The serial child rapist in question knows all the ingroup shibboleths; I suspect the most important one is to spam virtual hugs at other members of the tribe. Possibly the most interesting threads on Pharyngula involve a member of the ingroup
being fiercely defended until their past actions
are made so obvious that the cognitive dissonance is plain for all to see. Three things happen from there:
1) Bitter, cognitively-dissonant anger that the outgroup dug up some legitimate dirt on their cherished tribal member.
I’m sad that FtB is losing Avi, I’m angry that Pitters got one hit in a thousand smears and will gloat about it for months to years
For me, it’s not about “my model minority”, it’s about the fact that because they were right about this one thing, the slymepit lies become harder to just dismiss out of hand, and more effort must now go into debunking each and every lie their twisted minds can come up with
2) The offender is soon part of the outgroup; Pharyngulaites will deny ever having associated with him or ever having enjoyed anything he wrote.
This is something I kept to myself for a long time, but now I wish I’d said it:
Avicenna is a terrible writer. Leave aside the content. His writing was a mess. Not “just typos,” but garbled syntax. Missing words. Obscure or unidentified referents. It wasn’t just sloppiness or not having access to a good keyboard. It was bad writing.
he’s a pretty shitty writer, imo, so you can’t expect him to be very clear.
3) Perhaps most puzzling to me, the most public face bringing forth those allegations, who you would think would be celebrated as a bastion of rationality, is accused of conspiring with the outgroup and he is also reviled.
And while I think Avicenna brought it on himself (and am sad/angry that he plagiarized), I am not surprised that it is Hemant Mehta who is the one to publish the news
Do not be surprised at what you see at Hemant’s. He’s been giving cuddle hugs to slymepitters and reactionaries for some time now. This *is* normal for him.
What a dishonest hack Hemant has become.
Farewell, Hemant, you have lost your way.
*delete*
