Sam Harris Wrestling the trolls.

[Seth]

What an excellent article.

An eye-opener. Harris gets my sympathy, as does anyone whose views are distorted by an overly emotional, politically correct, politically motivated horde who have nothing but knee-jerk reactions to sound bytes and don't even bother to take the time to reason out the ideas for themselves before slinging shit at them.

Does that include me?

[Tero]

Priapus! The first dickhead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mus%C ... A9o_03.jpg

[FBM]

What an excellent article.

An eye-opener. Harris gets my sympathy, as does anyone whose views are distorted by an overly emotional, politically correct, politically motivated horde who have nothing but knee-jerk reactions to sound bytes and don't even bother to take the time to reason out the ideas for themselves before slinging shit at them.

Does that include me?

Definitely. Anybody whose ideas get distorted without being fairly reflected upon first.

[Woodbutcher]

What an excellent article.

An eye-opener. Harris gets my sympathy, as does anyone whose views are distorted by an overly emotional, politically correct, politically motivated horde who have nothing but knee-jerk reactions to sound bytes and don't even bother to take the time to reason out the ideas for themselves before slinging shit at them.

Does that include me?

Yep. I read your comments to learn. Just like other peoples' comments. Then I form my opinion. It may not always be right, but I make an effort to reason.

[pErvinalia]

What an excellent article.

An eye-opener. Harris gets my sympathy, as does anyone whose views are distorted by an overly emotional, politically correct, politically motivated horde who have nothing but knee-jerk reactions to sound bytes and don't even bother to take the time to reason out the ideas for themselves before slinging shit at them.

Does that include me?

many of us spent years writing and reading through hundreds of thousands of words in debates with you. There was nothing knee-jerk about it. Don't make me laugh.

[Bella Fortuna]

I am awaiting the Pharyngula response with growing ennui.

It's already crawled up from the depths:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... am-harris/

[Badger3k]

Yes, because he never censored them or chastised them, often encouraged them, while condemning those who attempted to take them to task on as he says quite a lot, HIS BLOG.

I'm now going to do the unthinkable.

I know very little about P.Z. Myers personal history. I know nothing of what happened to him as a child, what shaped him as a boy to be fascinated by Cthulhu and his fiendish underwater minions. I only know that such has left him with a certain view of a world which I do not share. I cannot say whether he just got caught up in the spokes of a the fashionable anti-religion bandwagon or whether he was motivated to speak out. However speak out he did and he provided a place, for some people perhaps that was useful in ridding them of their fictions. I don't know, but if he did, good for him.

However, somewhere along the line, he stopped being P.Z. Myers and became !!!P.Z. MYERS!!! Internet Atheist rock and roll superstar, to some fools if not to himself. But let's be honest, who (well me, but I'm told, I'm Audley Strange) really doesn't like compliments and flattery. Perhaps he began to think, "you know what? I'm doing some good here."

Can't blame him for that. Would never blame him for his style either. Let's honest when the opposition are a bunch of child fucking Sadistic fantasists who've cast a black spell over the world for a couple of thousand years, that's a fight worth having, no matter what rhetoric or invective is used. The problem is, I think he fell into the common problem of beginning to believe his own bullshit was righteous. Which is exactly what the fight against religion is about. I think Harris has on occassion fallen into that too, but he wisely detached himself from, rather than encouraging, an echo chamber of crazed netizens.

I mean, jesus christ, listen to us lot, we're fucking bananas! So I think, I hope that he's at least perceptive enough to see he's been dragged down into this psychic sewage and rather than trying to get out has been floating on top of it, wallowing in it. I hope he can see that its all just semiotic effluvium and represents the person as much as an actual shit does. After all he's been guilty of it himself.

Let's all lay off him, give him a break. The point's been made if he's not seeing it by now, then its futile. We've lost another bunch of useful minds deadened by their own fundamentalist bullshit over-riding their reason. We shouldn't be gloating or celebrating that, it's a Pyrrhic victory at best, no?

He hasn't learned anything. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... st-papacy/

[Azathoth]

Pharyngula response will be something along these lines.



