Jim the Pleb Made Me Do It

[welch]

Wonderist, thanks for the reply. Please understand that in my little rant I was also pointing he finger at welch...especially the part about "pretty" lawsuits and "offensive" billboards. IIRC welch said people are wasting their time and giving atheists a bad name for things like billboards American Atheists put up and moaning about the petty lawsuits CFI do. IMO you fight them (religionists) at every turn and no battle is too small to just concede victory to those who would impose religion on the rest of us or assume religion inside all of us.

I agree.

And all my talk of "better"..I think we agree 98%. I'm just not going to go around telling people that their efforts are worse or even harmful. As you know, many people would accuse the RRS of being too confrontational and giving atheists a bad name. There were many topics on IIDB (then FRDB) about the RRS. Brian Sapient even posted a few times.

Yes, and again I'm not here to do apologetics for RRS. It's just a simple matter of fact that it's a 7 year part of my activism work online, so it's going to come up occasionally simply for that reason. And, again, I'm not ashamed of any of it, though I do regret that they made some serious/naive mistakes which led to backlash (what I now call 'backfiring' tactics).

I was never a 'core member', just a member of the forums, like we all here are members of the Slymepit forum, and basically only Lsuoma is a 'core member', being the only owner. I'm on friendly terms with Sapient, and was a moderator for several months at one point, but I don't represent RRS, and RRS doesn't represent me, except to the extent that I agree with their core mission of trying to confront irrationality in the world, especially religion. I will only talk about them in relation to my own experiences and history. If anyone, say perhaps welch, has a beef with any RRS members past or present, that's between that individual person and them; I don't intend to get tangled up in that. As far as I know, no one has a beef with *me* because of my membership in the forums. Again, I was not a 'core member', just a forum member. I wasn't involved in any of the drama and rumour-mongering that occurred. I was watching it happen though, as a spectator.

Remember smut for smut? Where college kids would trade a holy book for porn? People pointed the finger at them saying, "bad bad bad". Then the kid goes on CNN and makes Tucker Carlson look like an asshole. That kid posted at IIDB too (not a regular though). Remember American Atheists and their Jesus is a myth banner on Christmas? The end result? Bill O'Rielly doing his "the tides come in the tides go out and YOU can't explain that!".

Likewise, I support all those varied efforts. My motto is: Blasphemy is a victimless crime! (Always with that all important exclamation mark ;) ) I've defended Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, too. And though I didn't like the production value of that anti-Mohammad movie trailer/excerpt thingy, I actually thought it was pretty funny in certain parts (like being chased around the tent by his two wives, like some Three Stooges antics or something. so silly!) I don't think those guys did anything wrong by *making such a movie*. What they did wrong was *deceiving* the actors and crew. I'd actually like to see more (and better!) movies like that, without any unethical practices undermining it.

Unforeseen consequences. Can you predict them? (referring to your link). How do they factor into your pragmatism?

Yes you can, though not perfectly of course. That's what I've been referring to as 'risks'. I've recently been studying more about statistics and probability theory, to try to get a solid theoretical grasp on my mostly-intuitive ideas as presented in that article. There are whole sub-fields of statistics, science, economics, and engineering, dealing with predicting/mitigating risks, expected losses, failure rates, reliability, and basically just 'error' in predictions. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_management

btw, I guessed "paragraph".

Thanks for the feedback. I've had a few reports of missed predictions, one was 'blank', another was 'paragraph', also. I never thought anyone would guess 'blank', but it kinda makes sense, in a concrete way. I tried to mitigate the risk (<<< see, risk management :P ) of people guessing 'paragraph' by adding the extra sentence at the *end of the paragraph*, "Did you get it?", but I guess it could use a bit more work. I originally got the basic idea from a talk by Jeff Hawkins, who wrote a really good book which incorporates this idea of people making predictions: Can't find the talk, now, but it really worked well when he did it.

Anyway rather than spend time with me and welch, IMO it would be "better" if you kept on engaging the FTB crew. hehehe j/k it's all good to me.

Again, it's not just you and welch reading this, eh? ;)
But yes. As soon as welch collapses in exhaustion, I'll spend no more time on it. :P

Are you kidding? I've not had an ego stroke like this in ages. Do you want pictures? I'm sure melissa would be happy to take some saucy ones for you to spank over. I'll even autograph them. I've never had a creepy fan before, I'm so excited.

Please, do let me know when you're going to be driving my my house, all slow and creepy. We'll want to have a party to watch. That is okay, right? I mean I'm not sure how this works, the etiquette of it. Can I have friends over when you do that? Or would that be rude?

[Al Stefanelli]

Blah blah blah...

It is what it is, Welch. Genetics. Science is always awesome, but it's not always pretty. I'm dealing with it fairly well, and I've got some totally awesome people supporting me at home, including my wife (I suppose it's misogynist to say 'my wife' Lol) and the rest of my family.

I hate to whine about it, as in spite of all of it, there are a shit-ton of people who have it way worse than I do, and with a horrible prognosis for their future. So far, everything I've got is at least manageable with medication and the occasional removal of various parts of my anatomy.

I'd rather just hang here and live vicariously through the wit and wisdom of those who have the time and energy to engage.

[Dave]

Are you kidding? I've not had an ego stroke like this in ages. Do you want pictures? I'm sure melissa would be happy to take some saucy ones for you to spank over. I'll even autograph them. I've never had a creepy fan before, I'm so excited.

Please, do let me know when you're going to be driving my my house, all slow and creepy. We'll want to have a party to watch. That is okay, right? I mean I'm not sure how this works, the etiquette of it. Can I have friends over when you do that? Or would that be rude?

Just remember, he's your pet: its your responsibility to clean up after him.

[Submariner]

Snip

I'd rather just hang here and live vicariously through the wit and wisdom of those who have the time and energy to engage.

Al, I just wanted to add that although I discovered you via your Youtube channel ( and relatively recently ) your videos were among the first I watched when the news of them hit my feed. I wish I had discovered you earlier. Best wishes and many thanks.

