Dragged into the Slimepit

[Darren]

Does anybody know what this entry (now 404'd) on Justin Griffith's blog was about? Google doesn't seem to cache FtB blog posts, but searching for "Dragged into the Slimepit" (with quotes), as of this writing, still gives links to the blog entry, with the following preview text:

This is me: Not this: That Being Said… I don't know what the fuck is going on in the freethought blogosphere and I am being dragged into it.

This is the text from 7 hours ago (according to Google). Now memory holed.

:?

[AndrewV69]

Looks like he published an article and then changed his mind and deleted it,

[Notung]

Intriguing... I wonder if it'll ever appear?

[franc]

Lucky I have my shovel handy. Managed to retrieve it. Interesting to say the least. It's not by Justin Griffith, but by his co-blogger. The money shot is this -

I don’t know what the fuck is going on in the freethought blogosphere and I am being dragged into it. Now, I understand that my co-blogger posted some blogs about the slimepit. After this happened and I got dragged into it I had to call Justin and ask him

1. What is the slimepit?
2. Who is Abbie Smith?
3. What the fuck is this all about?

He informed me that the slimepit was where a group of misogynistic assholes hang out on the internet that participate in outright douchebaggery whenever Abbie Smith (who he informed me is a prominent blogger) posts a blog. Basically they’re a bunch of sexist dirtbags that utilize the anonymity of the internet in order to verbally assault women and tear them down without fear of repercussion.

Nice eh? Here is the complete page dump (I've also saved a local copy) -

http://pastehtml.com/view/c3npwsdhx.html

So to say Justin has not been completely honest with us is a bit if an understatement. What do you expect? Its FfFB...

[Notung]

Lucky I have my shovel handy. Managed to retrieve it.

You genius!

[Tristan]

Well, that was... Interesting. Seems the poor sap got to experience first-hand how the baboon pack treat anyone they've defined as "other" - but lacked the ability or inclination to infer that they might just be doing the same to others.

[franc]

Here is a zip of the retrieved page -

http://www.4shared.com/zip/-Q7kNPGc/dra ... it_JG.html

[Optimus Primate]

There's this joke about a man who goes to a private dick because he suspects his wife is cheating on him, but he has some reasonable doubt. The dick trails the wife, comes back to the guy a few days later, and says, "I've got some bad news. When you left for work yesterday, you can see in the photos here that a man came to your house, your wife got into his car, they went to the local hotel, got a room, went inside, embraced, undressed... and then, well, they closed the curtains, so I can't say what happened after that." And the guy says, "See! That's what I mean, there's always that reasonable doubt."

I hate to be that guy, but we don't actually know what Justin said to Paul. We've got Paul's paraphrasing of it. And it could well be that Justin saw that post and said, "That's not what I told you!"

At any rate, there's some reason the post was pulled.

[Notung]

Optimus:

Giving someone the benefit of the doubt? You hyper skeptic!

But yes, you're right. I think it's difficult to tell what Justin is really thinking about all this, given PZ's email to him and what happened to Thunderf00t etc.

[welch]

I would like to think that Justin knows the difference between disavowing/throwing under a bus and taking a long, extended dump.

But I am beginning to have my doubts.

[franc]

Yeah, you guys are awfully kind. I'm really trying, but I can't seem to come up with a way you could garble a message to that extent. Couple this with his "your input to policy discussion would be valuable" spiel on ERV and the fact that several people I know have contacted him about this a week ago and had zero response, and my "benefit of the doubt" is running out if layers. This is not the first time this kind of sting scenario has occurred, nor is it likely to be the last. More plausible is "I told you that in confidence!", this other clown didn't get it and it leaked. I don't have much faith in anybody that gets in bed with Myers - tf00t was the exception, he knew what he was dealing and didn't mess around once there. Justin is not tf00t.

[decius]

Although disappointed, I'm fine with cutting the man some slack.

[Za-zen]

If Justin is disIngeuous and really thinks the pitters are so, then that's his problem not ours, that would of course make him just another ftb twit, but you lay with dogs you either are one, or you're going to have fleas. What did he think he was on coming to the pitt? Some kind of black ops?

"Capt Octo to flyboy ididn't sanction this mission"
"roger roger captin octo, i'm in too deep, extraction not possible, there's x-rays everywhere capt"
"Capt Octo to fluboy get your ass back across the dmz, or you're up for desertion"
"roger roger catain octo, but i can take them, just give me five more minutes, i know the trails and have eyes on tango 4chan"
"capt Octo to Capt willard, you're good to go, green light flyboy has went Kurtz"

[Skepcheck]

I find the whole Jusin Griffith affair baffling. I think it's pretty much impossible to tell what he really thinks. Perhaps he doesn't know what he thinks until someone tells him what to think.

[Darren]

OK... I'm confused. Who the heck is this "Paul Loebe" character?

[John Greg]

I'm with Skepcheck on this, I am really kind of baffled too.

I think Franc's points could be quite vaid, but I just don't think we have enough data to really make that determination with certainty.

[Sister Chromatid]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/rockbeyondb ... -guys-win/

[John Greg]

Sister Chromatid, thanks for that.

Wow. Yet more Wow's from Justin Griffith and that lovely, lovely man, Greg laden.

Hey Stefunny, nice friends you choose.

[ThreeFlangedJavis]

Why get complicated? Maybe it's just what it looks like on the surface. New blogger throws in with FTB and finds there's a war going on, thinks he'll stay out of it and make his own peace with the other side. Big Cheese whispers something in his ear about how those other guys have viciously attacked the poor wimminz. New guy says "Gee sorry Peezus, thanks for the heads up". Maybe not terribly skeptical, but then he's got his own shit to worry about. Besides, he's an atheist activist with a very specific goal. Who said he was a skeptic with a capital 'S'? Is there some kind of moral requirement for him to be?

[ThreeFlangedJavis]

On reflection, that is some serious guilt he's carrying. Could make him susceptible to being put into an emotional tailspin which leaves him a bit insecure and overly contrite. He does seem to have been affected by the Pit language. Some people are just conservative, which is not a huge sin, as long as they aren't using their proclaimed dedication to freethought and skepticism as justification to bag on others like a certain porcupine dispensing squid boy we all know and love.