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atheism minus patronizing as heck pedophiles oh sorry ephebophiles playing the victim richard dawkins

Richard Dawkins opens mouth, inserts foot, mumbles something about "mild pedophilia" again

A young Richard Dawkins contemplates the beauty of the universe.
A young Richard Dawkins contemplates the beauty of the universe.

Apparently Richard Dawkins was worried that people might have forgotten what an asshat he is. So, helpful fellow that he is, he decided to give us all a demonstration of why he’s one of the atheist movement’s biggest liabilities, a “humanist” who has trouble remembering to act human.

Earlier today Dawkins decided, for some reason, that he needed to remind the people of the world of a fairly basic point of logic, and so he took to Twitter and thumbed out this little thought:

 Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins  ·  5h  X is bad. Y is worse. If you think that's an endorsement of X, go away and don't come back until you've learned how to think logically.

However petulantly phrased this is, the basic logic is sound: If I say that Hitler was worse than Stalin, I’m not endorsing either Hitler or Stalin. Unless I add “and Stalin was totally awesome and I endorse him” at the end.

The trouble is that Dawkins didn’t stop with this one tweet. He decided to illustrate his point with some examples. Some really terrible examples.

    Richard Dawkins ‏@RichardDawkins 5h      Mild pedophilia is bad. Violent pedophilia is worse. If you think that's an endorsement of mild pedophilia, go away and learn how to think.     Details         Reply         189 Retweet         287 Favorite  Richard DawkinsVerified account ‏@RichardDawkins  Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse. If you think that's an endorsement of date rape, go away and learn how to think.Yep, that’s right. He decided to do what comedians call a “callback” to some terrible comments he made last year about what he perversely described as “mild pedophilia.” And then he added asshattery to asshattery by suggesting a similar distinction between “date rape” and “stranger rape.”

Anyone seeing these comments as insensitive twaddle designed to minimize both “mild” pedophilia and date rape has good reason to do so. As you may recall, in the earlier controversy about so-called “mild” pedophilia, Dawkins told an interviewer for the Times magazine that

I look back a few decades to my childhood and see things like caning, like mild pedophilia, and can’t find it in me to condemn it by the same standards as I or anyone would today.

He went on to tell the interviewer that when he was a child one of his school masters had “pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts.” But, he added, he didn’t think that this sort of “mild touching up” had done him, or any of the classmates also victimized by the teacher, any “lasting harm.”

Huh. If Dawkins says that a teacher groping him was no big deal, I guess this kind of “mild” abuse shouldn’t be a big deal for anyone else, either, huh?

I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of logical fallacy here.

Given his history of minimizing these “mild” sexual crimes, it’s not a surprise that his crass tweets today inspired a bit of a twitterstorm.

Dawkins has responded with his typical petulance, and has stubbornly defended his comments as an exercise in pure logic that his critics are too irrational to understand.

If you take a few moments to go through his timeline you’ll find many more tweets and retweets reiterating this “argument.” Dawkins is not the sort of person to admit to mistakes. Indeed, he so regularly puts his foot in his mouth it’s hard not to conclude that he must like the taste of shoe leather.

But these recurring controversies can’t be doing much for his reputation. Indeed, they seem to cause more and more people to wonder why anyone takes Dawkins seriously on any subject other than biology. Even his critics on Twitter are growing a bit weary.

https://twitter.com/somegreybloke/status/494045464308629505

https://twitter.com/markleggett/status/494044606342782977

https://twitter.com/endorathewitch/status/494071064008597504

Seems like it. I’m beginning to wonder why any atheists — at least those who are not also asshats — continue to think of Dawkins as an ally of any kind.

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Click my kitty to see the smash hit new blog!

 

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cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

BTW, Whole Foods pizza? Really good for some reason. And yet their sushi is terrible. They are very selective about what they know how to make properly. They’re probably not atheisting right either.

Ally S
10 years ago

I hope everyone else likes peanut butter m&ms. To dislike them is divisive for the atheist community, just like feminism.

kittehserf MOD
kittehserf MOD
10 years ago

Apologies to those who prefer catma.

No no you can’t apologise, you must declare WAY.

cloudiah
10 years ago

FEEL THE LOVE.