[Tigzy]

Good luck Al. That's a shit-ton you have to deal with there anyways, without the whiners yapping at you. Best of luck.

[John Greg]

welch, for what it's worth, I think your latest two post on Nugent's blog hit the nail on the head. Well spoken; well argued.

[Altair]

I've read some of finallyfeminism101 and I was shocked. This is what they promote? This pile of horrendous trash? This is what they want to educate people with? I even tried commenting on a couple of feminist themed sites that were "welcoming" to men. (e.g. NSWATM) I got tired of 20 year old girls lecturing me on my experiences as a 40+ year old man. Girls half my age telling me about my life and the lives of men. Please. Then, if you happen to disagree with their assessments, you are guilty of "mansplaining" because, you know, hegemonic masculinity, and privilege, and patriarchy, and slut shaming, and rape culture, and male gaze, and etc etc. Yeah.

/rant off

Sigh. NSWATM was one of the first sites I found about a year ago when Pharyngula's posts got me into learning more about the gendersphere.
Initially it was a great site, with their "revolutionary" focus on men's issues. It had good articles and good commenters (Typhonblue used to comment there).

Then after a while they started implementing policies about what you could say or not in comments, until they coined the term "ahabing" to describe a comment that was critical of feminism and that was deemed off topic by the moderators (IIRC they discussed calling it "dicking" per relation to Moby Dick, but decided it was too gender specific).
Ozy's threads were not that bad, but they had other moderator called Noah who had drunk the whole radfem koolaid, and people started leaving the site, and then they were absorbed by the GMP and I never heard from them before.

I think the problem is that they wanted to explore men's issues but still do it through the feminist lense, and still maintain ideas as the patriarchy, rape culture and mansplaining as non-criticizable dogma. It was bound to fail.

[Metalogic42]

Al, you rock. Keep on keepin' on.

[Zenspace]

At this point, I am just trying to stay alive and reasonably chipper.

That's one hell of a set of priorities you've got there! :mrgreen:

Take care of yourself first and we will keep the light on for you, Al!

[debaser71]

Altair, yeah they switched over the TGMP and then Ozy bailed because the GPM published an article written by a supposed rapist. I posted under the same "debaser71" tag over there. Been using this tag for centuries! Typhonblue is at genderratic now. I like her but I've gotten into it with her too (over pair bonding). No name calling or hurt feelings or deleting of comments though...quite the difference.

NSWATM was "recommended" to me by PZ's horde. So, I tried it out. Yeah...

[Wonderist]

FYI, I am done with 'Social Networking.' I closed my Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. People can reach me here, if they want to, either in a post or preferably in a PM. I'm tired of arguing with 'skeptics' about shit that should be plain common sense. Like being aware of your surroundings because criminals choose easy targets, etc. Fucking tired of being called a rape apologist, misogynist and homophobe by what seems to be an increasing number of fucking ass-fedoras - in spite of a near-decade-long stellar record of civil rights activism on the street.

A well deserved return to calm and relaxation, Al, you deserve it! Thanks for everything you've done. It wasn't for naught, we'll carry on! In the mean time, may the Flying Spaghetti Monster touch you with His Noodly Appendage, and refill your beer mug (or preferred alternative beverage of your choice) and pretzels (or bread sticks or those little yummy snacky things, I can't remember their name)! :popcorn: Bravo, sir!
:clap:

[ReneeHendricks]

Marcotte's new (paraphrased) slogan, "excluding for inclusiveness," is distinguished from the illustrious company of phrases like "fighting for peace" and "fucking for virginity" only in that people saying the latter two tend to have some sense of how abysmally stupid they are.

ROFLMAO! Thank you for that :D

[Wonderist]

Wow. Just read this from Amanda Marcotte regarding Michael Nugent's recent post proposing an agenda for structured dialogue:

If we eliminate people who don't want an inclusive community, there are no rifts, however.

(from https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/stat ... 7790962688)

Why do I get the shivers when reading that? Why does it sound vaguely familiar?

I also get shivers when they say 'educate yourself'. That's been heard many times too.

Yes educate yourself and read the bible. That's why you don't believe in god and Jesus.

But not the whole Bible! Heavens, no. Just the parts we tell you to read and agree with.

(Whew! Almost fucked that one up. If they'd read the whole Bible, they might end up an atheist!)

[Gefan]

Thank you, my friends, for your well-wishes. I told Renee (in part) in a PM earlier that at this point, I am so enraged by those who have chosen to 'poison the well' to the point that I now have more enemies in the atheist/skeptic 'movement' than I do in the religious community.

No matter what I post to where, I get a constant influx of emails and PM's from people telling me that I'm a rape apologist, misogynist or homophobe. I just don't even want fuck with it anymore. I know I've got a lot of friends and supporters out there, but it is taxing the holy fuck out of me dealing with these fuckers.

Look, here's the deal...

I'm going through some serious shit regarding my health. My renal system is now failing, and I've got a team of doctors trying to figure whether it's kidney, liver, pancreatic or bladder cancer. This means some extremely invasive and painful testing. Combine that shit with my Parkinson's, various Neuropathies, COPD, Diabetes, a prostate the size of Texas, a somewhat troubling case of Sleep Apnea, and dealing with Medicare and insurance companies that wish to bleed me dry or let me die, I don't have a whole lot of enthusiasm to deal with the ridiculously hyper-skeptical and uber-politically-correct heap of complete fucking bullshit that is regularly shoveled into the ether. I just don't give a fuck. It's far more entertaining watching you guys eviscerate the soft underbelly of the social justice warrior crowd.

At this point, I am just trying to stay alive and reasonably chipper. I'll still be writing news for Google, and be here at the pit. I am planning to continue with Reap's show when doctors appointments don't conflict, as well as The God Discussion show. If I am feeling up to it, and am invited, I'd be glad to participate in whatever podcasts the Pitters and others want me to chime in on. But, I've pretty much had it with the bullshit. The last thing I need is to be harassed on Facefuck, Twatter or YouLube.

