carry on with your knitting, ladies, nothing to see here

Here's the opening part of a conversation (well, a small section of a longer conversation) that happened in the atheist blogosphere and Twittersphere this week:

Big Name Atheist Guy: I see more guys at atheist conferences because, well, I assume guys are just more into, like, critical thinking and the like because of some GENDER ESSENTIALIST SHIT I just pulled out of my ass or something. 
Other atheists, some of them women: you're not wrong about the gender imbalance, but whoah, that GENDER ESSENTIALIST SHIT you're pushing there is perpetuating some lazy sexist tropes and you probably need to think a bit harder about what you're saying.

So far, so innocuous. The whole Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, pink for girls, blue for boys gender essentialism bullshit is very irritating (and, just to be clear, generally unsupported by the science), but it's an easy trap to fall into, and, hey, sometimes we say things without thinking about them enough and fall foul of some cognitive shortcut caused by the culture we've all been swimming in since we were born. It's really no biggie, and certainly doesn't tar the speaker as an irredeemable bigot, just someone who once didn't think before he spoke (or, to use an Americanism, "misspoke"). We all do that; I know I do.

So at this point the conversation can go one of two ways, as follows:

option A:

BNAG: hmmm, yes, you're right, there are clearly a whole host of cultural issues that I'm ignoring here. see how easy it is for even a rationalist to slip into lazy modes of thinking? thanks for the heads-up.
OASOTW: no probs. we all do it from time to time. patriarchy, eh? tchoh. anyone fancy a pint?

option B:

BNAG: OMG you just called me a filthy sexist pig you shrill bullying harpy. HELP HELP POLITICAL CORRECTNESS THOUGHT POLICE WITCH HUNT FEMINAZIS
OASOTW: *sigh*
BNAG: also, some of my best friends are women.
OASOTW: *facepalm*

It won't surprise anyone to discover that option B represents how the subsequent conversation actually went. What might surprise some people is that the big name atheist losing their shit in such a major way was not (as you'd probably assumed) Richard Dawkins, but Sam Harris, author of such seminal New Atheist books as Letter To A Christian Nation and The End Of Faith and, with Dawkins, one of the original Four Horsemen (Daniel Dennett and the late Christopher Hitchens being the other two). In fairness to Harris I should link here to the original article containing the quote, and reproduce the relevant section:

I think it may have to do with my person slant as an author, being very critical of bad ideas. This can sound very angry to people. People just don’t like to have their ideas criticized. There’s something about that critical posture that is to some degree instrinsically male and more attractive to guys than to women. The atheist variable just has this – it doesn’t obviously have this nurturing, coherence-building extra estrogen vibe that you would want by default if you wanted to attract as many women as men.

I hope you'll agree that my humorous paraphrasing above retains most of the original gist. Dawkins isn't in the clear here, though, as he predictably weighed in to accuse Harris' critics of being some sort of Orwellian Thought Police and then went Full Mental Jacket by accusing anyone expressing critical opinions of only doing it to attract traffic to their own websites. Coming from the man whose books, admirable as they mostly are, sell in large numbers at least partly because of his own ability to foment controversy and outrage this sent most people's irony meters off the scale.

Harris has some previous form in the area of blithely assuming his own infallibility, most obviously the lengthy conversation he had with security guru Bruce Schneier in the wake of Harris' suggestion that we should single out Muslims for special treatment at airports. A conversation that can be read in full here and here (and I recommend you do, because it's quite interesting) but can basically be summarised as follows:

Harris: Let's profile for Muslims. Because 9/11. And when I say Muslims, I mean anyone who looks Muslim. And by that I mean brown and possibly a bit beardy, or wearing those funny clothes that they wear; you know the sort of thing. 
Schneier: Even if the sort of profiling you're proposing were ethical or even possible, it would be pointless and self-defeating. Security engineering is complex and often counter-intuitive and you clearly don't understand the first thing about it.
Harris: But Muslims! 9/11!
Schneier: *facepalm*

The lesson here is that being right about one thing doesn't guarantee being right about any given other thing, and that even as a high-profile "public intellectual" you shouldn't assume that you can never be wrong about anything, and that particularly in the age of Twitter you, big atheist celebrity, might actually end up getting taken to task by someone who knows more than you who's just some Joe Public type. The shame of it! The airport security discussion in particular reinforces the point that "common sense" and "intuition" are generally utterly hopeless guides to anything, least of all life-and-death decision-making, and that a prominent public intellectual ought to know this. The other lesson is that if you ever get so self-regarding that you lose the ability to apply your awesome critical thinking skills to yourself or gracefully acknowledge when you've got something wrong then you've clearly jumped the shark in a big way.

