I’m just speechless. I have nothing to say that has not already been said. This link was passed on to me and I am just recording this because it needs to be preserved –
Uhuh. As opposed to the Elevator Guy incident which was an affair that did not get inflated into absurdity by the misandrists enlightened feminist movement. How could everyone have so readily misread Becky’s intent?
.
Rebecca Watson, The Dawkins Delusion –
So many of you voiced what I had already been thinking: that this person who I always admired for his intelligence and compassion does not care about my experiences as an atheist woman and therefore will no longer be rewarded with my money, my praise, or my attention. I will no longer recommend his books to others, buy them as presents, or buy them for my own library. I will not attend his lectures or recommend that others do the same.
This is what is there now. Who knows to what extent this has been redacted and modified since the original version. I was naive back then and did not appreciate the full extent of the revisionism and reality modification that Watsonistas indulge in, as naturally as breathing, as I do now, so I did not capture the original. The current version also includes this very much after-the-fact addition –
PPPS: Nope, I didn’t call for a boycott. I’m relaying the fact that I have no interest in giving this person any more of my money or attention. Other people have independently told me they’re doing the same. This is not an organized campaign, and no one is going to be vilified for continuing to give their own time and attention to Dawkins.
Reality Modification 101. This is more a damage control exercise than anything else though – after getting an enormous backlash, even from die-hard Watsonistas, for essentially wanting to set up her own list of prohibited reading (to stand side by side with Myers blacklists of known dissidents). It is the response of the expedient. Becky knows full well there was no innocence or ambiguity about her initial calls for retribution.
I find it impossible to even milk any humour from this – that’s how genuinely, pit-of-the-stomach nauseating it is.
Secularism 2011 – nepotic sycophancy and nothing more.
grey lining 
October 2, 2011 at 4:03 pm
“Who knows to what extent this has been redacted and modified since the original version.”
Try none at all.
“Becky knows full well there was no innocence or ambiguity about her initial calls for retribution.”
Seeing something that isn’t there isn’t healthy.
October 2, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Seeing something that isn’t there isn’t healthy.
You can say the same about the Elevator Guy. And uncritical apologetics. But that’s comparing fleas and elephants.
October 5, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Disingenuous liar.
October 5, 2011 at 11:10 pm
In response to: Seeing something that isn’t there isn’t healthy.
October 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Illusions only work if everyone believes them.
October 6, 2011 at 7:58 am
“Seeing something that isn’t there isn’t healthy.”
This is a lovely piece of irony, coming as it does from an adherent to the dogmatic ideology of “You’ll see it when you believe it”.
October 2, 2011 at 8:49 pm
By itself, it is a simple statement of no longer supporting Dawkins by buying his stuff or attending his lectures. I don’t recall “reams of hysterical posts” calling for it, but I believe the intention was there. It simply doesn’t make sense to talk about one’s own personal boycotts or activism unless one suspects and hopes that others will do the same because he mentioned it.
October 2, 2011 at 8:52 pm
…intention to start a boycott…
October 2, 2011 at 9:45 pm
What’s not clear about this?
Chumpy will no doubt argue legalese nonsense definitions. But that’s like a child told to stop poking her sister and waving her fingers all over her at 1 cm distance and say “But I’m not touching her!”
You have to remember we are in a schoolyard here, albeit a very retarded one.
October 3, 2011 at 4:54 am
I *think* we’re saying the same thing. If not, then let it be known that what you said is pretty close to what I had intended to convey.
October 3, 2011 at 11:09 am
Rephrasing, not arguing.
October 3, 2011 at 3:27 am
This longer version is perhaps even more damning:
http://skepchick.org/2011/07/the-privilege-delusion/
“So to have my concerns – and more so the concerns of other women who have survived rape and sexual assault – dismissed thanks to a rich white man comparing them to the plight of women who are mutilated, is insulting to all of us. Feminists in the west have been staunch allies of the women being brutalized elsewhere, and they’ve done a hell of a lot more than Richard Dawkins when it comes to making a difference in their lives.
That wasn’t the end, of course. Dawkins went on to compare my experience with his frustration at riding in an elevator with a person chewing gum (presumably he was once accosted by such a person who rubbed Bubble Yum into his silky white hair). You can read all his comments to date at Shakesville or one of the other sites linked above.
This weekend when I read Dawkins’ comments, I was, briefly, without hope. I had already seen the future of this movement dismissing these concerns, and now I was seeing the present do the same.
What is the point in continuing?
That’s where you come in. You, dear reader, have been incredible…
You wrote blog posts and made videos and were kick ass, and you made me realize that Dawkins is not the present. He is the past.