I don't need the aggravation or the impact the stress is having on my health.

Very best of luck, Al. You just reminded us of what's really important.
Keep us in the loop, buddy.

[cunt]

If you don't agree with me about the global warming myth, try a bit of wattsupwiththat.com. It is not my job to educate you.

[Zenspace]

And now, for something a bit different, I leave you this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/1 ... 06337.html

Could be fun... :whistle:

[Gefan]

I never presume to know what's going on in a woman's head(I generally try to avoid that with men too.)but feminists are psychic and can tell you exactly how men think. Marcotte does that all the time. To me the theory behind feminism seems to be: Men and Women think, feel, and act exactly the same, except for when they don't, in which case the men are wrong and need to be corrected until they think, feel, and act exactly like women.

To condense somewhat; "Men are just defective women".
Greg Laden's immortal contribution to this ideology was to claim that the male brain is just a female brain that has been damaged by testosterone.
Of course, being Laden, he couldn't even get his own gibberish right and it came out as; "The human brain is just a female brain that has been damaged by testosterone at various stages in its development".

[Submariner]

I never presume to know what's going on in a woman's head(I generally try to avoid that with men too.)but feminists are psychic and can tell you exactly how men think. Marcotte does that all the time. To me the theory behind feminism seems to be: Men and Women think, feel, and act exactly the same, except for when they don't, in which case the men are wrong and need to be corrected until they think, feel, and act exactly like women.

At which point their likelihood of getting laid approaches zero. :whistle:

[cunt]

I never presume to know what's going on in a woman's head(I generally try to avoid that with men too.)but feminists are psychic and can tell you exactly how men think. Marcotte does that all the time. To me the theory behind feminism seems to be: Men and Women think, feel, and act exactly the same, except for when they don't, in which case the men are wrong and need to be corrected until they think, feel, and act exactly like women.

At which point their likelihood of getting laid approaches zero. :whistle:

Virgin discrimination is one of the most pressing problems of our times.

[Wonderist]

The consequences are that letting Ophelia call it libel, without debunking her quickly and publicly, has the practical effect of influencing the mainstream skeptic/atheist onlookers more towards the FTB-victim narrative, and further from the wake the fuck up message. It's counter-productive, a waste of time and effort, and entirely avoidable.

Wonderist, give it a fucking break. You are being completely melodramatic.

I debunked it here, and that is public AFAIA. What else do you want me to do, post at Ophelia's with all my evidence showing that I was right? Take out a page in the New York Times, perhaps?

I've already said - this won't make a jot of difference, because they already make blanket statements about people who don't share their agenda. "Misoygnists", "Rapists", "MRA's", "women-haters", etc. are all bandied about by the Baboons without evidence. The same for Ophelia's "libel" claim. The thing is, Wonderist, they have used these useless terms without justification so many times, few people believe them outside of Baboonspace.

Your concern is noted...

I note, Tuvok, that they've never managed to pin anything on me in the slightest. I've never given them any opportunities to do so.* I'm not saying you're morally or ethically wrong, or anything like that. As my recent posts have tried to clarify and emphasize, I'm talking *solely* about practical effectiveness. I, personally, don't want to get caught up in drama, nor to give away any free lunches. That's how I, personally, prefer to spend my time. You are free to spend your time as you like, of course, and I'll never say otherwise, nor do I even have any sort of authority to do so in the first place (nor do I *want* such authority! <puke>). That's not why I keep going on. I *don't* want you to do anything in particular. I have no 'concern' over what you do. None. At all. Seriously. Not kidding. Not play-acting. I really don't. Sorry for giving you that impression in the first place, although, honestly, I tried pretty hard not to, and repeatedly said so many times. Miscommunications happen. Sorry for my part in that, not being clear enough. If you have any tips for how I could have made it clearer, please let me know and I'll try to improve.

I was only expressing my opinion on the *likely* practical effects that action or inaction would have. I did occasionally 'razz' you a couple times (like the twiddling thumbs thing), but that wasn't intended to be any sort of 'wanting you to do' anything. That was to try to emphasize to others reading this (and you, also) what the effects of inaction would likely result in -- i.e. there are actual consequences, however small and 'sprinty' they may be in this instance, they are still undesirable. It's like a cartoon drawing; you have to exaggerate the mannerisms and expressions to communicate the emotion or the situation. Even with those razzes, this is your issue, and by all rights, you get to handle it however you see fit. (And I, in the background, watching, get to comment on it and give my 'armchair quarterback' opinion about it. Just imagine me as one of those cranky muppets in the upper balcony, complaining about the show, or some blowhard sports fan yelling the ref on the TV to change his call, or the die hard horror movie fan shouting at the screen, "Don't go outside alone, you idiot!" :P )

* There is one situation developing now, that may appear on the surface to be OB pinning something on me. As several folks here know, however, it's a little 'trap' of my own. More on that later.

[katamari Damassi]

The Reddit AMA with Steven Pinker was fantastic!
http://www.skepticink.com/incredulous/2 ... ama-recap/
I'm curious how the SJW's will twist his answers to make him a misogynist/racist/homophobe.

[ReneeHendricks]

Thank you, my friends, for your well-wishes. I told Renee (in part) in a PM earlier that at this point, I am so enraged by those who have chosen to 'poison the well' to the point that I now have more enemies in the atheist/skeptic 'movement' than I do in the religious community.

No matter what I post to where, I get a constant influx of emails and PM's from people telling me that I'm a rape apologist, misogynist or homophobe. I just don't even want fuck with it anymore. I know I've got a lot of friends and supporters out there, but it is taxing the holy fuck out of me dealing with these fuckers.

Look, here's the deal...

