With Richard Dawkins rapidly accelerating his schedule of Twitter meltdowns recently, it’s clearly time for some RICHARD DAWKINS TWITTER MELTDOWN BINGO!
The rules are simple:
- Follow Richard Dawkins on Twitter.
- Make sure you’re following the correct Richard Dawkins. This one. While this other Richard Dawkins might seem indistinguishable from the real thing, don’t be fooled! He is merely a stunningly convincing Dawkins impersonator.
- As soon as you notice Dawkins — the real Dawkins — saying something, you know, really really Dawkinsish, pop over here to generate your own randomized DAWKINS TWITTER MELTDOWN BINGO card, because, I guarantee you, a meltdown is immi
nent. - Sit back and wait for the BINGOS to roll in.
- Profit?
Oh, and just so you know, I can edit the list used to generate the cards, so if you have any ideas for new squares, or if you think I might have gone a little overboard with the roadkill cannibalism thing, or you think it needs more “dundridges,” post your thoughts in the comments below.
All the items in my DAWKINS TWITTER MELTDOWN BINGO list — even the roadkill cannibalism thing — are based at least loosely on things he’s actually said on Twitter, or in the little essays he’s written defending his behavior on Twitter.
Oh, so you don’t believe me about the roadkill cannibalism thing? Here he is talking about it with his actual mouth.
And that honeypot thing? Here you go.
Bin Laden has won, in airports of the world every day. I had a little jar of honey, now thrown away by rule-bound dundridges. STUPID waste.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 3, 2013
I told you never to doubt me.
EDIT: For more context about his meltdowns, this piece is a good intro. And thanks for the suggestions! I’ll be adding some more squares about Christina Hoff Sommers and his now-deleted penis Tweet.
Richard Dawkins was comfortable with being a feminist ally until people like him (well educated, skeptical men) were criticized for being a sexist. That idea contradicted with his preexisting belief that religion is a primary cause of sexism. This resulted in him claiming that feminists that critique people like him as being extreme.
at least this is how i see it.
It’s easy to criticize sexist, not so easy (for some) to accept criticism of yourself or people that you admire.
this comes from someone who used to admire Dawkins.
Aww, shucks. Oh, you… *Blushes and hugs himself, embarrassed*
@LBT:
I sort of missed that part, because I was so carefully trying to see anything that remotely resembles logic in malcolm’s posts. But yeah, the whole “I’m being real polite so you can’t criticize me when I say something utterly horrible” shtick is something I really should have been tearing apart. Ah, well. At least he seems to be gone for now.
Exactly. Very well put.
Kinda off-topic, but this is one of the less terrible, but still pretty defining aspects of what I like to call the authoritative mindset – the belief in an all-around perfect human being rising over the rabble and leading the masses with their infallible judgement; A special, “more worthy” person, as opposed to “less worthy” people. When people with an authoritative mindset fixate on a human being as a role model, or a hero, they will easily excuse even horrible personality flaws that may ultimately reveal themselves, since the person is their hero and can do no wrong. The bad things they do must be made justifiable in some way. Similarly, “enemies” cannot do anything right, so when you find yourself agreeing with the enemy, they know they’re going down the wrong path.
MRAs, notorious right-wingers and conservatives with authority fantasies, project their hero worshipping ways on feminists, and often cannot comprehend that feminism doesn’t have actual leaders, or that feminists are able to criticize what other feminists say.
Anyway, rant over. Great to have you back!
@kittehserf, regarding your takedown of Dawkins:
*Applause*
Personal thoughts:
I’m not sure where I stand on the whole belief spectrum. I’m kind of a practical atheist who still often utilizes “magical thinking” to deal with issues in my life. I own three amulets that I keep around to ward off different types of badfeels, I frequently make use of tarot and other card reading systems, and I occasionally make (for lack of another term) “spirit journeys” to unlock things about my life that I have difficulty accessing.
There are days when I truly believe it’s all real, that the spirit world exists, that there are other realms out there that can be explored, other beings that can be communicated with, that there is life after death; a strange and otherworldly kind of life, but life nonetheless.
And then there are days when I believe I’m doing it all as sort of self-exploration, that it’s all in my head, that there is no supernatural. I simply can’t know, but I’ve ceased to care. Either way, whether it’s a question of actual spirit journeys or simply meditation on a subconscious level, it’s all a part of who I am.
What I am not is an empathically challenged, self-absorbed, intellectually arrogant, tantrum-throwing jerk like Dawkins. Ideologically neutral, my ass*.
*Yes, I maintain that my ass is ideologically neutral. It’s not the fault of my ass that others choose to project their own ideas on my ass. And yes, I’m actually five years old.
