Truthiness personified
.
Whenever I hear the term “snake oil” now I get images of The Naked Emperor in my mind. The ease and glibness with which he spins falsehoods and modifies reality on the fly to suit his purposes is staggering. I just present these two screencaps and am otherwise speechless –
.
"We are at war with Eurasia"
"We are NOT at war with Eurasia. We have NEVER been at war with Eurasia"
Now if there actually were all these mysterious Australian women terrified that I’d kick them in the cunt, it would have been brought up by now and repeated ad nauseam. But it hasn’t. It only gets raised now because we are at a convenient part of the plot line and it can add colour to the story. Hearsay and chinese whispers. This is how BigLies get constructed. Just keep chipping away and demonising, repeat over and over and over, and it will stick. Substance not necessary. And it helps if your audience are baboons.
Edit 12th Nov. – Myers statement that everyone’s “fallen all over themselves” is patently false, as can be read here in previous entries. People were just scratching their heads wondering if Myers actually was that stupid, and sat and waited for more information – Myers’ track record of living up to his own boasting is pretty dismal, and sure enough, in this case it appears he didn’t have backbone to follow-up on his threats. The ambiguity of Myers language, as pointed out by some, was also noted – that’s why there was no spontaneous cry of “bullshit!” What is noted by the above is that this is all very typical Myers style deception and stupid game playing that just supports all previous observations about him.
ObYoutube –
I love The Meaning of Life, it’s one of my favourite things. But I always considered the following clip to be one of its lesser moments, one of those you take a toilet break over. But not anymore. After watching the baboon board operate in detail for so long now, it suddenly all makes sense, Python at their most subtly perceptive. This is the day to day reality at freefromthoughtblogs. Its how their minds actually appear to work –
grey lining 
November 12, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Haha. This reminds me of when the talking heads on TV start talking about a topic they want to editorialize. The classic line is “I am not a lawyer, but I have a friend who is a lawyer and he says that …. blaa, blaa, blaa.”
So Princes Zena Myers calls some gals at that are Australian at the GAC and it goes like this.
PZ…. “So, have you heard of this guy named Hoggle?”
GAC… “Why yes. We have heard of him because you sent us an email already.”
PZ… “Ok. So you have heard of him.”
GAC…”Well yes…… you told us about him.”
PZ…”Do you also know he is a sexist, misogynistic, disruptive, violent, baby eater and womez hater?”
GAC… “Well. You told us this already too. It was in your email.”
PZ… “Wouldn’t you hate it if he showed up and disrupted everything???!!!”
GAC… “Well yes! We would hate that if it were to happen.”
PZ… “I MUST fucking blog about this conversation right away. You have confirmed my suspensions!!!!”
GAC… “???????”
November 12, 2011 at 12:52 pm
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all night.
We really should make some sketch comedy out of this shit.
November 12, 2011 at 2:08 pm
hahahahaha
the post itself is funny, then “Princes Zena Myers” then the imaginary conversation. surreal
November 13, 2011 at 7:06 am
John, you are on a roll, this and the graffiti wall at ToA is hilarious between you and Wall(fly).
November 13, 2011 at 7:06 am
that is a bizarre sentence, oh well.
November 13, 2011 at 7:27 am
So much pressure!
November 12, 2011 at 12:50 pm
I am Spartacus.
I am not Spartacus.
November 12, 2011 at 1:01 pm
November 12, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Here’s a good one…. “I tell you one and one is three!”
“I’m the cult of personality!”
(Love the yellow jump suit thing too!!!!)
November 12, 2011 at 8:30 pm
franc, you gotta join me over at Zvans blog, o.k.? I am on the thread of ‘its my turn.’
Also Lousie ( like as in lice) Canuck’s thread–
I don’t care what the Aspies say about me, mostly; I barely care what Percocet junkies say; but I adore your analysis, and your grasp of the facts.
And there are threads of this discussion that ‘crowd nuance’ is ill informed to maintain with a straight face.
I am also plotting something good: e-mail me, and I will give you the specs…you must be tired by now, yes?
November 12, 2011 at 9:21 pm
It’s much more satisfying not doing anything there, yet getting blamed for everything. If I get bored, I can put a steel bucket on my head and smack it with a spanner – it’s about the same result overall.
November 12, 2011 at 9:08 pm
[…] the white, middle class female ones who have so little to grasp at apparently, that they can only hate you with their vaginas, despirte their bank accounts, new cars, and Macy’s points […]
November 12, 2011 at 9:58 pm
I note how PZ employed the sophistic tool of the passive voice in his initial remark.
Use of the passive voice is a rhetorical technique aimed at quietly avoiding claims of agency. As such, he *could* rightly claim that both versions are accurate and true. Sneaky bugger.
November 12, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Would you expect anything less from a guy who smiles like Nixon?