I'm going through some serious shit regarding my health. My renal system is now failing, and I've got a team of doctors trying to figure whether it's kidney, liver, pancreatic or bladder cancer. This means some extremely invasive and painful testing. Combine that shit with my Parkinson's, various Neuropathies, COPD, Diabetes, a prostate the size of Texas, a somewhat troubling case of Sleep Apnea, and dealing with Medicare and insurance companies that wish to bleed me dry or let me die, I don't have a whole lot of enthusiasm to deal with the ridiculously hyper-skeptical and uber-politically-correct heap of complete fucking bullshit that is regularly shoveled into the ether. I just don't give a fuck. It's far more entertaining watching you guys eviscerate the soft underbelly of the social justice warrior crowd.

At this point, I am just trying to stay alive and reasonably chipper. I'll still be writing news for Google, and be here at the pit. I am planning to continue with Reap's show when doctors appointments don't conflict, as well as The God Discussion show. If I am feeling up to it, and am invited, I'd be glad to participate in whatever podcasts the Pitters and others want me to chime in on. But, I've pretty much had it with the bullshit. The last thing I need is to be harassed on Facefuck, Twatter or YouLube.

I don't need the aggravation or the impact the stress is having on my health.

I'm there for ya whenever you need to just chat, bitch, or whatever :) I like you chipper and able to deal with your medical issues. The bullshit will always be shelved!

[Zenspace]

The Reddit AMA with Steven Pinker was fantastic!
http://www.skepticink.com/incredulous/2 ... ama-recap/
I'm curious how the SJW's will twist his answers to make him a misogynist/racist/homophobe.

I had the pleasure of reading that last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Pinker really seems to be one of those minds that 'gets it' that absolutist approaches or positions almost never work, even in academia. I have his book 'The Blank Slate' and should really make the time to read it. I'll be looking up a copy of 'How the Mind Works' after reading that interview transcript.

[Eskarina]

Wow. Just read this from Amanda Marcotte regarding Michael Nugent's recent post proposing an agenda for structured dialogue:

If we eliminate people who don't want an inclusive community, there are no rifts, however.

(from https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/stat ... 7790962688)

Why do I get the shivers when reading that? Why does it sound vaguely familiar?

That's why: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disconnection

Or maybe this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R2-45

[AndrewV69]

Marcotte's new (paraphrased) slogan, "excluding for inclusiveness," is distinguished from the illustrious company of phrases like "fighting for peace" and "fucking for virginity" only in that people saying the latter two tend to have some sense of how abysmally stupid they are.

How about Fuck for Forest:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... f=obinsite


note that the founders(s) of FF are not German. Their site is here:http://www.fuckforforest.com/

[Dilurk]

Sad. http://www.richarddawkins.net/discussio ... x-on-earth

Paula Kirby used to have the unenviable task of wading through all the fleabyte dross that the woo woo ignoramuses churned out as a challenge to RD's work. I haven't seen her about the place in quite a while. A great pity in my opinion.

[Dilurk]

Blah blah blah...

It is what it is, Welch. Genetics. Science is always awesome, but it's not always pretty. I'm dealing with it fairly well, and I've got some totally awesome people supporting me at home, including my wife (I suppose it's misogynist to say 'my wife' Lol) and the rest of my family.

I hate to whine about it, as in spite of all of it, there are a shit-ton of people who have it way worse than I do, and with a horrible prognosis for their future. So far, everything I've got is at least manageable with medication and the occasional removal of various parts of my anatomy.

I'd rather just hang here and live vicariously through the wit and wisdom of those who have the time and energy to engage.

Al please take care of yourself.

[jjbinx007]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5391667

2 guys kicked out of tech conference for making jokes about forking and dongles.

Here's the discussion thread about it on reddit:

[Wonderist]

Had an interesting discussion on my facebook page. Recently folk singer Michelle Shocked shocked her audience in San Francisco by declaring herself against marriage equality and saying "God hates fags." So a friend of mine-who's a bit of an SJW but never has been a douche-posted it and called her an idiot. I posted that she is dealing with schizophrenia. A few of his friends-whom I do not know-posted that it doesn't matter she's a homophobe.
It's a trend I've noticed with SJW's in that they refuse to take mental illness into account. When psycho's shot congressperson Giffords, or the Aurora theatre shooting, or the recent school shooting, mentioning the mental state of the perpetrator is verbotten. In all of those cases the perpetrators were clearly mentally ill, but they must attribute it to misogyny, racism, homophobia, or toxic masculinity and gun culture. No some of those maybe factors but clearly these are sick individuals. So afraid are they of stigmatizing the mentally ill they ignore the primary cause. On Shakesville they'll come right out and tell you not to discuss the mental state of these perps when they post about them. Often they resort to some sort of sophistry like "The mentally ill are the victims of crimes more often than the perpetrators." While that may be true it doesn't erase mental illness from the equation. To me it's as though these "atheists" still need to believe in the concept of evil in order to spare the mentally ill. Just change the name to some type of bigotry.

Good post, katamari Damassi, I've noticed that, too. Doesn't get discussed much, but it is an interesting quirk they have. Wonder what it's all about.

[debaser71]

Am I the only person who doesn't know what REDDIT is? I always just sort of assumed it was a way of linking articles to your friends, like, "I read it". Kind of like if you hit "like" on an article it goes to your facebook page (if you have one). I know I could just google it but I sort of like being ignorant of trendy shit.

[ReneeHendricks]

Hi guys,
after two weeks of endless reading to get back on track... I'm back.
I love you for it... just saying... endless vicarious embarrassment about this people from Scientology+ and laughter and wit from this side of the fence.

@Renee:
I read the twitter thing from Marcotte and my thoughts went right there:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-r12A ... rcotte.jpg

All this gender feminism stuff creeps me out... all the time.

I, as a somewhat outsider thought you all do a very good job on the Nugent-Blog.
But enlighten me on one point please. This libel thing... here in Germany it might be bad to call someone a liar, but it is far worst to call someone a racist or misogynist. Liar is in my opinion more of a general slur...
What says US law about it?

The Dalek thing has me cracking up :D

[Metalogic42]

The Reddit AMA with Steven Pinker was fantastic!
http://www.skepticink.com/incredulous/2 ... ama-recap/
I'm curious how the SJW's will twist his answers to make him a misogynist/racist/homophobe.

