There’s more from the incompetent unresponsive unrepresentative “Global” Secular Council. I hope this will be my last post on the subject (of this particular quarrel, not the Council overall), but who knows – they keep adding to their CV.
Item: they apologized fulsomely to Rebecca Watson yesterday.
In itself, of course, that’s good – an apology was owed. But they refuse to apologize to me, so offering an energetic apology to someone else for a small part of the very thing they should apologize to me for…looks pointed.
Item: they still refuse to apologize to me.
The refusal is now taking the form of pretending not to know how to do it, not to know what they did that’s apology worthy, not to know how apologies work, not to know that they are an organization and thus responsible for what branches of their organization do. They are demanding that I write the apology for them.
Here is how our correspondence on that subject went:
To me:
Would the following Tweet meet your current request:
We are sorry we called @OpheliaBenson “Ofie”.
If so, I will have staff implement promptly.
My reply:
“We apologize” would be better than “We are sorry.”
For the rest, it’s a grudging ungenerous minimum, but if you want to look grudging and ungenerous, go ahead.
To me:
What else would you like me to have the account say?
My reply this morning some 14 hours later:
This is ridiculous. That’s a ridiculous question. It’s not a matter of “the account” – it is your organization. The account isn’t a separate thing; it speaks for your organization, and your organization is accountable for what it says. You’re the press contact person. If you can’t figure out how to apologize for grotesque rudeness, you have a problem.
There has been no response. The press contact person is probably extra busy dealing with the departure of Edwina Rogers, but there it is – the press contact person is hopelessly bad at her job.
Compare
We sincerely apologize, @rebeccawatson! We did not look closely and had no idea that a photo of you had been abusively doctored. Horrible.
with
We are sorry we called @OpheliaBenson “Ofie”.
It’s pretty staggeringly rude, isn’t it. You can almost see the sullen defiant child, delivering the forced apology as rudely as it dares and longing to blow a huge raspberry instead. And the press contact officer thought it a good idea to offer me that.
Item: they blocked @VitaBrevi too.
She was asking them questions, so they blocked her.
A shiny new secular organization that’s a subset of a less shiny less new secular organization is blocking people who ask it questions on Twitter.
How, exactly, are we supposed to go about asking them questions? Do we have to petition them? Go through channels? Pay a bribe? Disable the guards? What?
I’m serious here. They seem to think they don’t have to answer questions, so much so that they can malign and taunt and silence people who ask them questions. That is a very peculiar and sinister position for a secular non-profit to stake out.