May 4
First thing in the morning. Again, why Twitter blocking doesn’t work – because any old asshole can reply to someone you’ve blocked and then her sniping at you turns up in your feed. Lucky you.
AmbrosiaX tweets
One more thing,
@OpheliaBenson , try doing some actual critical thinking instead of just applauding any article that makes men look bad.Pfunk-the original @ Gluonsrule tweets
@AmbrosiaX@OpheliaBenson yeah, maybe that will happen.
“One more thing” is it – so there’s a whole series then. “AmbrosiaX” is obsessed with me, and I don’t even know who the fuck she is apart from being someone who spends hours every day sniping at me and other Hated Ones. Yet she accuses me of doing nothing but “applauding any article that makes men look bad.” Is that really what I do nothing but? No.
May 3, again
In reverse order, hence chronological order
Ambrosia X tweets (and tweets and tweets)
@Eunecromancer@aratina@tkmlac@ool0n I’ll tell you what happened with the acid story. As I said, Ophelia blogged about an acid attack andtried to relate it to her “activism” as though she could be a target for such a horrific attack…
A tweeter who followed many of us (but no one seemed to know him well) said something about OB having
a facial. I think he was trying to make a juvenile jab at her appearance. It definitely was not a
threat. We all said it was inappropriate and he deleted his account, probably out of embarrassment.
I’ll take the lies in order too. No I did not say anything about “my ‘activism’” – I never say anything about my activism, because I’m not an activist, and I don’t claim or pretend to be. What I said was
Interesting. One minute it’s just hacked Facebook accounts, the next it’s acid attacks. Maybe I should start wearing protection.
That’s all. I said it at the end of a post that quoted from a news item about the Bolshoi artistic director who got acid thrown in his face.
The tweeter did not say “something about OB having a facial.” He said
Maybe a vial of acid would do you some good.
Followed by a long-winded version of “you’re incredibly ugly.” Yes, of course part of the idea was to say that a vial of acid in my face would make me less ugly and thus do me some good, but that was only part of the idea. “Ambrosia” announces that it was definitely not a threat. That’s easy for her to say. It’s less easy to say “definitely” when the threat (or “joke” with threat-like overtones) is aimed at you as opposed to someone else. I would feel distinctly uncomfortable – in fact I would feel like a complete shit – looking at a ”Maybe a vial of acid would do you some good” said to someone else and dogmatically announcing it was definitely not a threat. But not “Ambrosia.” “Ambrosia” apparently feels perfectly fine about going on and on and on and on and on about how no threats aimed at me are actually threats and I deserve all the shit thrown at me for musing on the possibility that an extended campaign to throw shit at me could eventually turn violent.
May 3
The shameless lying never fails to surprise me.
A comment on a demented, paranoia-riddled post by David Osorio at Skeptic Ink:
Theo Ffensivatheist
There are some people in the comment section of Butterflies & wheels that are trying to convince (I’m not sure who) that Justin represents a REAL threat & some are seriously talking about bottles of acid being thrown in Womens faces as a real possibility (all without ANY kind of evidence of course). Is there anyone here willing to truthfully say they think they’re trying to be honest & genuine here. Personally i see it as the worst kind of hyperbole &/or downright dishonesty & another example of what we’ve come to expect from many at FtB. The ONLY person who’s even possibly facing any kind of threat is Justin, who’s going to be surrounded by several hundred people, the vast majority of which will disagree on many issues & idea/l/s he holds dear. We can only hope that the most impressionable of those in opposition to his presence don’t try to play the hero. I wish him all the best but can honestly say, “Rather him than me”. I know he’s doing this for all of us. (Even if some don’t realize or appreciate it).
DaosoriosWhy am I not surprised!
Shameless lie. Nobody has said one word about Vacula throwing acid in anyone’s face.
May 1
I was told Vacula is chirping aggressively at me again. Sure enough. I suppose this is by way of demonstrating to a fascinated world that he’s not harassing me in the least and never has been.
Justin Vacula tweets
So, how much longer until Ophelia Benson drops out of
#WIScfi speciously claiming she is threatened? She did it once before…#ftbullies
A bystander comments.
Jessie Lewis tweets
@justinvacula Your hatred for others is all that’s keeping you in the public eye, isn’t it?Justin Vacula tweets
@Jessie_XL I don’t hate. Anyway, feel free to check out my activism and appearances – some of which made global, national, state, local newsJessie Lewis tweets
@justinvacula You are deliberately offensive to others and then seem angry when they refuse to engage with you.