"Incidentally, one of the great virtues of evolutionary psychology has been its inclusion of data on non-Western populations in drawing conclusions about human emotion and cognition."

Haaaaaaaaaaa! A+ is gonna have a fit over that.

[Wonderist]

I've read some of finallyfeminism101 and I was shocked. This is what they promote? This pile of horrendous trash? This is what they want to educate people with? I even tried commenting on a couple of feminist themed sites that were "welcoming" to men. (e.g. NSWATM) I got tired of 20 year old girls lecturing me on my experiences as a 40+ year old man. Girls half my age telling me about my life and the lives of men. Please. Then, if you happen to disagree with their assessments, you are guilty of "mansplaining" because, you know, hegemonic masculinity, and privilege, and patriarchy, and slut shaming, and rape culture, and male gaze, and etc etc. Yeah.

/rant off

I never presume to know what's going on in a woman's head(I generally try to avoid that with men too.)but feminists are psychic and can tell you exactly how men think. Marcotte does that all the time. To me the theory behind feminism seems to be: Men and Women think, feel, and act exactly the same, except for when they don't, in which case the men are wrong and need to be corrected until they think, feel, and act exactly like women.

Another fascinating insight, katamari (why is the k not capitalized?). This tells me something, by comparing it to theism. You know how Christians think they 'know' what god wants and thinks? Who's wants and thoughts are they really identifying? Occasionally, a preacher's or a parent's or the thoughts of some asshole thousands of years ago, but *usually* it's their own damn thoughts and wants. The 'god' persona is a construction in their own mind, from their own imagination (that almost sounds pomotarded, but it's not).

Likewise, they think they know what 'the devil' wants and how he thinks. Again, their own internal projections of their own prejudices and biases against 'the other'.

So, since Marcotte clearly has no clue how men really think, where's she getting those ideas from. Occasionally from feminist mentors and literature, but generally speaking, overall, from her own internal projections of some 'Man' persona, where 'Man' is roughly analogous with 'the devil'.

Probably a similar parallel could be made with Islam and the concept of the kuffar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuffar), and the quite obvious suppressive persons of Scientology. There's a mythology about it in the literature, and it represents an 'archetype' in the Jungian sense, in the minds of believers (again, like the archetype of the 'other' or the 'enemy', in religion).

There's probably some use in digging into that concept and picking it apart, like atheists have done with Satan, e.g.

[Wonderist]

By the way, when I mentioned Jungian archetypes, I forgot to add that I mean that word much more like a 'trope' than what Jung actually meant, so, not actually *Jungian* archetypes, just tropes.

[Wonderist]

Has anyone here put in a request to be part of the discussions? I saw Renee but anyone else?

No. Nor will I. I stand by what I've already said: they've no strategic interest in engaging in dialogue in order to repair deeprifts which they're invested in maintaining. The point of me posting there at all is to expose their hypocrisy to observers.

I would, but I don't trust myself not to fuck it up. That's one really good thing about getting a diagnosis, I could finally start to learn my limitations and be more realistic about things.

[Wonderist]

<I HAVE A HUGE PENIS snipped>

I'm curious: at what point did I become this important in your life?

What specifically? Since I can almost guarantee you've straw manned me in your own mind, you're going to have to explain what it is you think I think is important? No such thing as a mind reader.

[debaser71]

Religious people would always try to impose their goofy thinking process onto me. Like "everyone believes in something" or "atheism is your religion" etc. Feminists do the same it seems.

[Steersman]

I've read some of finallyfeminism101 and I was shocked.
<snip>
.... know, hegemonic masculinity, and privilege, and patriarchy, and slut shaming, and rape culture, and male gaze, and etc etc. Yeah.

/rant off

I never presume to know what's going on in a woman's head(I generally try to avoid that with men too.)but feminists are psychic and can tell you exactly how men think. Marcotte does that all the time. To me the theory behind feminism seems to be: Men and Women think, feel, and act exactly the same, except for when they don't, in which case the men are wrong and need to be corrected until they think, feel, and act exactly like women.

Generally agree. Never ceases to amaze me when I think of Benson's argument - screenshot of her tweet somewhere here as I've quoted it often enough - that "connecting 'virulent' with 'feminism' is misogyny". :shock: :doh:

But in passing, how’s your pooch? No ill effects from getting into someone’s stash? Hasn’t taken to wearing a head-band and letting its hair grow long and responding to everything with “Cool”? :-)

[Wonderist]

The consequences are that letting Ophelia call it libel, without debunking her quickly and publicly, has the practical effect of influencing the mainstream skeptic/atheist onlookers more towards the FTB-victim narrative, and further from the wake the fuck up message. It's counter-productive, a waste of time and effort, and entirely avoidable.

Wonderist, give it a fucking break. You are being completely melodramatic.

I debunked it here, and that is public AFAIA. What else do you want me to do, post at Ophelia's with all my evidence showing that I was right? Take out a page in the New York Times, perhaps?

I've already said - this won't make a jot of difference, because they already make blanket statements about people who don't share their agenda. "Misoygnists", "Rapists", "MRA's", "women-haters", etc. are all bandied about by the Baboons without evidence. The same for Ophelia's "libel" claim. The thing is, Wonderist, they have used these useless terms without justification so many times, few people believe them outside of Baboonspace.

Your concern is noted...

BUT THE TRAP! YOU'RE WALKING INTO THE TRAP! AND THE OTHER SKEPTICS WON'T LIKE US ANYMORE!

Fuck. So if I read his pile of drivel right, (and lord knows, I'm not trying really hard, because you know, drivel) you, me, everyone should now parse every letter, every bit of punctuation in everything we write, say, or do so that we don't "spring the trap".

Exactly why would anyone do that?

Wow! I've reduced welch to Oolon level. D'oh! Sorry welch. Come back, I didn't mean to turn you into Oolon! I'm sorry!!! Please come back!

[Wonderist]

Thank you, my friends, for your well-wishes. I told Renee (in part) in a PM earlier that at this point, I am so enraged by those who have chosen to 'poison the well' to the point that I now have more enemies in the atheist/skeptic 'movement' than I do in the religious community.

