Matt Dillahunty gets Nailed To The Plus
For the past week or so, I've been drafting up a blog post about why I do not support Atheism+. That post is still upcoming, but I want to share a specific instance of one of the reasons why I simply cannot join this group.
The other day, Matt Dillahunty(who is the host of the show The Atheist Experience) had done a social experiment in an attempt to prove that the Atheism+ folks weren't as batshit crazy as all of the critics claim they are to new users. He created two accounts on the Atheism+ forum: One was "Matt Dillahunty", and the other was a "sockpuppet" account called "Curious".
What set the whole thing off was this thread(do read the whole thread, it's awesome). Curious/Matt's post got deleted and was instructed in the notification email to take his case to the moderators. The post that got deleted questioned the merits of a ban(in particular, the ban of "skep tickle" over questioning the now-successful bullying of Justin Vacula). Matt then proceeded to start a thread asking to have his deleted post reposted in that thread or put in an appopriate forum. From there, they ravaged "Curious" like a pack of wolves over fresh meat. That is, until Matt signed a post with his real name. The moderator mocked Curious, going so far as to say(paraphrasing): "Hahaha! I know Matt Dillahunty. He's a good man. You, however, are not".
Then Matt directed the Atheism+ admins and mods to his Twitter feed, where they found this bombshell: "Hello to the admins at Atheism+ forum. Curious is me". And then the mods' attitudes flipped from "Fuck off, troll!" to "We're sorry, we didn't know it was you, Mr. Dillahunty. Had we known, you would have been treated better".
Folks, do you see the problem here? Matt certainly does by now: They refused to treat Matt's questioning as legitimate purely on the bases of "I felt like it was trolling"(caprice) and "You're a nobody, so you must be a troll" instead of on the merits. Matt Dillahunty has finally experienced the pure nastiness that pervades the entire Atheism+ group. It is the same nastiness and failure of logic and skepticism originally born of the Elevatorgate scandal, and has spread to Free(from)ThoughtBlogs and Skepchick. And they have further proven their nastiness in their "resolution", permanently banning Matt from their forum unless he "apologizes" for his actions.
So, a congratulations is in order to Matt Dillahunty. He has joined the ranks of those "Nailed To The Plus"(Stef McGraw, Richard Dawkins, Abbie Smith, Justicar/integralmath, Thunderf00t, Girlwriteswhat, Anna Johnstone and most recently Justin Vacula), but with the unenviable distinction of not being able to go back to the wider atheist community without getting chewed out for his uncritical support of a group that has proven itself utterly toxic and subversive.
Perhaps now that his eyes have been opened, he'll look at the Atheism+ critics' claims with a more critical mindset and judge them on their merits, instead of dismissing them based on the propaganda spewed out by the FfTB/Skepchick/Atheism+ triad. But, forgive me if I'm not entirely holding my breath over it.
Update: Matt directly talks about the forum incident and the "resolution", and comes out with some serious issues with Atheism+.
Update 2: I've posted a clarification and addendum here.
The other day, Matt Dillahunty(who is the host of the show The Atheist Experience) had done a social experiment in an attempt to prove that the Atheism+ folks weren't as batshit crazy as all of the critics claim they are to new users. He created two accounts on the Atheism+ forum: One was "Matt Dillahunty", and the other was a "sockpuppet" account called "Curious".
What set the whole thing off was this thread(do read the whole thread, it's awesome). Curious/Matt's post got deleted and was instructed in the notification email to take his case to the moderators. The post that got deleted questioned the merits of a ban(in particular, the ban of "skep tickle" over questioning the now-successful bullying of Justin Vacula). Matt then proceeded to start a thread asking to have his deleted post reposted in that thread or put in an appopriate forum. From there, they ravaged "Curious" like a pack of wolves over fresh meat. That is, until Matt signed a post with his real name. The moderator mocked Curious, going so far as to say(paraphrasing): "Hahaha! I know Matt Dillahunty. He's a good man. You, however, are not".
Then Matt directed the Atheism+ admins and mods to his Twitter feed, where they found this bombshell: "Hello to the admins at Atheism+ forum. Curious is me". And then the mods' attitudes flipped from "Fuck off, troll!" to "We're sorry, we didn't know it was you, Mr. Dillahunty. Had we known, you would have been treated better".
Folks, do you see the problem here? Matt certainly does by now: They refused to treat Matt's questioning as legitimate purely on the bases of "I felt like it was trolling"(caprice) and "You're a nobody, so you must be a troll" instead of on the merits. Matt Dillahunty has finally experienced the pure nastiness that pervades the entire Atheism+ group. It is the same nastiness and failure of logic and skepticism originally born of the Elevatorgate scandal, and has spread to Free(from)ThoughtBlogs and Skepchick. And they have further proven their nastiness in their "resolution", permanently banning Matt from their forum unless he "apologizes" for his actions.
