BFTP: Popularity of long-debunked rape myths: talk about disheartening
Sites aimed at rape prevention should do a better job of checking their facts if they really want to help women and other potential rape victims: parroting long-debunked factoids does more harm than good.
This is a repost: originally published in 2008. Over the last week it’s suddenly started getting first dozens and now hundreds of views per day. Since the original post’s comments were closed long ago, please comment here if you have something to say.
Argument is the human condition, but public argument is not (until the Internet arrived)
A fascinating long post from Clay Shirky on the information age’s transformation of the media landscape, via @Colvinius who referenced it as part of his 2012 Andrew Olle Media Lecture.
Torture was central to both the witch scares and the Inquisition
… under such duress, people confessed at length and in great detail to the fantastic and impossible, often also indicting others, in a spreading, spiraling cascade of fantasies. Remember also that terror regimes the world over use it delightedly to terrify and suppress dissidents within their populations. [...] And they can do this only in an environment in which there are people naive enough to believe the absurd perjuries concocted under such conditions.
Don’t be one of those people.
Well done rationalia forum, you’re my final Skeptic straw
A page on this blog is now titled “Critical Thinking” instead of its previous title “Skepticism”, because that name has become tarnished by the long-lasting and widespread ‘Skepchicks should STFU’ campaign being waged by so-called “skeptics” and “rationalists” who reject the utility of applying critical thinking to social structures, at least if that critical thinking is being done by feminists.
I missed this back in 1995: quick facts about that McDonalds Coffee lawsuit
It would be nice to think that there weren’t still ignorant twerps repeating the idea that the lawsuit was unfounded/frivolous/a grave miscarriage against a poor defenceless megacorporation/harrumph/wharrgarbl, but sadly there still are.
The “Skeptics Don’t Need No Stinking Anti-Harassment Policies” Saga continues
Rebecca Watson won’t be going to TAM this year, and I think she’s absolutely right to take this stand after DJ Grothe’s statements.
Skeptical speakers behaving badly, anti-harassment policies and yammering yahoos
Last week a casual anecdote in a conference speech by Jen McCreight started a whole lot of balls rolling.
There really is a tumblr for everything
OMSFSM totally NSFW. Link in clear text because I don’t want anybody to say that they weren’t warned.
Katha Pollitt: Hitchens and his writing on Women
for someone who prided himself on his wide-ranging interests, he had virtually no interest in women’s writing or women’s lives or perspectives
Burzynski Clinic, meet Streisand Effect – you’re going to be spending some time together
When skeptics start questioning the scientific basis for the Burzynski Clinic’s highly expensive “antineoplaston” cancer therapy, that’s the time that you are supposed to offer proof of therapeutic benefit. Issuing threats instead tends to make it look like the Burzynski Clinic just doesn’t have any proofs to offer.
Links of the day: gendered slurs as social signals
On the subject of gendered insults (in this case, the use of specific terms to signal acceptable behavior):
On not buying into the LULZer playbook at FtB (or anywhere) #WeLoveFTB
By tigtog on July 3, 2012
In a truly rational world, it might be possible to substantively and productively explore the pros and cons of competing positions in good faith and reach a nuanced understanding and a mutually satisfying path forward. Unfortunately the “don’t give disproportionate emphasis to sexism” side has basically been hijacked by a bunch of bad faith contrarians…
Posted in ethics & philosophy, gender & feminism, Meta, skepticism | Tagged atheism, comments policy, cyberbullying, Deep Rifts, moderation, silencing tactics | 14 Responses