No matter what I post to where, I get a constant influx of emails and PM's from people telling me that I'm a rape apologist, misogynist or homophobe. I just don't even want fuck with it anymore. I know I've got a lot of friends and supporters out there, but it is taxing the holy fuck out of me dealing with these fuckers.

Look, here's the deal...

I'm going through some serious shit regarding my health. My renal system is now failing, and I've got a team of doctors trying to figure whether it's kidney, liver, pancreatic or bladder cancer. This means some extremely invasive and painful testing. Combine that shit with my Parkinson's, various Neuropathies, COPD, Diabetes, a prostate the size of Texas, a somewhat troubling case of Sleep Apnea, and dealing with Medicare and insurance companies that wish to bleed me dry or let me die, I don't have a whole lot of enthusiasm to deal with the ridiculously hyper-skeptical and uber-politically-correct heap of complete fucking bullshit that is regularly shoveled into the ether. I just don't give a fuck. It's far more entertaining watching you guys eviscerate the soft underbelly of the social justice warrior crowd.

At this point, I am just trying to stay alive and reasonably chipper. I'll still be writing news for Google, and be here at the pit. I am planning to continue with Reap's show when doctors appointments don't conflict, as well as The God Discussion show. If I am feeling up to it, and am invited, I'd be glad to participate in whatever podcasts the Pitters and others want me to chime in on. But, I've pretty much had it with the bullshit. The last thing I need is to be harassed on Facefuck, Twatter or YouLube.

I don't need the aggravation or the impact the stress is having on my health.

Good luck with the medical stuff, Al, that's a lot you got on your plate. I sincerely believe you and agree when you say you don't need this shit anymore. Take care, man.

[tina]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

[Ericb]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

I wonder how Elevator Guy feels about that comment.

[Ericb]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

I wonder how Elevator Guy feels about that comment.

Well on second thought that doesn't compute. Never mind me and my mind farts.

[Steersman]

But, in any case, if you haven't seen it before then you might be interested in this credible and supportive review of that book, and apparently from some feminists:

http://www.feministcritics.org/blog/200 ... inism-noh/

Sorry for not seeing your post earlier.

No problemo. This place moves rather fast and it’s easy to miss a comment directed at oneself – particularly if one goes away for longer that a couple of hours …. Though, in passing, what might be really useful would be e-mail notifications whenever someone responds to any post that anyone else makes, particularly as those for the entire “Periodic Table” thread aren’t of much use – at least that I find. [Hint, hint]. While most comments are of a general nature and directed "to-whom-it-may-concern", others warrant or call-for a direct response which are more likely to happen if there were those e-mail notifications.

Patai and Koertge's Professing Feminism is a great a book and I highly recommend it to everyone here, especially if you're unfamiliar with the ideologies and background information that are involved. I recall that the book was discussed a little while ago here.

Sounds like another book I need to add to my reading list, if not actually put it towards the top of the queue. I think I’ve quoted that review several times myself as it was a real eye-opener, in particular the “virulent anti-science, anti-intellectual sentiment driving many of the professors, staff and students” – just that itself was enough for me to wonder how credible the charges and evidence were – the answer seems to be “very”.

[Bhurzum]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

I wonder how Elevator Guy feels about that comment.

Elevator Guy is a fictional character... ;)

[LMU]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

I wonder how Elevator Guy feels about that comment.

Or monopod man?

[Altair]

I'm bored at work so I was checking the A+ reddit and found a link to a post by Dana Hunter on FTB.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaes ... o-you-are/
http://www.freezepage.com/1363806358RUCWSNCDMC

"En Tequila Es Verdad" is a blog to which I had never paid attention before (except for a couple seconds when I wondered what they meant by that title, because it makes absolutely no sense in spanish), but this Dana Hunter person seems to have grasped the fundamentals of the Kafka Trap.

Sexist is Something You Do, Not Necessarily Who You Are

This probably falls under "nitpicking", but I would argue that sexist is indeed something you are. Sexism could be something you do, but sexist, just as racist, or optimist, is something you are, so the title doesn't quite work. But that's kind of semantic, so let's move along.

Chances are, you’re going to do something sexist. We’re living in cultures drowning in sexism. We’ve been raised with it; we’re swimming in it; like air, we’re so immersed in it we’re often barely aware of it. Makes it rather inevitable we’ll do or say something more or less sexist.

Yes, I said “we.” I’m not exempt. I say or think or do something sexist at least once a day, and that’s just the stuff I’m aware of. Constant battle, this, overcoming sexism.

Does this make me a sexist? Not especially.

While I agree that sexism (understanding it as prejudice against BOTH genders) exists and is present in our daily life, I disagree with the first paragraph. That sounds like an exaggeration, although it is compatible with the SJW's normal view of life, the universe and everything.

I agree that all of us will probably do or say something sexist once in a while, although I still disagree with the "once a day" thing. And I also agree with the part that doing something once in a while doesn't make you an XYZ-ist. This isn't so bad, let's keep reading.

But fucking up doesn’t make someone a sexist. Just makes you a person who did a sexist thing. What makes you something else is what happens next.

Do you apologize and make a course correction? Reassess certain of your assumptions? Continue working against sexism and misogyny rather than, oh, say, running off in a snit to join up with certain of the community who revel in gendered slurs? Then it’s quite doubtful you actually are an actual sexist.

Here she's equating sexism with misogyny, going along with their ideas that you can't be sexist against men, which bothers me, but it's not that unsurprising, since they've said it before.
And I like the mention of "certain of the community who revel in gendered slurs". I'm sure hundreds of pitters felt a tremor in the force when she wrote that.

If, on the other hand, you howl in protest and scream about vicious witch hunts and insist the things you did or said aren’t a problem, then you begin to be a bit questionable. And if you really believe you’re not sexist because science proves the sexes are totes different, and besides, you can do whatever you like because reasons, then there’s an excellent chance you’ve crossed the line somewhere and become a really-real sexist. (In which case, do come see me when you’ve had an epiphany and wish to shed your sexist prat nature. I’ll be glad to help. Until that happy day, kindly fuck off.)

