With Breeders Like These, I'm Shocked We're Not Extinct

I have a breaking news bulletin:  if there exists some method--irrespective how obscure, or nearly impossible to be found--to take what is at most a cheesy/almost possibly creepy hello and transmogrify that plum nearly gauche faux pas into some abject, intellectually deficient reason to lecture someone*, somewhere on Doing It Rite [sic], some positively stupefyingly privileged first world reprobate curiously bereft of a quixotic gallimaufry of a sense of humor, wit, spine and a lick of nuance will nevertheless create some mechanism to make it thus and so.

Butterfucking and Reinventing the Wheel (this time as a square)

You ever go to pick out a birthday card and then you're reading it and thinking, "ommigod, this one is exactly right" and then you get to the end and it says, "Jesus loves you" or something that just ruins the whole thing? That has nothing to do with the article I've just read, but it almost did so there.

I am first going to start off with noting that Ophelia Benson is in my estimation a tone troll of the worst order. The worst order because she's popular, and that provides a non-linearity with respect to what she says versus the impact it creates. If she were just a comment section tone troll, she'd be harmless enough. But she's not so she is.  Second, I want to note that she's not a categorical idiot. She is at times a careful thinker in a substantive way as opposed to merely being crafty in word selection.

Radical Spiderism, a Cautionary Tale

I am scared of spiders.  I don't mean they bother me, and I'd rather, you know, not share space and time with them because they're lousy dinner guests, or mess the carpet. I mean that I am absolutely petrified of spiders. And wasps too, but only because I'm deathly allergic to being stung. Yes, yes, I know that where I live no one has been killed by a spider in over a hundred years, but still. I'm scared of them.  No spider has so much looked at me cross-eyed or insulted my mother or anything. But I am still scared of them.

Why? As it happens I'm a primate.  I'm an evolved creature who has certain dispositions built into me as artifacts of what was useful for my ancestors to survive long enough to reproduce.

Paula Kirby: Dismissive of Women's Oppression?

(if you happen to know a good web address for Paula, let me know so I can link to it)
[edit:  Paula Kirby has responded]
[edit 2: I had to change out a hyperlink. The one for Jerry Coyne I had for some reason directing to some cranky ass person, Ophelia Benson, by accident. Deleted part of this edit; if I'm going to lampoon someone different, I'll do a new post entirely]

I'm following a thread discussion incident to Jerry Coyne's posting of one of the panel discussions from Dublin.  If you've not watched this discussion, to include the questions, this post isn't for you.

 Here's the panel discussion. Please neglect the fact that whoever named the file can't spell atheist.

Among the criticisms, ranging from the silly (Rebecca Twatson deserved a place among these four women for balance!  How many fucking people on a panel does this person want? And why would Rebecca Twatson warrant a place among four leading women in the movement?), to the reactionary (Paula Kirby is fine with allowing women to be subjugated!).


I'll address the latter one as I think Paula Kirby is about to get slammed.

Here's the exact lead-in on this issue:

A Malaysian guy asked a question re the Obedient Wives Club: “How do you empower women that don’t see ‘submissive’ as a problem…”

Zomgitscriss Is Just As Much A Misogynist As Richard Dawkins Is!

PZ Myers is excited because Zomgitscriss is coming to America.  I'm glad she's coming here too; I like most of her videos.
But I wonder if he's actually familiar with her work:

Remember, he's been rather supportive of the pillorying of Richard Dawkins, like in this post.
She seems to work under the same premise that women in the west aren't oppressed; that women in the west are just far less likely to put in the same effort as the men in the west with respect to work. She also demonstrates that this isn't true across all fields, including dentistry say.

At any rate, if you're Richard Dawkins and you think women aren't being oppressed, you're a misogynist, lose all humanism cred and become the whipping bitch for feminazis.  If you're Zomgitscriss, well, come on in sister!  And no comment.

Why I Can't Take this Seriously

I'm a coward, you see.  I know this because Brianx from Abbie's Blog told me so.  Apparently, I've stopped posting in any of the closed threads on Pharyngula; ergo, I can't hack it.  Yes, this is an indictment on my courage because typing on the internet requires so much of it in the first place.  And I stopped participating right after PZ closed all comments. I'm a pussy.

I have been pretty snarky for most of this nontroversy(tm).  Why? Because legitimate attempts to discuss it have not yet proven at all effective.  Well, maybe they have for some definition of effective. But I'm not convinced that "lol@retarded male privileged white guy rapist-in-waiting power" is a cogent argument; I may just fail to appreciate its nuance.

On Pharyngula, ERV, and a few other places I can't remember right now I've had essentially the same discussion.  It results in the same outcome regardless of my being snarky or sincere.  So, I'll just quote snippets from what I wrote last night to Brianx, and earlier to C0nc0rdance, as well as openly to anyone who happens to run across my comments. I'll make the offer available here as well.