Yup, me too. I did two tours of duty in countries/during the time period that the Red Cross has concerns for re: BSE/JKD.
As for eating game/roadkill; North American deer and elk are increasingly succumbing to a related prion based disorder called Chronic Wasting Disease so I’m off that now, too, seeing as I’m already at risk.
I’m not turning troll. I encourage everyone to read what Dawkins has actually written, and not what other people have said he has written.
RE: sugarvonmurdertits
I encourage everyone to read what Dawkins has actually written, and not what other people have said he has written.
…you realize people keep bringing up Dear Muslima, right? Did Dawkins ghost-write that or something?
RE: Anarchonist
I’m kind of a practical atheist who still often utilizes “magical thinking” to deal with issues in my life. I own three amulets that I keep around to ward off different types of badfeels, I frequently make use of tarot and other card reading systems, and I occasionally make (for lack of another term) “spirit journeys” to unlock things about my life that I have difficulty accessing.
I do some similar stuff, though it tends to be system-related rather than tarot. (Though Sneak does do tarot, and sometimes because it makes zer happy, I let zer do a reading for me, even though I invariably get mad at the cards.) I still don’t understand exactly what Mac and Falcon ARE, but after the years, I’ve grown to accept the old Philip K. Dick rule, “Reality is what doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it.”
@ Grumpy:
Am aware of armadillos carrying leprosy.
The one injured armadillo I took to wildlife rehabbers inspired a LOT of handwashing, and armwashing, and showering with antibacterial soap…Poor little fart got his shell torn by a car. The rehabbers said he was repairable. 🙂
They are slowish physically, extremely myopic, and not really smart. A lot of them, sadly, get their backs broken by a natural defense they have. When startled, they give a little jump upwards. When the thing that startled them is a car passing over them, this doesn’t work well at all.
They will dig up gardens…but they also go after fire ant mounds. The fire ants can’t really get through their skin.
During the Great depression they got put on the menu.The slang term for them was “Hoover Hogs,” because the meat tastes like pork.
I only heard of the armadillo-leprosy connection a couple of months ago. It seems like the early stages of leprosy might be easy to overlook, and it is pretty nasty once it gets settled in.
My son got Lyme disease and got bitten by a raccoon requiring rabies shots within about a month.,(He tried to break up a fight between the raccoon and one of our cats — a mistake,since the cat was winning.) Luckily with the Lyme disease he developed a beautiful bullseye rash so it was easy to diagnose and treat. It’s sort of ironic that a disease that can be so devastating once it gets established can be easily cured with less than $10 worth of antibiotics if treated promptly.
I’m effectively an atheist, and I used to think I really was, but I realized that it’s not strictly true. My beliefs are a cross between His Dark Materials kinda stuff and that Bill Hicks joke about the young man on acid who realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.
So basically an atheist, right?
Anyway, even back when I identified as an atheist I thought Dawkins was kind of a douche. Now I think he should stfu and let the adults talk.
I think armadillos are cute but I’ve only seen them dead along the highway in Arkansas and Texas.
I only heard of the armadillo-leprosy connection a couple of months ago. It seems like the early stages of leprosy might be easy to overlook, and it is pretty nasty once it gets settled in. I gather it is OK to eat IFFFF you cook it thoroughly but handling the raw meat is dangerous.
My son got Lyme disease and got bitten by a raccoon requiring rabies shots within about a month.,(He tried to break up a fight between the raccoon and one of our cats — a mistake,since the cat was winning.) Luckily with the Lyme disease he developed a beautiful bullseye rash so it was easy to diagnose and treat. It’s sort of ironic that a disease that can be so devastating once it gets established can be easily cured with less than $10 worth of antibiotics if treated promptly.
OK, now how did I do that …
Dawkins really did write all those god-awful tweets, too.
I don’t suppose I’ll like his books any better.
I was bitten trying to get a concussed raccoon off the freeway this year. My own stupid fault for not handling the animal properly.
…Since I am enrolled in the county po’ folks plan, I got to go sit in the waiting room of the damned at the county hospital ER 4 times to get rabies shots.
Just as well though…
A couple of months ago I was attacked and chomped on the calf by a neighbor’s berserk-acting pit bull…which then dropped dead a week later…and the neighbor threw it in the trash, which is legal, so animal control had no way to test the body…and the dog had never been vaccinated for rabies…
@ Bina…I really enjoyed “The greatest show on Earth.” “The God Delusion” was fascinating but preachy.
…But the “great” man has feet of clay…that he keeps stuffing in his mouth.
Also, it’s very arrogant of anyone to dismiss or ignore a whole branch of science because it’s not sciency enough for him.