So many of you voiced what I had already been thinking: that this person who I always admired for his intelligence and compassion does not care about my experiences as an atheist woman and therefore will no longer be rewarded with my money, my praise, or my attention. I will no longer recommend his books to others, buy them as presents, or buy them for my own library. I will not attend his lectures or recommend that others do the same. There are so many great scientists and thinkers out there that I don’t think my reading list will suffer.
Despite the fact that I’ve seen hundreds of comments from those of you who plan to do the same, I’m sure Dawkins will continue to be stinking rich until the end of his days. But those of us who are humanists and feminists will find new, better voices to promote and inspire, and Dawkins will be left alone to fight the terrible injustice of standing in elevators with gum-chewers.
PS: A few Skepchicks have written letters to Dawkins and were thinking of posting them here as well as sending them to him. If you’d like your letter included in our post, please send it to skepchick at skepchick.org.
October 3, 2011 at 3:32 am
now, here is where the “reams” she has posted come in – there are at least nine at the link below:
http://skepchick.org/2011/07/dear-richard-dawkins/
October 3, 2011 at 3:59 am
Plus the vlog:
So far I’ve counted 11. That’s “reams” to me.
Let me make it clear, his comment was not at all misogynistic. He was putting her whine into perspective with his original “Muslima” quote and also with the infamous “gum chewing quote” . I think everyone here knows I’m a woman.
I happen to have been “hit on” numerous times in my life (too mumerous to begin to count). I’ve been asked out politely, and I’ve been asked for sex point blank, both of which have been done in places like an elevator.
As far as being asked politely as the “Elevator Guy” did (that is if he even exists – regardless it is an anecdote). I find absolutely nothing wrong with him, at all, whatsoever. Was he supposed to ask her with a crowd of people around? He asked her for coffee, told her he found her interesting, and took no for an answer. Who cares what time it was? Both of them were awake, she had just left the bar.
She could have taken it as a complement (which she should have done).
I absolutely find someone cracking their gum near me more annoying, than being politely asked for coffee.
It is difficult to have the courage to ask someone to join you, that you find interesting and/or attractive, I believe he felt far more uncomfortable than she.
Where do they get that asking someone to join you for coffee after bar hours always equals a request for sex? I have joined men at that time, without sex even being a thought.
But again, this is just one small part of the larger problem with her…
October 3, 2011 at 4:51 am
sacha, Point well taken. I never followed it all that closely due to having a weak stomach for bullshit, and appreciate being disabused of my ignorance.
October 3, 2011 at 1:58 pm
That was not directed towards you, Overlord, just some more information regarding Franc’s post.
October 3, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Meh, still relevant and interesting. 🙂
October 3, 2011 at 11:13 am
The killer line from the Baboon King is this –
October 5, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Just as Robespierre casually conversed with Desmoulins, at the Constituent, on the day of his arrest, these Jacobin cutthroats will readily dispatch those that they determine… un-pure of their dogma.
October 5, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Robespierre is an utterly perfect analogy. He did mean well…
October 5, 2011 at 11:20 pm
He did mean well…
As has many deluded/colluded fools…
I could go on, but perhaps, it is not appropos.
October 5, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Off topic, but,… The Wars Against the People of the Vendee resulted in an almost complete annihilation of the population. While, I don’ support religion, I support the right of the people to decide their religion… a fundamental freedom in fuckedupistan!
While I may not agree with you, I will fight to my death to defend your opinion!
October 14, 2011 at 2:31 am
Wait, Watson, Meyers, et al are STILL beating this not only dead but fully dessicated horse? Really? You mean to tell me they haven’t gotten enough attention for making any decent man feel guilty about daring to speak to a woman (oops, I mean womYn because it’s not like we are members of the same species apparently) without there written, notarized consent? You mean to tell me that making all women look like hysterical, fragile lunatic who can’t even share sidewalk space , let alone demanding that all men cater to this idiocy as a matter of utmost moral obligation, wasn’t enough ?
Also, have you seen this little bit of brilliance by Watson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m1sm8z7i0I
If anyone watching this can’t see the irony in Watson complaining about sexism and sexualization, then they need to be committed.
October 14, 2011 at 2:45 am
That video is nauseating, desperate and much discussed. It’s worse that Becky and the Baboon whine out of one side of the mouth how people won’t let it go away, while with the other are whoring themselves to USA Today to keep the pot boiling.
These are highly professional slanderers and career victims. Their bread and butter is hysteria and public noise. Without it, they are nothing.