Paraphrasing Admiral Ackbar, it's a Kafka Trap! See, the only way you can avoid being called a sexist, and being branded a "really-real sexist" is to accept you have done something wrong, apologize, chastise yourself and repent your evil ways.
Even trying to defend yourself, giving reasons why you think what you said or did is not sexist, is an admission of guilt that turns you into a sexist and condemns you to hell the slymepit! Unless of course you repent and confess, and accept Jesus Dana Hunter into your life to shed your sinning sexist nature, at which point you'll be accepted back in.

Do these people really NOT see how they sound exactly like the religion they affirm they left behind? It has exactly the same ingredients, exactly the same dogmas, exactly the same ideas. Reading them is a very surrealist experience.

[Ericb]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

I wonder how Elevator Guy feels about that comment.

Elevator Guy is a fictional character... ;)

Either that or his invitation included her putting on a mermaid costume in addition to drinking coffee and if she gave out that detail he might have been uncovered.

[Wonderist]

Wonderist, thanks for the reply. Please understand that in my little rant I was also pointing he finger at welch...especially the part about "pretty" lawsuits and "offensive" billboards. IIRC welch said people are wasting their time and giving atheists a bad name for things like billboards American Atheists put up and moaning about the petty lawsuits CFI do. IMO you fight them (religionists) at every turn and no battle is too small to just concede victory to those who would impose religion on the rest of us or assume religion inside all of us.

I agree.

And all my talk of "better"..I think we agree 98%. I'm just not going to go around telling people that their efforts are worse or even harmful. As you know, many people would accuse the RRS of being too confrontational and giving atheists a bad name. There were many topics on IIDB (then FRDB) about the RRS. Brian Sapient even posted a few times.

Yes, and again I'm not here to do apologetics for RRS. It's just a simple matter of fact that it's a 7 year part of my activism work online, so it's going to come up occasionally simply for that reason. And, again, I'm not ashamed of any of it, though I do regret that they made some serious/naive mistakes which led to backlash (what I now call 'backfiring' tactics).

I was never a 'core member', just a member of the forums, like we all here are members of the Slymepit forum, and basically only Lsuoma is a 'core member', being the only owner. I'm on friendly terms with Sapient, and was a moderator for several months at one point, but I don't represent RRS, and RRS doesn't represent me, except to the extent that I agree with their core mission of trying to confront irrationality in the world, especially religion. I will only talk about them in relation to my own experiences and history. If anyone, say perhaps welch, has a beef with any RRS members past or present, that's between that individual person and them; I don't intend to get tangled up in that. As far as I know, no one has a beef with *me* because of my membership in the forums. Again, I was not a 'core member', just a forum member. I wasn't involved in any of the drama and rumour-mongering that occurred. I was watching it happen though, as a spectator.

Remember smut for smut? Where college kids would trade a holy book for porn? People pointed the finger at them saying, "bad bad bad". Then the kid goes on CNN and makes Tucker Carlson look like an asshole. That kid posted at IIDB too (not a regular though). Remember American Atheists and their Jesus is a myth banner on Christmas? The end result? Bill O'Rielly doing his "the tides come in the tides go out and YOU can't explain that!".

Likewise, I support all those varied efforts. My motto is: Blasphemy is a victimless crime! (Always with that all important exclamation mark ;) ) I've defended Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, too. And though I didn't like the production value of that anti-Mohammad movie trailer/excerpt thingy, I actually thought it was pretty funny in certain parts (like being chased around the tent by his two wives, like some Three Stooges antics or something. so silly!) I don't think those guys did anything wrong by *making such a movie*. What they did wrong was *deceiving* the actors and crew. I'd actually like to see more (and better!) movies like that, without any unethical practices undermining it.

Unforeseen consequences. Can you predict them? (referring to your link). How do they factor into your pragmatism?

Yes you can, though not perfectly of course. That's what I've been referring to as 'risks'. I've recently been studying more about statistics and probability theory, to try to get a solid theoretical grasp on my mostly-intuitive ideas as presented in that article. There are whole sub-fields of statistics, science, economics, and engineering, dealing with predicting/mitigating risks, expected losses, failure rates, reliability, and basically just 'error' in predictions. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_management

btw, I guessed "paragraph".

Thanks for the feedback. I've had a few reports of missed predictions, one was 'blank', another was 'paragraph', also. I never thought anyone would guess 'blank', but it kinda makes sense, in a concrete way. I tried to mitigate the risk (<<< see, risk management :P ) of people guessing 'paragraph' by adding the extra sentence at the *end of the paragraph*, "Did you get it?", but I guess it could use a bit more work. I originally got the basic idea from a talk by Jeff Hawkins, who wrote a really good book which incorporates this idea of people making predictions: Can't find the talk, now, but it really worked well when he did it.

Anyway rather than spend time with me and welch, IMO it would be "better" if you kept on engaging the FTB crew. hehehe j/k it's all good to me.

Again, it's not just you and welch reading this, eh? ;)
But yes. As soon as welch collapses in exhaustion, I'll spend no more time on it. :P

Are you kidding? I've not had an ego stroke like this in ages. Do you want pictures? I'm sure melissa would be happy to take some saucy ones for you to spank over. I'll even autograph them. I've never had a creepy fan before, I'm so excited.

Knock yourself out.

Please, do let me know when you're going to be driving my my house, all slow and creepy.

Gotcha, and please also let me know when you plan to make an actual reasoned case for anything. Oh, and don't forget the evidence. Just a reminder.

We'll want to have a party to watch. That is okay, right? I mean I'm not sure how this works, the etiquette of it. Can I have friends over when you do that? Or would that be rude?

Well, for sure you don't want to forget to invite the real welch, welch's ego. That would be a real shame if you forgot about him. After all, he's the one you're embarrassing with these ineffective MOCK THEM posts which are 100% ineffective against me, as I called it when I have you that shot of ego-juice a few posts back.