LOVE (and cats) IS ALL WE NEED.

pallygirl
pallygirl
10 years ago

The three scenarios I was posed are covered on this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

***these are hypotheticals and some people may find them disturbing***

The scenarios were (note the “fat” one should be reframed as “mass”, the key point is actually mass)
– trolley problem
– fat man (encountered some issues here, and the gender wasn’t mentioned in the example I was given – in fact, no genders were given in any of the examples because gender is not actually relevant to these hypotheticals)
– transplant

Ally S
10 years ago

Whole Food’s pizza is wonderful. I just hate how oily it is sometimes.

Octo
Octo
10 years ago

Or war, even. Not “do things my way!”, because then I’d have to go hang out with Octo, and no thanks

Awww.

As for who Octo is arguin with, the original quotes were pecunium discussing Dawkins. Note that last bit. Where it was about D.A.W.K.I.N.S. not atheism. Unless those are synonyms, there’s no need to go on about how the whole blog is bashing atheism.

I did specifically say New Atheism, you’ll note. Which is what people have talked about here (“Dawkin and his ilk”, “Dawkin’s school of atheism”, etc.). What I did was defend that specific brand of atheism against the criticisms levied against it.

And hell no, I have nothing to do with that Yudkovsky freak. If I did, I would probably have been supportive of Dawkin’s comparison here.

hellkell
hellkell
10 years ago

Whole Foods has a delicious broccoli cheddar soup.

kittehserf MOD
kittehserf MOD
10 years ago

I do not like peanut butter M & Ms

SMARTIES FOREVER

Checkmate, atheists!

Ally S
10 years ago

In that case I would suggest never going to the supermarket while hungry until you get used to it. Who knows what kind of random things you might come home with? Stay far away from any Whole Foods with a hot bar, especially if they make pizza.

Your warning is ill-timed. These days I wander to 7/11 while stoned and buy a variety of stoner snacks. Weed + estrogen + spiro = omgiwantallthesnacks

cloudiah
10 years ago

[Octo, we’ve moved on. You might want to move on too.]

pallygirl
pallygirl
10 years ago

Oooo broccoli cheddar sounds nice (assuming vegetarian cheddar).

I don’t like chocolate covered with candy

I’m starting my own feminist schism at this point.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Do you have anything interesting to say about food, Octo? The conversation has moved on.

Also, I am declaring way on the Whole Foods sushi counter until they learn that rice does not need to be cooked for an hour, or however long they cook it to get it that mushy.

kittehserf MOD
kittehserf MOD
10 years ago

Broccoli cheddar soup sounds divine.

Chicken and cheddar at Baumgartner’s is also divine.

Ally S
10 years ago

I hate broccoli in all of its manifestations.

:: grabs toy labrys again ::

pallygirl
pallygirl
10 years ago

I’ll eat your broccoli if you eat my brussels sprouts.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Do Americans know what Smarties are? I agree that they are superior to M&Ms, and am therefore expanding my way to include M&Ms too. Especially the coconut ones, those are bizarre.

cloudiah
10 years ago

I make a really good broccoli/cheddar soup.

:: bats off Ally’s toy labrys ::

Ally S
10 years ago

My favorite vegetable is and always will be spinach. Speaking of which, I wish there was some saag left in this house…

Octo
Octo
10 years ago

I noticed the shift to food, but then I was specifically called out… eh, whatever. Food. Yes, going to the supermarket hungry is a bad idea in general, but I do it all the time because I suck at logistics and keeping my home properly supplied. It’s just a pity that supermarkets have to close down at night, such an inconvenience :p

hellkell
hellkell
10 years ago

I will eat the broccoli AND the brussels sprouts.

pallygirl
pallygirl
10 years ago

Oh a labrys is not the stuffed Pokemon I thought it was. I’m out of touch with culture that started ?15 years ago /cries

Ally S
10 years ago

@cassandrakitty

Speaking as someone who lived in Sharjah for about a year and therefore was exposed to all kinds of UK candy, I wholeheartedly agree. Smarties are amazing. :: hi 5 ::

lurkerina
10 years ago

We shall have to argue for weeks, nay, months! on the point of dissension between those of us who see the world for what it really is and recognize the superiority and yumminess of peanut butter m-and-ms and you poor, misguided souls who fail to see the reality of our existence.

Or I could just take all the extra peanut butter m-and-ms and leave all you haters to your Jelly Bellies.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Spinach is acceptable when very lightly cooked, but best when raw or barely warmed. Way!

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