pseudo-skepticism


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“Reputable and professional historians do not suppress parts of quotations from documents that go against their own case, but take them into account and if necessary amend their own case accordingly. They do not present as genuine documents those that they know to be forged just because these forgeries happen to back up what they are saying. They do not invent ingenious but implausible and utterly unsupported reasons for distrusting genuine documents because these documents run counter their arguments; again, they amend their arguments if this is the case, or abandon them altogether. They do not consciously attribute their own conclusions to books and other sources which, in fact, on closer inspection, actually say the opposite. They do not eagerly seek out the highest possible figures in a series of statistics, independently of their reliability or otherwise, simply because they want for whatever reason to maximize the figure in question, but rather, they assess all the available figures as impartially as possible in order to arrive at a number that will withstand the critical scrutiny of others. They do not knowingly mistranslate sources in foreign languages to make them more serviceable to themselves. They do not willfully invent words, phrases, quotations, incidents, and events for which there is no historical evidence to make their arguments more plausible to their readers.

“At least, they do not do any of these things if they wish to retain any kind of reputable status as historians.” (more…)

myers_flynt

alexgabriel

FTB’s Godlessness In Theory – or “why you are all stupid”

Keep falling for that old, tired assumption that freefromthoughtblogs can no longer surprise me with its stupidity. This is so thoroughly gob-smacking that my bruised and battered mind refused to apprehend it fully on a first pass, probably as a self-preservation auto-response. It really makes the Prune look like a rocket scientist. I am at an absolute loss as to how a mind could become so degenerate and so immune to well documented reality. This is how a relatively new loser on the FfTB block defines Freethought, en route to earning brownie points by engaging in groupthink pissing on the latest witch of the week, Pat Condell

‘Freethought’ has always been a left traditionby Alex Gabriel

Objections to Freethought‘s place in our masthead are among the laziest, glibbest soundbites our critics have, but more than that display a failure to grasp even the term’s most basic history. Freethought is not ‘free thought’ or uninhibited inquiry – to think so boasts the same green literalism as thinking a Friends’ Meeting House is a shared beach hut or that Scotch pancakes contain Scotch  – though even if it were, it’s silly and inane to assume one’s critics are automatons or say loose collective viewpoints mean dictatorship. Freethought is a specified tradition, European in the main, whose constituents have by and large been countercultural, radical and leftist, everything Condell and cohorts viscerally despise.

Were it posted anywhere other than FfTB, I would at first assume it was a well crafted Poe designed as flame bait. Depressingly, the cretin appears sincere.

“Freethought is not ‘free thought’ or uninhibited inquiry”

Just read that back to yourselves a few times. Savour its exquisite barnyard aroma.

It beggars belief. I have to wonder precisely what kind of education process is responsible for churning out such a brain dead parrot. Or more importantly, who is responsible for embedding this kind of rote learned tape loop in his mind. Freethoughtblogs has more in common with Pol Pot than The Enlightenement. I have vivisected precisely why FfTB is the antithesis of Freethought previously, and no more needs to be said –

Ask PZ Myers: How Is It That You Can Claim To Be A Freethinker?

It is a credit to freeze peach that imbeciles like this exist and have blogs. Dining tables, as Barney Frank would put it. But it is a two edged sword. While dingbats like Alex Gabriel provide an endless source of mirth for the few actual Freethinkers that remain, consider the poor kids out there that are making their first lunges to free themselves from religions and cults. The likelihood is that they will do so online, and there is a high probability they will stumble on FfTB. And thus have their minds poisoned by a fresh brew of snake oil that the likes of Gabriel peddle…

This is where the real damage gets done. Do your duty. Save the kids from these charlatans. If you don’t, no one else will.

benson_brain_harrassing
[via Gumby from the gates of rape loving Hell]

Something I found a while ago that underscores a key point made in the last post. Says it all. Amusing in a “walk away in despair” kind of way – (more…)

watson_bill_stuffing

The harassment must cease, the shameless harassers must be named.

Anonymous asked: “to the people asking for evidence on these accusations: missing the point. Believe survivors.”

“I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.” — Douglas Adams

I admit I have been very lax in my baboonology for the bulk of this year. This is a combination of mostly having better things to do coupled with what I guess can be called cognitive RSI – the gibberish at freefromthoughtblogs and skepchick, for me, is a cumulative toxin and repeat exposure does not allow for immunisation, but rather the nausea has steadily increased to the point that it is now actually painful to see. Nevertheless, I have maintained a reasonable level of awareness of their relentless psychodramatics and 唱板板 via private channels and various news feeds.

It was the latter that pointed me to a link containing the first quote above, which leapt out from the surrounding sea of yet another pernicious, well poisoning, muckraking, pro-baboon tumblr page. The statement in itself maligns no one directly – its real repugnance lies in what it expects of the reader. It is perhaps the most succinct précis I have seen to date that represents what, ultimately, is freefromthoughtblogs’ and skepchick’s true mission statement –

“scrutinise and question everything; ‘everything’ of course, does not include us. Us you believe, always and without evidence, for we are faith based organisations. Every time you doubt anything we say, no matter how preposterous, we drown a kitten”. (more…)

Just a little mind map I knocked up to visualise the motivations of the various players in the baboon kingdom. To be periodically updated. Inspired by The Political Compass.

FTB_poli_compass

slot“How much truth is contained in something can be best determined by making it thoroughly laughable and then watching to see how much joking around it can take. For truth is a matter that can withstand mockery, that is freshened by any ironic gesture directed at it. Whatever cannot withstand satire is false.” — Peter Sloterdijk

ophelia_depends

Has Ophie ever done *anything* of value *anywhere*?

link whoring – (Internet, idiomatic) The practice of going out of one’s way to place links to one’s website on someone else’s webpage.

21 Ways to legally steal traffic to your blog from the big boys

#3. Rant Aloud: Ranting to steal traffic legally is a great way you should go if you desperately need traffic to your blog site. Here, you go to where the sites you need are. All you need to do here is to rant…

Let’s face it – blatant link whoring is a vile practice, probably as old as spam itself (and it is, in effect, little more than spam). Many of us, at one time or another, have experienced spikes in blood pressure from repeat infringements by its more shameless abusers. (more…)

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