So, a congratulations is in order to Matt Dillahunty. He has joined the ranks of those "Nailed To The Plus"(Stef McGraw, Richard Dawkins, Abbie Smith, Justicar/integralmath, Thunderf00t, Girlwriteswhat, Anna Johnstone and most recently Justin Vacula), but with the unenviable distinction of not being able to go back to the wider atheist community without getting chewed out for his uncritical support of a group that has proven itself utterly toxic and subversive.
Perhaps now that his eyes have been opened, he'll look at the Atheism+ critics' claims with a more critical mindset and judge them on their merits, instead of dismissing them based on the propaganda spewed out by the FfTB/Skepchick/Atheism+ triad. But, forgive me if I'm not entirely holding my breath over it.
Update: Matt directly talks about the forum incident and the "resolution", and comes out with some serious issues with Atheism+.
Update 2: I've posted a clarification and addendum here.
How great is this!? Honestly, they are so divisive and toxic. Here it is for us under the spotlight; a person well-known and well respected enough for people to take notice. This group is hurting the atheist movement. Shame on them for their dogmatic witch hunts and banning dissent outright. How can they expect to be taken seriously?
ReplyDeletePriceless! Prominent blogger goes into forum to prove how open and friendly it is and gets mauled and then banned.
ReplyDeleteYou really just can't make this stuff up!
Amazingly, Matt is still optimistic, and making excuses for them.
ReplyDeleteIf this what happens when you question forum policy, imagine what would happen if you questioned their political dogmas.
And keep in mind, he only made any progress at all because he is, and revealed that he is one of the leading voices of the atheist community. And after all that he still got banned!
Well, anyone who questions any aspect of the A+ forum and its policies is obviously a misogynistic troll, especially when they turn out not to be. Better ban them just be on the safe side... after all, that's what a "safe space" is all about. Suppressing debate and dissent by any means necessary, like good freethinking skeptics always do.
ReplyDeletematt dillahunty professes he was a Christian. Matt is none other than deluded. He was never a Born again follower of Christ and at the very least should stop lying to others informing them that he was this holier than though holy roller for over 20 years. There are many false converts who follow a religious creed who then turn away from the faith as they never turned to nor understood Christ in the first place. The funny thing about all this is when you see his position now all he hates about religion he has become. he is simply a hypocritical High Priest in his own church where he is God asking for donations to support His ministry preaching His ideaology/religion while he pontificates over those who have faith. When will he finally get a good session going with those in the claibre of Ravi Zacharias or John Lennox. Matt is simply a big bully who picks on little kids who is none other than a wimpy princess who can not redeem his life once he dies.
ReplyDeleteFrom Carmelo Western Australia
Oh look a wall of bullshit
DeleteOh how the truth about matt stings. yet he continues to fool atheists that he was once a Christian. If matt was a Christian then I must be Michael Jackson reincarnate.
DeleteCarmelo - There needs to be a "Christ" that ACTUALLY EXISTED HISTORICALLY-- BEFORE you could "follow"... And we know that "Jesus Christ" is a made-up name after-the-fact... No "J" existed in Hebrew until 1,600 A.D., and "Lord Krishna" held the origin to the plagiarism that is the word "Christ"... "Hassatan" (Satan) came from Persian Zoroastrianism, too. So how does a latter group of plagiarising psychotics deserve more credit than the myth's originators?
DeleteIt's so awesome that the atheist now have a dogmatic, afraid of confritation, do what we say or else, splinter cell to make us look bad. Way to go Atheism+, you just became a religion.
ReplyDeleteFuck you, fuck you in your fucking asses.
A "religion" is defined by an aspect that some form of self survives death of the physical body, retard. A non-belief is not a world-view, psychotic retard. Try again.
DeleteBrilliant title. It is funny, yet serious, capturing everything that is wrong with this movement in a single sentence. Maybe we can make this a common phrase, to be used whenever somebody who was initially supportive is sacrificed on the altar of manichean morality: "Marc has been nailed to the plus over his objection to ."
ReplyDeleteyoutube video is private
ReplyDeleteSo I followed the link to Matt's response because I really would like to hear from him and not thru globosphere. But its private and nothing. So here is what I have to go on. All the videos of the members of the Feminist splinter group and their own words to judge them by.
ReplyDeleteVideos from the other side including thuderf00t and some others. Also their own words.
A video where Dave Silverman railed on some guy for doing something that I actually saw the other group doing as well. And when this guy pointed that out Silverman just got more angry and railed on him louder.
And zip from Dillahunty but hidden videos.
From someone who is very very new to the whole idea of atheism, this doesn't look good for a group of people who is supposed to be most acquainted with reason. Honestly I'm disappointed but I'm still scouring the net for answers.