Richard Dawkins Twitter Meltdown
Richard Dawkins Twitter Meltdown
Richard Dawkins Twitter Meltdown
Rants of an intellectual dudebro!
Kakanian:
Dawkins is not only English but classic Oxbridge white dude – d’you really think he gives a flying fuck what those colonials think? Gods, he loves going for the low fruit of USian creationists.
Aww, ta, Anarchonist! Your takedowns are always amazing, so that’s high praise. 🙂
Your description of your place on the belief spectrum is soooo close to how I’d describe myself (only better phrased). Do I have doubts, do I sometimes think I’m making it up? Yes, still, after all these years, I do. But then something will happen to remind me that if this isn’t real, it’s doing an amazing impression of it, and even if it isn’t real, why would I dump this for the misery-inducing idea that everyone I love has gone? It’s not about deity for me, it’s about people (Furrinati included, natch).
I’ve never had amulets, though I did briefly try using crystals and such. I still have one, a quartz on a chain I use as a pendulum for getting yes/no answers (Louis calls it ‘the machine’ with a touch of French disdain) but my really important piece is my locket with his portrait in it. Good conversation starter, too: you should see women’s expressions when they ask who it is and I say it’s my husband. “Lucky girl!” 🙂
sugarvonmurdertits:
We have, dumbass. Did you bother reading Dear Muslima? Or any of the other shit I quoted?
LBT
Oooh, I like that Phillip Dick comment! I should write it in big shiny letters on my wall. Landlords might object, though.
I never learned Tarot, and haven’t had a reading in yearrrrrrs. I like a straight-out clairvoyant reading. First I ever had was the best: my younger stepson and his husband turned up, which I totally wasn’t expecting, and acting in character – Philippe all “YAY WE’RE HERE” and Andre more like “Och will you stop embarassing me.” 😀 And Louis made a crack about my shoes, which was cheek given he’d encouraged me to buy the latest pair.
nellodee1010
QFT!
blahlistic:
Dickie Dawkins Does A Tweet
http://i.imgur.com/CxXXxfv.jpg
Ewwww! Hope you’re OK, blahlistic! Bad dog owners are bad 🙁
For the rabies shots, you have to go through the ER anyway — only hospitals keep the serum on hand. Partly that’s because of the expense — 12 years ago the 4-shot treatment cost about $6000. (Yes, we did have insurance …)
And I have always said that 98% of dog problems are owner problems. Almost every dog will do what the owner wants IF the owner can communicate. I think a lot of problem dogs are really projections of the owners’ own aggressions, which they dare not express but which the dog can sense.
Make letters out of painted cardboard, tack to wall. Then they are portable, too.
…Doggehs usually get on with me very well, and I was bicycling in the road, too. She came running out to bite me, although she didn’t fully have the nerve until the second dog joined her.
The owner allowed, and had been allowing, the two pits to run loose, even though they were obviously very aggressive.
I called the sheriffs out, because I thought if I went to the neighbors myself it’d be shrugged off…It is weird, because most of the pit bulls I’ve met are just lovey-dovey, they don’t fit that stereotype.
As long as I’d remember to take them down before house inspections! Our lease has one of those “nothing on the walls, no pictures, no bluetak, no suction cups, nothing” things in it.
I usually look at the person to determine how likely to dog is to be dangerous. Person looks like an aggressive shithead = dog may be a problem. I get on well with the pups too, but there’s one giant Chow that lives near me that tried to bite me once. I was getting off the bus, nearly landed right on the dog, it turned round and snapped at me…and then its person yelled at me for scaring her dog and some dogs are very reactive you know and really it’s your own fault the dog tried to bite you and and blah blah. Which, yeah, I agree that when people taunt dogs it’s their own fault if they get bitten, but when you are walking past a bus stop it is to be anticipated that people might get off the bus there, so if your dog is super reactive maybe steer it away from places like that? As usual, dog is a jerk because their person is a jerk. There are tons of pit bulls around here that are perfectly lovely, because so are their people, but that woman with the Chow? Her dog is dangerous, and that’s probably her fault.
Also there’s a family who have both tweener kids and a Shiba, and normally Shibas are great, maybe a bit aloof with strangers but not dangerous at all, but this dog’s people are shitheads, and the tweener boy keeps encouraging the dog to bark at and try to go for other dogs, and thinks it’s hilarious when the dog does the same to little kids too. That dog I’m a bit worried about, not least because if it does bite a kid and the kid is hurt the dog will probably be put down, and again, that’s the fault of the owners more than the dog.
Methinks Woody has a fetish for us telling him to shut up. I will grant you your wish. Shut up, Woody.