@justinvacula You have a massive ego as well and bask in the attention you are getting from your petty vendetta.Vacula tweets
@Jessie_XL I find intellectual dishonesty quite repugnant – when people talk a big game and refuse to defend their ideas with detractorsDeliberately offensive? How? …and I thought offense was the problem of the person claiming offense, not the person giving it?
That’s what he thought?! Well that would explain a lot!
Sure, and rudeness is the problem of the person claiming rudeness, not the person giving it; same with cruelty, aggression, lying – it’s all the problem of the person “claiming” rudeness et al., not the person giving it. All is subjective! Nothing is real! And everything is “the problem of” the person being acted on, not the agent. How very convenient – until of course you are the person being acted on.
April 29 part 3
Because of the sheer weirdness.
April 29 part deux
Dang, it’s hard to keep up at the moment, even with the tiny fraction of the total that I choose to document. My audacity in telling Vacula to leave me alone after he tweeted about hoping I would chat with him at WiS2 has triggered a new avalanche.
Like…
And like
And like
April 29
Russell Blackford tweets
Whether or not you agree with Justin Vacula’s opinions (and I disagree with many of them), this witch hunt against him has to stop.
This “witch hunt”? What witch hunt? I told him not to approach me. That’s not a witch hunt. He’s been relentlessly monitoring and harassing me for almost a year, and I do not want to interact with him in real life. Telling him that is not a “witch hunt.”
Vacula is complaining that I also said that if he didn’t leave me alone I would file a complaint. Well? I’ve told him to leave me alone before and he has never done so, therefore I wanted him to know that I would in fact make an official complaint if he refused to leave me alone at the conference. It’s that simple. He doesn’t leave people alone simply because they ask him or tell him to. More is needed.
And this has nothing to do with Vacula’s “opinions” or “disagreement” – it has to do with actions.
Sara E Mayhew tweets
Report real online stalking/harassment to ISPs. Using the terms irresponsibly like
@pzmyers@opheliabenson hurts real victims.#ftbullies
PZ Myers tweets
Exactly. What’s so hard about that? RT
@InMyUnbelief:@saramayhew So…don’t approach them.@MsMondegreen@OpheliaBensonEristae tweets
@saramayhew@pzmyers@OpheliaBenson
Seriously, why the F is the response to this not, “Oh, you don’t want to talk to me? Okay, I won’t.”Mayhew tweets
@Eristae@pzmyers@OpheliaBenson they just want to setup a chance to kick someone out. Regardless of whether it’s harassment or not.Mayhew doesn’t know that, and it’s not true.
Mayhew tweets
@MsMondegreen They are drama-mongering metabloggers acting like high schoolers. NO one should approach them.@pzmyers@OpheliaBensonThere are more like that, but I’m bored with posting them. But I wanted to post a sample because Mayhew has been ordering me to remove her from this page, on the grounds that harassment is a crime.
April 28 item 3
Mayhew is back. I was hoping she would never sneer at me again, then I could refrain from ever mentioning her again. It was not to be.
Sara E Mayhew
#wiscfi is already an unwelcoming atmosphere thanks to @pzmyers @opheliabenson’s decrees of who may approach them. immature unprofessional.
Right. It’s terribly immature and unprofessional to tell a harasser to stay away from you. The mature professional thing to do is just shut up and take it, whatever it is.
April 28 part deux because I missed it before –
Justin Vacula tweets
@caias@OpheliaBenson@karla_porter Too bad Ophelia won’t come on#BraveHero but we appreciate early promo. Maybe she will chat at#wiscfi ?Ok this is specifically for Vacula: do not approach me at WiS2. Stay away from me.
As you know, ignoring such instructions is grounds for removal. If you don’t stay away from me I will make an official complaint.
April 28
Some guy I don’t know from Adam.
Caias Ward @caias
@karla_porter @OpheliaBenson @justinvacula some people like the bravery of being out of range.
Ophelia Benson
Why did you @ me on this?
Caias Ward
was hoping you would respond to karla_porter since you have been talking about her.
Wut? What’s that first one about? To find that out I had to make some effort, because both Porter and Vacula have blocked me. [And before we go on let’s get one thing straight – they’re the ones who talk about me, not the other way around. They started talking about me with that podcast in which they lied about the emails I got warning me about the dangers of going to TAM. Vacula refused to correct the lies when I told him they were lies, and instead demanded that I go on his podcast. No. That’s not how that works.] So I made that effort, and found what it was about.
