’m all ears. We obviously have grievances about the state of the atheist community and, while these grievances are different, I’m open for discussion.
  • Chuck Goecke Anyone who worries about getting acid in the face should carry a small squeeze bottle of sodium bicarbonate – Baking soda slurry.  That would minimized the damage if applied immediately.
  • Travis Roy you’re going to WiS? You are a brave man Justin
  • Katie Graham I couldn’t let this one go. Hopefully, it’s my last blog post about Benson. She just a bad person: http://athmorality.blogspot.com/2013/01/driven-well-past-last-exit-to-relevance.html

    athmorality.blogspot.com

    The question of morality does not have to be answered by religion, despite the c…ontentions by theists that every law must have a “law giver.” In this blog I will explain why this is not true, periodically post interesting moral questions and show ways in which morality can be taught without the pres…See More
  • Travis Roy Perhaps people would switch sides and back Ophelia up if she just released that email from the JREF that she claims was dismissive of her concerns of the threats.. Oh, that’s right, it probably doesn’t exist.
  • Justin Vacula Travis Roy – I have been called a brave hero, you know :p
  • Mark Neil So, Ophelia, who “moderates” people (so their posts never see the light of day) as a matter of routine when they post dissenting opinions, complains it’s harassment when those people respond in the medium they do have available. Ophelia, do you seriously believe you’re above reproach or criticism? That your opinions, which you post for all to see, are not to be challenged? It amazes me how such a pitiable, helpless, victim like you can be a feminist role model.
  • Robin Lionheart When hater Jerry Conlon creepily tweets “@OpheliaBenson Maybe a vial of acid would do you some good. You already look like you were set on fire and put out with a wet rake.”, he probably intends that as dismissive mockery. But we don’t know that; he might actually mean it. And that sort of rhetoric validates Ophelia’s concerns.
  • Glenn Michael Scott I have a book on my shelf; it’s called “Why Truth Matters”. Maybe you should read it, Ophelia, and stop spreading lies, misinformation and … crazy.
  • Justin Vacula It’s unfair to, as Ophelia and her cadre often do, pick up random comments from people and cast this as representative of the people who offer civil disagreement. On any given issue you will find people who would post stuff like that online…
  • Robin Lionheart It’s also unfair to cast people who offer civil disagreement as the sort of people Ophelia seeks to protect herself from. She didn’t approach JREF with security concerns because of polite dissent.
  • Mark Neil Especially when those comments are a direct response to her own words, and not unprovoked. It’s not like that guy made that comment and then she wrote her article. She’s the one who raised the idea of acid attacks against her.
  • Mark Neil Robin. In this very thread, she accuses Justine of harassing her, and thereby being one of those people she needs protection from. Unless you’re suggesting he’s done more than attempt civil disagreement, I think you’r mistaken.
  • Victoria Carmel This is probably the most epic attention whoring I have ever seen.
  • Robin Lionheart I don’t think that image Justin composed up there constitutes “civil” disagreement, Mark.
  • Glenn Michael Scott I think it does, Robin. He’s saying that she’s engaged in RIDICULOUS hyperbole. She’s also minimising what happens to real acid attack victims. I can imagine her asking one of these women to console her because she got a critical tweet.
  • Liam Jones ” she didn’t approach the JREF with security concerns because of polite dissent”

    Too true, she approached them due to an email that wasn’t even approaching dissent.
  • Glenn Michael Scott Ophelia Benson is one of the most deplorable people I have ever heard of. She is conniving and dishonest. You disgust me, Ophie.
  • Robin Lionheart Justin’s image pairing those images of acid attack victims with one of Ophelia trivializes their suffering, Glenn. Nothing she wrote about Sergei Filin did.
  • Glenn Michael Scott The yellow part highlights writing, Robin.
  • Glenn Michael Scott Oh, so we add words to aid interpretation, do we? She said what she said, not what you wish she said. Also, what actual threats has she received?
  • Robin Lionheart Fine, I’ll take back the word “threats”: She compares harassment against Sergei (specifically Facebook hacking) to harassment against herself (albeit not in that criminal form). Sergei’s persecutors turned out to be violent; she suggests maybe she shou…See More
  • Glenn Michael Scott Words: “maybe I should start wearing protection” and “sounds like ‘the atheist community’”. Seriously, fuck her. She has no integrity.
  • EllenBeth Wachs Abbie Smith calling Ophelia “Nanny Benson”, Daniel Waddell referring to her as “Ophie McPrune” Matthew Justin asking why you didn’t use the picture of the pineapple instead.
    Is this the type of civil disagreement you talk about?  Stirring this shit up on your wall can be a type of intimidation tactic.

 

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