Hopefully leading to another one of these from Harris

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuLFq3Ps ... re=related[/youtube]

[Badger3k]

I am awaiting the Pharyngula response with growing ennui.

It's already crawled up from the depths:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... am-harris/

WTF? I admit to having issues with Harris as well, but what the hell?

Let’s complete the total sellout. Since I am now a notorious and unscrupulous opponent of all that is Sam, I will turn it over to you: there is currently a competition to raise money for Camp Quest. I’m falling far behind. If you think I’m on the side of Goodness and Righteousness, donate to Team PZ’s Revenge. If you think I’m full of it and adore Sam Harris, donate to Team Awful Re-defeat PZ, that gang of 13 bloggers (we’re all evil!) who have teamed up to conquer sad, lonely, isolated me.

Sam could really teach me a lesson by making a big donation to Team Awful. A good trouncing would show everyone how pathetic my influence actually is.

I'm not even sure what to say. This can't be serious - this is the man who got pissed when a TAM speech said jacking online polls was a waste of time (who even has a name for doing that to polls "pharyngulating"), speaking to his horde - many other people have stopped reading his blog except for Lulz, putting it as a plug towards something decent (the only good part of this). He obviously doesn't expect any people supporting Harris to get this, or at least not many I would imagine. It just seems like another PR stunt by PZ Barnum.

Are people that shallow to buy it?

[Audley Strange]

Yes, because he never censored them or chastised them, often encouraged them, while condemning those who attempted to take them to task on as he says quite a lot, HIS BLOG.

I'm now going to do the unthinkable.

I know very little about P.Z. Myers personal history. I know nothing of what happened to him as a child, what shaped him as a boy to be fascinated by Cthulhu and his fiendish underwater minions. I only know that such has left him with a certain view of a world which I do not share. I cannot say whether he just got caught up in the spokes of a the fashionable anti-religion bandwagon or whether he was motivated to speak out. However speak out he did and he provided a place, for some people perhaps that was useful in ridding them of their fictions. I don't know, but if he did, good for him.

However, somewhere along the line, he stopped being P.Z. Myers and became !!!P.Z. MYERS!!! Internet Atheist rock and roll superstar, to some fools if not to himself. But let's be honest, who (well me, but I'm told, I'm Audley Strange) really doesn't like compliments and flattery. Perhaps he began to think, "you know what? I'm doing some good here."

Can't blame him for that. Would never blame him for his style either. Let's honest when the opposition are a bunch of child fucking Sadistic fantasists who've cast a black spell over the world for a couple of thousand years, that's a fight worth having, no matter what rhetoric or invective is used. The problem is, I think he fell into the common problem of beginning to believe his own bullshit was righteous. Which is exactly what the fight against religion is about. I think Harris has on occassion fallen into that too, but he wisely detached himself from, rather than encouraging, an echo chamber of crazed netizens.

I mean, jesus christ, listen to us lot, we're fucking bananas! So I think, I hope that he's at least perceptive enough to see he's been dragged down into this psychic sewage and rather than trying to get out has been floating on top of it, wallowing in it. I hope he can see that its all just semiotic effluvium and represents the person as much as an actual shit does. After all he's been guilty of it himself.

Let's all lay off him, give him a break. The point's been made if he's not seeing it by now, then its futile. We've lost another bunch of useful minds deadened by their own fundamentalist bullshit over-riding their reason. We shouldn't be gloating or celebrating that, it's a Pyrrhic victory at best, no?

He hasn't learned anything. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... st-papacy/

Depressingly enough, I never thought he would, still one hopes.

[Robert_S]

So, is PZ responsible for the Horde?

I don't know to be honest, don't we have some lawyers on this site, I would really like an answer to this question.

I was thinking along moral and ethical lines actually. Seems to me that he bears some responsibility for predictable behavior resulting from his blog posts, especially as he has actively cuntivated an activist following. That does not not mean that any other individuals involved are in any way absolved from any responsibility though.

[Audley Strange]

Robert, you're on fire tonight.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Where do I go to get cuntivated?

[Bella Fortuna]

cuntivated

Word of the day award!

[Badger3k]

cuntivated

Word of the day award!