Justin Vacula tweets
@opheliabenson – Your blog post mentioning@karla_porter gave me a good giggle. Tune in to#BraveHero Radio tonight and consider calling!Karla Porter tweets
@justinvacula Seriously, please call in@opheliabenson.Justin Vacula tweets
@karla_porter@opheliabenson We’d love to have her on the show. Too bad she’s unwilling to have discussion – but she is welcome regardlessThat’s so typical of those two. They did it with that podcast about me last summer and they’ve been doing it ever since. It’s such a transparently childish, schoolyardish, bullying game – endlessly taunting someone while at the same time extending aggressive bullying “invitations” to interact (and to give free publicity to their enterprises).
No, I’m not going to have “a dialogue” with hostile sneery people who make a career of taunting me and others. No, I’m not going to “have discussion” with them. No, I’m not going to tune in to one of their podcasts. No, I’m not going to call their podcast. No, I’m not going to be on “the show.”
“Outwest” tweets
@justinvacula@karla_porter@OpheliaBenson afraid to have her hypocrisy revealed?Karla Porter tweets
@jeh704
@justinvacula – This is what I practice: I wouldn’t talk about anyone I wouldn’t be willing to talk with. – But to each their own.Caias Ward tweets
@karla_porter@OpheliaBenson@justinvacula some people like the bravery of being out of range.So that’s where that came from.
As I said, I don’t know Caias Ward from Adam, and I have no idea why he saw fit to tweet at me. Note his reply to my asking him that question –
was hoping you would respond to karla_porter since you have been talking about her.
Well that’s bullshit. He didn’t tweet at me to say “please respond to Karla Porter”; he tweeted at me to say “some people like the bravery of being out of range.”
So that’s one fraction of the bullshit from yesterday and this morning.
April 26
Skepdigger @SkepDirt
If Ophelia Benson wants to stop being called out when she says stupid things, she should stop saying stupid things.
AmbrosiaX
I think I tweeted that to her once
Of course everything I say is stupid, so it’s necessary to “call me out” for saying stupid things whenever I say anything at all in public. Of course “Skepdigger/SkepDirt” knows this, because “Skepdigger/SkepDirt” is infallible when it comes to separating stupid things from not stupid things. Thus it is perfectly reasonable and right that “Skepdigger/SkepDirt” and “AmbrosiaX” and their many colleagues “call me out” every hour of every day. (People in Australia and India and South Korea have to “call me out” later in the day because of the time difference, so the fact that I’m asleep and so not saying anything stupid right that second is beside the point.)
April 24
I haven’t updated this in awhile. But this one is just so…wtf?
felch grogan
I bet this is what the #skepchick backchannel sounds like http://is.gd/O13ts8 #FTBullies #atheismplus #CuntPunt #MeanGirls
[with a link to a video of some random young women doing something or other]
“cunt punt” – hear that
#OpheliaBenson? Time to put your gumboots on. I mean you are consistent aren’t you?#FTBullies#atheismplus#fraudsAnd another wtf?
http://storify.com/ElevatorGATE/conversation-with-opheliabenson-and-slignot
Birthday tea with Claire at Macrina. Almond cupcake w choc ganache for me, cherry lemon coffee cake for her. omg.
Wut???????????
April 10
One of those…”huh?” items. Included because of the “huh?” factor.
DC in Detroit
It also means you, @OpheliaBenson, who I paid to see speak and was shitty to me for no reason.
The funny thing there is that it sounds like part of an ongoing conversation but isn’t. What is the “it” that also means me? I have no idea. I looked at her feed to try to figure it out but no real luck, except that she’d been feeling irritable a few hours before. Yes but what’s that got to do with me? I don’t know. I asked her – but she didn’t reply. After awhile, when she’d made some more recent tweets, I asked her again, but still no reply. A chickenshit as well as a pest, then. What a brat.
That business about “who I paid to see speak” – the hell she did. She was at the American Atheists conference, apparently, but she didn’t pay to see me speak; she paid to attend the conference despite the fact that I was one of the speakers. I was one of a great many speakers and I’m clearly not of the type that she wants to see. But the implication is some obnoxious “I pay your salary so do my bidding” schtick, which is bratty entitled bullshit.
An hour later – how I was “shitty” to her and why.
It’s obvious enough, I’m sure – her implication was that I ain’t got no expertise so why do I write for Free Inquiry? That was my first ever encounter with her. That’s a meme among the people who target me – I ain’t got no expertise. Notice especially how she doesn’t even admit that’s what she was doing, even though she’s anonymous so it can’t do her any damage. Typical of this kind of crap.