Harris, clearly following the Dawkins playbook, later issued a huffy (and lengthy) "clarification" blog post, which basically amounts to saying: some of my best friends are women; heck, I'm even married to one of them. Interestingly he made pretty much the same defence against a charge of using sexist language after writing an opinion piece about Sarah Palin in 2008. Here are the exact words:

2008:

For what it’s worth, the article was vetted by the two women closest to me (wife and mother) and by two female editors at the LA Times.

2014:

Listen, I was raised by a single mother. I have two daughters. Most of my editors have been women, and my first, last, and best editor is always my wife.

Well that's OK then. Of course the irony here is that Harris' careless trotting out of the old "women don't like hard sums and thinking because they're all nurturing and shit" trope was instantly self-refuting as he was confronted with a wall of criticism, most of it far from "nurturing" and a good proportion of it from women.

it's beginning to look a lot like arseholes

Once again I'm afraid I've failed you utterly in terms of informing you in a timely manner about the need to vote in the 2012 Bad Faith Awards, as awarded every year by New Humanist magazine. Voting closed on Monday, and despite an impassioned last-minute plea in favour of perennial nominee Prince Charles it looks very much as if US Congressman Todd "legitimate rape" Akin is going to romp away with this year's poll.

Previous winners include Sarah Palin, Pope Benedict XVI, Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed and recent jungle visitor Nadine Dorries. I'm pretty sure if the timing had been slightly different the medical staff involved in the farcical sequence of events leading to the death of Savita Halappanavar would have got a nod in the nominations, and with the outpouring of righteous anger in the aftermath might well have won. Anyone dismissing Nadine Dorries as a lovable harmless Great British Eccentric should reflect that more cases like Savita's would be a direct result of the sort of abortion legislation she advocates.

here's the barrel; now choose your fish

In linking to the excellent New Humanist blog in yesterday's post I noticed that they are currently inviting nominations for the 2009 Bad Faith Awards. These are presented each year to "the person deemed to have made the most outstanding contribution to the cause of unreason". This year's list of nominees is an excellent cross-section of people guaranteed to get the rational thinker into a foaming incoherent forehead-slapping rage, and includes in Terry Eagleton and the British Chiropractic Association a couple of previous targets for specific bile-flecked ire on this very blog.

I recommend you get over there and cast your votes using the buttons provided. I haven't voted yet as I'm having some difficulty deciding - the Pope is the obvious one, but Eagleton is such a giant cock that I'm tempted to vote for him instead. And while I wasn't previously familiar with Damian Thompson's writings for the Telegraph, and while he's not directly responsible for the ravings of his regular commenters, the level of insane bigotry that can be found in the comment thread for, for instance, this piece is pretty alarming. And then there's insane coffee-table book publisher and fishing enthusiast Harun Yahya aka Adnan Oktar.

Sadly no room for my favourite rent-a-loon Stephen Green of Catholic Voice, though I notice he was on the shortlist last year (when Sarah Palin was the runaway winner). I went for Eagleton in the end, by the way; looking at his smug beardy face in my previous post pushed me over the edge. The voting position as at about 1:30pm today is captured on the left - as you can see the Pope is well in the lead, with the BCA in second, and Eagleton in fourth.

other news in brief

Continuing the death theme, drummer Mitch Mitchell died yesterday. This now means that a) all three members of the original Jimi Hendrix experience are now dead, what with bassist Noel Redding dying in 2003, and Hendrix himself...well, you probably know about that, and b) the curse of the rock drummers continues, what with Moon and Bonzo checking out early, Rick Allen narrowly avoiding doing so, and of course Spinal Tap's legendary problems with drummers, as described here.


