Post
by Shielson » Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:30 am
As the copious words prompted by the revamp and temporary closure of Richard Dawkins’ forum attest, those by Peter Harrison not the least, truth takes many forms.
Having read some of Peter’s past missionary devotions delivering angst-ridden waifs from the evil clutches of their Christian relatives, I’m not really all that surprised. Who better for erecting damning edifices on the skimpiest of evidence, expediently boosting own web-site’s hits and personal stocks no end?
Who better indeed than one who purveys “magic/mentalism material for other performers” for turning a sow’s ear into the proverbial silk purse, or what had become a pit of vulgar imbecility and infantile drivel, a theatre of navel-gazing, bickering narcissists into that once hoped-for oasis of reason.
And instead of the one lately overseen in the main by inept clowns more concerned with sating own bloated egos and in playing favorites than in maintaining acceptable debating standards. As Richard shrewdly asked, “Have private fiefdoms been unwittingly trampled?”
Our drama queen’s latest wordy rant sees a subtle change though, with the blame now more safely shifted to Josh and Andrew, although not totally.
“Of course, it is a possibility that Dawkins knows this and is lying to us all. You never know. But my personal opinion is that he isn’t. Richard may be saying awful things about us that aren’t true, but that doesn’t stop me from being on his side. Some have accused me of being an enemy of Dawkins. This is not the case. He has been as much of an inspiration in my life as the community we helped create, and he still is.
“Is this really newsworthy? It’s very sad for those involved, and I thought it was worth taking some to explain what actually happened, but surely this isn’t something the general public are going to be interested in. I think a lot of people currently have a lack of perspective. My tiny little blog has had tens of thousands of visitors in a few days, I’ve had phone calls and emails from The Times and Channel 4, and offers to write articles for magazines. I’m shocked that so many people are discussing this.”
In that case, lay off and give us all a break, Peter!
Arriving at similar conclusions a while back, I obviously concur wholeheartedly with Richard’s ‘outrage’ remarks. Occasionally I even surmised if it wouldn’t be worthwhile to spit the forum into two, one section for mature adults with the rest reserved for the majority, let us say those of a more childish disposition, and as naturally embracing most of the USA contingent.
Moreover, in Richard’s shoes, who’d wish to remain associated with a forum enveloped in large part of inane dross and vulgar, point-scoring banality? And as a vehicle for promoting Dawkins’ products, Richard may well have concluded that the damage to his personal reputation had started to outweigh the commercial benefits.
The new forum will favour quality over quantity, with the opening of new topics requiring prior approval (so doing away with the opening of duplicate topics by desperadoes merely avid in seeing their names up in lights!) Who could ask for more?
The idea that that Richard, or Josh and Andrew for that matter owe some kind of debt for moderators’ past exertions is absurd. No one forced them to consent to this role nor did anyone, as equally applies to any other poster, insist they’d gratuitously compile oh-so erudite posts bolstering own sense of self-importance and communal standing. In exchange for bringing in prospective customers and keeping things on an even keel, they were given the opportunity to ego-trip to their hearts’ delight: paid in full.
Finally, if Josh made any mistakes it lay in the initial idea of keeping the forum open for another thirty days: shutting it down completely on account of ‘technical difficulties’ and not reopening till fully reorganised may have been preferable.
blah blah blah.com come here to talk about rational thoughts and evolution!!!! bull fuken shit!