April 7
Another fresh sparkling morning.
I don’t even know who that is. I can’t keep track of them all.
But that’s not harassment. Oh no no no no no. Good heavens no. Singling people out and calling them names over and over again for no reason whatever – that has nothing to do with harassment. It’s something else altogether. It’s water polo, or scrimshaw, or bricolage. It’s not harassment. Obv.
April 6
Golly, that weird Reap Paden video from yesterday wasn’t even the first. He did one on Wednesday, too. It’s possibly even creepier.
As so often with these things, it’s self-undermining. My role in this one is to keep saying I’m being harassed, oh oh, I’m being harassed. Haha, thigh-slapper, because haha, obviously I’m not being harassed, for instance by this very video. How dare I say I’m being harassed? I must be punished, by 40 thousand videos and photoshops mocking me for saying I get harassed. Roundandroundandroundandround
April 5 part 2
April 5
No comment; none needed.
Richard Reed @ RichardReed84 March 4
.
@opheliabenson you literally copied and pasted the entirity of my blog post and put it on your blog? Plagarism!
I would comment on this post, but I don’t think it would get through moderation!
.
@opheliabenson if I am a troll, you’ve just fed me. OMNOMNOM!.
@opheliabenson please stop monitoring me. I find it distressing.I don’t think Ophelia Benson is a real person. Real people have self awareness!
Seriously though, I photoshopped Ophelia Benson’s head onto a picture of a goat to show that it isn’t harassment. WHY DOES SHE CARE?
BTW I don’t do this for attention. This post has had about 50 extra views since Ophelia Benson linked to it.
I might make some more goats today!
@JDofAndersonia this kind of goat! http://richardreed84.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/where-i-harass-barack-obama-and-ophelia-benson/April 4
Humanisticus aka Peter Ferguson.
Another part of the forest.
In reverse order, which is real chronological order:
Jeremy Stangroom
@PhilosophyExp 2 AprHere’s what we do about the problems in the online atheist community. 1. Marginalize & isolate the incendiary, know-nothing, bloggers.
2. Disavow this toxic callout culture. 3. Promote credentialed expertise;
4. Have a conversation about gender, race, etc., but recognize these are complex issues & that rational people can disagree in good faith.
5. And it should go without saying that we need to recognize the humanity in our opponents, which means you’ve gotta have bloody good reason
if you’re going to photoshop their head on top of a cow. Or indeed any other kind of animal.
3 is interesting. It’s a common talking point, and it’s interesting. I never know what people think they mean by it. Only people with PhDs in sociology should be allowed to say anything?
That’s not a rule. It’s never been a rule. It’s a rule for academic jobs, certainly, but it’s not a rule for public writing and talking in general. Credentials are good things, knowledge is a good thing, expertise is a good thing, but it’s not a good thing to deploy them as barriers to public spaces. It’s not a good thing to deploy them as a way to exclude and ostracize people you dislike from public spaces.
4 is…annoying. There’s some truth in it, but only some, and it’s too easy, not to say smug. It’s easy to say “recognize that rational people can disagree in good faith” when you’re not the one who could be treated as an inferior in that scenario.
And then 5. You mean like this?
That’s from “Richard Reed’s blog.”
March 27
A new jeer from Justin Vacula, because it’s what he does.
Justin Vacula 23h
I must say, Ophelia Benson never fails to lighten up my day and elicit laughter. Ty for a compilation of Peezus and O!
#ftbullies#satireCommentary
Helpful of him to admit that he monitors me.
March 25
Still monitoring monitoring monitoring, day in and day out, watching watching watching, looking for something to snipe at, tireless, dedicated, obsessed. Oh and still using “#ftbullies”.
March 22
As the deep rifts are closed. Or not.
March 21
This is an oldy, but I didn’t see it at the time. I saw it now because Aratina told me about it. “Pitchguest” went to the trouble of saying on Daniel Fincke’s civility post that I had called ”GirlWritesWhat” a #stupidbitch on Twitter, and I told him that was not true, I was calling myself that, ironically. (The irony referred to the slimers’ way with epithets.) I didn’t see his eventual response.
Pitchguest February 17, 2013 at 4:55 p.m.
Ophelia – It wasn’t a lie. It was just an example of ‘intent isn’t magic.’ You still used the word ‘bitch’, though, a huge faux pas by your own standards.