November 12, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Yes, I can honestly say that I now actually expect less from Myers’ acolytes than even the abysmally low standard of integrity which the Trick-Dick[1] dispensed on occasions.
___________________________
[1] Not a contraction of “Richard”, but a gender-based slight at the ex-president’s genitalia, you understand. Best I should state it first, to save the mythical two-headed she-monster: Gre-phelia the trouble.
The Gorgon, but without the grace, nor the respect.
November 13, 2011 at 12:37 am
Sorry Franc, but you walked into that one. Let Myers have his pathetic little victory, don’t let him make a big issue out of it by denying it. Who knows if it was a deliberate trap or not. Either way a reasonable person would acknowledge that he phrased his announcement in a way that lead to the assumption you (and I, and just about everyone else) made. If these are the kinds of petty games he is reduced to then he really is a sorry case.
November 13, 2011 at 12:45 am
It’s not really relevant what it is. It just adds to an already extensive resume of consistently deceptive and malicious behaviour. This is also why I did not call “bullshit!” immediately. The guy’s just a common thug used to getting his own way everywhere without question. It’s all public record. This is not a person that should be representing secularism in any manner anywhere.
November 13, 2011 at 2:05 am
Completely agree with you about the guy. I just think that although this is a rather petty little attempt at points scoring and distraction on his part, he is technically correct. Acknowledge that and it takes away his opportunity to spin it out to more than it is, an irrelevance. I know he will try anyway, but his pettiness will be even more transparent. Say “gee PZ, you got me, I misread one sentence. Now what?”
November 13, 2011 at 2:10 am
The more he spins it, the better. The days of his babbling being lost and forgotten are gone. Its time to be accountable.
November 13, 2011 at 4:13 pm
“But I always considered the following clip to be one of its lesser moments, one of those you take a toilet break over. But not anymore. ”
Python has always had things figured out. Sometimes it takes one of those eye opening moments in life to realize how much they realized that reality is stranger than fiction a lot of times.
November 14, 2011 at 4:42 am
“I have no clear idea whether Pastor Robert Jeffress is correct in referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more colloquially known as the Mormons, as “a cult.” There do seem to be one or two points of similarity. The Mormons have a supreme leader, known as the prophet or the president, whose word is allegedly supreme. They can be ordered to turn upon and shun any members who show any signs of backsliding. They have distinctive little practices… to mark them off from other mortals”
-PZ on cults
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/11/13/hitch-on-the-mormons/
November 14, 2011 at 8:04 am
Sorry, that was PZ quoting Hitch.
November 15, 2011 at 1:33 am
“I haven’t seen any persuasive data that it’s a serious and significant, let alone deleterious phenomenon” -PZ myers
But Watson’s uncorroborated, unproven anecdote is convincing enough to show that sexism is a serious problem in the skeptic community.
link: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/11/14/why-are-boys-and-men-underperforming/
November 15, 2011 at 4:48 am
Come on, fhqwhgads, they’re just taking it to the limit.
November 15, 2011 at 10:02 am
Wait till you listen to this moron who actually wants to kill critical thinking. We apparently shouldn’t criticize, but be “more loving and respectful”. You can quit watching after the first 4-5 mins..
November 15, 2011 at 11:42 am
What a truly repellent individual.
An (undeserved) ego the size of a planet, with raging florid messianic obsessions.
He makes globally sweeping evidence-free assertions that are just plain false.
TEDx are a combination of the very very good, the mostly mediocre, and this.
Although, this “lecture”, (more akin to wanking on stage), could serve as the basis for a term class in psychology.
Or, to his annoyance, as an example for use in a ‘critical thinking’ class!
November 15, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Wow Patrick Finn. What a douche. I wonder how well he prepares students to design a car, or build a bridge, or design new ways to transform energy and power the earth. Fucking literature majors… get a real job!
November 17, 2011 at 4:21 am
Hmm, these security concerns sound familiar, almost like I’ve heard them before?
‘”I just felt security at the _____ _____ Convention ought to look at him and his followers,” ____ told ___ in a phone interview on Wednesday morning.’
November 18, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Good catch. I was almost certain PZ had been on the receiving end of this type of siege mentality before, but I was too lazy to bother looking for it.
Of course, the baboons will just dismiss it as being somehow “different” in their case. You know, like, “because we really aren’t a threat”.
November 18, 2011 at 12:05 pm
A thought which only just occurred to me… how did these “Australian women who knew of him” come to find out Franc’s real name?
November 18, 2011 at 1:31 pm
This is all just the familiar “I know what you did last summer” routine. Veiled threat of holding secret knowledge. I don’t know how many times I can repeat this – I really don’t give a fuck. The baboons have thrown up so much deranged and baseless nonsense that the only safe assumption for anyone to make is to treat everything they say as bullshit until there is clear evidence otherwise. They are children that keep crying wolf – and no more.