Welch! Real welch! Come back! This Oolon clone is scaring me with talk about wanting to be stalked for some reason. He seems to think it's an effective tactic to get me to shut up, or something. Even after I've told him repeatedly it doesn't work! If you're out there, real welch, tell welch's ego to re-read this comment I made on his blog months ago, explaining the situation to him. He seems to have forgotten how it went down, for some reason: https://dissentionisnothate.wordpress.c ... comment-53

[Wonderist]

welch, for what it's worth, I think your latest two post on Nugent's blog hit the nail on the head. Well spoken; well argued.

Whew! Thank goodness. The real welch is still alive and kicking. His ego hasn't won the day yet.

[Submariner]

Wonderist, if you aren't busy....Nugent's post.

[Wonderist]

If you don't agree with me about the global warming myth, try a bit of wattsupwiththat.com. It is not my job to educate you.

lol, had me going there, cunt. Well fucking done!

[Arya Stark]

Religious people would always try to impose their goofy thinking process onto me. Like "everyone believes in something" or "atheism is your religion" etc. Feminists do the same it seems.

That's the thing... to be one of them you have to believe in the concepts they give you, without questions and without ability to know what really stands behind them. You can read some books or let some feminists testify to you, but all of it doesn't make any sense to me. I cannot believe it... and if you dare to question it, you are not one of them, especially in the reign of the holy church of FfTB.
I think, that there is no real difference between the "Patriachy" and "God is Love" or between the existence of a "Rape Culture" and the "Trinity".

[Steersman]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

Curious that so few if any of the “usual suspects” show up there to defend their positions. Zvan popped in on an earlier thread of Nugent’s to complain about all of the “lies” being promoted and the dearth of dialog, and was then, I think, never heard from again. And likewise with Sally Strange and Spokesgay and Setar and …. The whole FfTB/Skepchick/AtheismPlus are more notable for their absence than anything else. In passing, relative to various strange sallies from Sally, this one of hers over on Crommunist’s blog has to take the cake:

http://i46.tinypic.com/eg464p.jpg

Have you, perchance, seen many of that crowd making many “well-supported arguments honestly”, and “actually properly referencing the arguments of others”, much less Sally herself? About the only one doing so is Oolon.

But I’ve noticed some quite cogent and succinct observations from you, and more than a few others, many on the question of feminism and what it is doing to the atheist/skeptic movements. You may recollect Ronald Lindsay’s recent Request for Input for opinions on that question – one wonders what effects the ear-full he received will have on it.

[tina]

Benson today..... "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."


How did I smear Benson? What with? Marmite? :whistle: :popcorn:

I wonder how Elevator Guy feels about that comment.

Elevator Guy is a fictional character... ;)

Either that or his invitation included her putting on a mermaid costume in addition to drinking coffee and if she gave out that detail he might have been uncovered.

I guess she's just butthurt coz her reputation is destroyed. Should learn to be more careful about what she sais and to whom. Bit late now.

[Wonderist]

The Reddit AMA with Steven Pinker was fantastic!
http://www.skepticink.com/incredulous/2 ... ama-recap/
I'm curious how the SJW's will twist his answers to make him a misogynist/racist/homophobe.

I had the pleasure of reading that last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Pinker really seems to be one of those minds that 'gets it' that absolutist approaches or positions almost never work, even in academia. I have his book 'The Blank Slate' and should really make the time to read it. I'll be looking up a copy of 'How the Mind Works' after reading that interview transcript.

Technically, I don't think Pinker's a 'credentialed' philosopher (could be wrong!) but I consider him a philosopher nonetheless. And the only person I can think of right now keeping Pinker out of my #1 slot for favourite living/active philosophers is Dennett. The slots from 3 and on are pretty far behind, soon to be lapped. If a philosopher can't handle incorporating science into their philosophy, I have little use for them.

[nippletwister]

Wow. Just read this from Amanda Marcotte regarding Michael Nugent's recent post proposing an agenda for structured dialogue:

If we eliminate people who don't want an inclusive community, there are no rifts, however.

(from https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/stat ... 7790962688)

Why do I get the shivers when reading that? Why does it sound vaguely familiar?

Heil Marcotte! Goddess Mit Uns!

[tina]

Why do I get the shivers when reading that? Why does it sound vaguely familiar?

T'is because of the chill wind penetrating your stripey pajamas through the barbed wire....

[Wonderist]

Wonderist, if you aren't busy....Nugent's post.

Touche

[Steersman]

Religious people would always try to impose their goofy thinking process onto me. Like "everyone believes in something" or "atheism is your religion" etc. Feminists do the same it seems.

That's the thing... to be one of them you have to believe in the concepts they give you, without questions and without ability to know what really stands behind them. You can read some books or let some feminists testify to you, but all of it doesn't make any sense to me. I cannot believe it... and if you dare to question it, you are not one of them, especially in the reign of the holy church of FfTB.
I think, that there is no real difference between the "Patriachy" and "God is Love" or between the existence of a "Rape Culture" and the "Trinity".

A quite credible analogy. Apropos of which, if you haven’t read them yet I would strongly recommend Massimo Pigliucci’s Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk. As I recollect, he put Freudian psychology and communist dogma in the “pseudoscience” category – I expect he would put much of feminist philosophy and dogma in the same one.

Another one is the book by the British scientist and Nobel laureate P. B. Medawar titled The Art of the Soluble, a series of essays on science and the humanities, a salient comment on the former being:

As the very least we expect of a hypothesis is that it should account for the phenomena already before us, its ‘extra-mural’ implications, its predications about what is not yet known to be the case, are of special and perhaps crucial importance. [pg 147]

Which highlights, I think, the problems with things like Freudian psychology, communist and feminist dogma [which show some “unnatural affinities”], and theology: heavy on the hypothesizing, and which are thereby little more than “Philosophick Romances”, but decidedly light on factual evidence, and deductive proofs.