But I’m not going to sit here on ceremony. If you want to be understood, you need to make yourself understood. How was I — or anyone else, for that matter — to know you meant to refer to yourself in a sarcastic manner, when a) you’re not on AVfM and b) you don’t use the word ‘bitch’? But I digress. Better to let sleeping dogs lie. I want to apologise to Dan Fincke for turning his blog into a place for drama unrelated to his pledge. That was uncalled for. If Ophelia wants to take it to another venue, say, the Slymepit, we could continue it there. (I’m afraid I’m banned on your blog, Ophelia.)
Commentary.
How was he to know what I meant, he asked indignantly. Great god almighty, what a stupid question. I wasn’t talking to him! Or about him. He doesn’t actually have to monitor my tweets looking for something to attack. If I were using Twitter to talk shit about him every day, then I could understand his looking at my tweets, but I’m not, so his snooping into what I say to other people on Twitter is harassment. Textbook harassment.
And more creepy meddling and harassment and getting it wrong for the sake of scoring some stupid point.
J. J. Ramsey February 18, 2013 at 11:52 am
I hope I don’t regret writing this. (Ulp!)
Anyway, I’m afraid that you just demonstrated why one should be very careful with an accusation like “liar.” I tracked down the tweet to which you and pitchguest referred, and saw that you wrote “And I don’t know who GWW is! #stupidbitch #nowondersheisonAVFM.” Now I can see you being sincere in saying that “stupid bitch” was a tongue-in-cheek reference to yourself and not GWW, even given the “#nowondersheisonAVFM”. While GWW writes for AVFM and thus can be easily said to be on it, your face was shown on the AVFM site too, so you were on it as well, in a different way. However, given how easy it is to read your tweet as saying that GWW was the “bitch” in question, it’s unfair to call someone a liar for reading it that way.
Brilliant. The only trouble is, the second hashtag was the same as the first – I was talking about myself. Ironically. “No wonder she’s on AVFM, being such a stupid bitch and all.” Ramsey managed to spot that I too was on AVFM, but not that that made nonsense of his assumption that I meant “GirlWritesWhat.” As I said, when I did the tweet, I didn’t know what “GWW” meant.
March 20
Very trivial, these, but it’s just so bizarre, and in that way typical of the nonstop quality. I blocked this guy ages ago, and I never interact with him. I can’t imagine what he tagged me in these tweets for. I saw one because Amanda replied, so then I found the other. Maybe he does it every day, I don’t know. It’s creepy and harassy to tag people that way.
[Update May 2: Peter Ferguson says he didn’t tag me, he simply replied to Amanda Marcotte and got me as a bonus. Let the record so state.]
Peter Ferguson
@Amanda Marcotte @OpheliaBenson Not everyone who disagrees with you is some misogynist against inclusiveness. It is actually this sort of
Commentary.
That was before I was even online. I wasn’t part of that conversation. What did he tag me for? I have no idea.
Peter Ferguson
@OpheliaBenson It is when people constantly lump those who disagree with the ones who are the issue
Ya I have no idea what that means, and no idea why he addressed it to me.
Sara E Mayhew
Ophelia Benson now moving on to bullying Canada!! Are you gonna take that, from a bunch of blog hosers?! [link to here]
Commentary.
Just saying my name for the sake of saying my name, that one. Ars gratia artis.
Sara E Mayhew
Rebecca Watson and Ophelia Benson should know better than to misuse claims of libel; intimidation tactic skeptics have fought against.
Commentary.
That’s really quite staggeringly stupid. She was just telling me I should sue! I said no, not necessarily, and there are principled reasons not to as well as other reasons. That’s one of the principled reasons! Der.
March 19
Justin Vacula
Ophelia Benson really hates critical commentary which she can’t control. Don’t give in to pressure @micknugent – allow open discussion.
No. But what’s going on at Nugent’s blog is not “critical commentary”; it’s endless repetitive smearing by people such as “tina” and “Eu” and “Jack” and “Trophy” – it might as well be by people such as 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, or A and B and C and D. I’m not interested in “dialogue” with people who use anonymity to smear real, named people with no risk to their own reputations.
Sara E. Mayhew
If it’s libel, it’s illegal, and you should sue, not blog. But Ophelia Benson doesn’t know That’s (not) libel http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2013/03/thats-libel/
Commentary.
Nonsense. There’s no moral imperative to sue for libel. It’s not true that “if it’s libel, you should sue.” There can be (and are) principled reasons for not suing.
It’s also not true that you should sue and not blog. There can be (and are) principled reasons for blogging, too, just as there are principled reasons for blogging about incessant harassment and monitoring and smearing.
Sara Mayhew is way too preoccupied with me.