Interestingly, when I said "Mitch Mitchell" to Andy, he said "what, the bloke who invented the Spitfire?". It turns out he's been dead for over 70 years, principally from arse-related problems, as it happens, though there's no suggestion these were of the same nature as Joanna Lumley's.

Also in the news: Chuck Norris lays down the law to America's new president-elect. Remember - no-one comes near Chuck Norris....and lives. Chuck's ramblings originally appeared on the always highly entertaining WorldNetDaily, home of such charming special offers as this groundbreaking exposé of Barack Obama's real intentions towards the USA. Basically turning everyone into commie Muslim paedophiles, as far as I can tell.

More entertaining idiocy from the inimitable Bruce Anderson in this week's Independent: this article grudgingly acknowledging Obama's overwhelming US election victory actually manages the double whammy of casual racism:

A lot of blacks need to be told to get off thy bed and work.

and patronising sexism:

A lot of conservative Republicans think that Mrs Palin is a feisty girl who ought to be encouraged.

Nice work. Possibly even better, if that were possible, is today's article commemorating Prince Charles' 60th birthday, which is so cringingly sycophantic and shoe-horns so many occurrences of the word "intellectual" into its first few paragraphs that you'd assume Bruce must be taking the piss out of the jug-eared dimwit, if you didn't know better.

Melanie Phillips: I didn't know they stacked shit that high

Mad Mel surpasses even her own usual level of bug-eyed slavering insanity in The Spectator this week with the shock revelation that the current global financial crisis is the fault of those who don't believe in God. No, seriously. Selected highlights include the usual conflating of religious belief with morality (because all us atheists conduct an exhausting schedule of stabbing old ladies and raping small children, being as we are devoid of the fear of retribution after we die, which is of course the ONLY reason keeping us all from crucifying our neighbours and cutting their lips off with a pair of secateurs) - actually that should be the conflating of Judeo-Christian religious belief with morality, as of course other religious beliefs as practised by those suspect brown-skinned bearded people in unsuitable headgear don't count.

Even better than that is the assertion that one of the effects of atheism is:

....the destruction of truth and objectivity and a corresponding rise in credulousness

If I didn't know Melanie Phillips' output fairly well, I'd have to invoke Poe's Law at this point, i.e. I'd assume she was taking the piss. The only other rational response is sitting there with your mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, but no words coming out (erm, again, like a goldfish).

As if that were not bad enough, she then launches into a spirited defence of moose-slaughtering, newspaper-avoiding, contraception-shunning, evolution-denying, power-abusing Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, mainly on the grounds that Palin opposes abortion (which Mel cutely calls "infanticide" - nice work). Other people's concerns, like for instance her being a pigshit-thick airhead fundamentalist lunatic, are dismissed as "profoundly irrational".

It's not just me and the rest of the non-American western world, though. Now she (i.e. Palin) has incurred the wrath of the Bonj. I may forgive, but the Jovester does not.

Also, if you are wondering what a Palin presidency would be like (and the odds are high that we would get one at some point if the Republicans win, what with McCain's age and health problems), take a look at this. Keep opening the door on the left, but on no account answer the red phone.

Palin joke of the day

The Sarah Palin debate flowchart.

now that's what I call a VICE president

Still can't spare the several hours required to construct a cogently-argued analysis of the complex issues in the run-up to the US presidential election, so here's a few amusing videos, all election-related, at least tangentially:

• Jon Stewart on the vexed question of Sarah Palin's gender and qualifications
• Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live doing an uncanny impression of Palin in these two clips - that's Amy Poehler playing Katie Couric and Hillary Clinton. Rather hilariously a senior McCain aide has called the Palin/Clinton clip "sexist", thereby refuting once and for all the notion that Americans don't do irony.
• Gina Gershon doing a slightly less uncanny impression of Palin, but on the other hand she does wear a bikini
• The real Palin this time, competing in a beauty pageant in 1984. Come on, you would, wouldn't you?
  
• The lovely Sarah Silverman with a novel approach to canvassing in support of Barack Obama in the key state of Florida
• Finally - maybe they've got the wrong Palin?
  

Needless to say there's some slightly more sobering stuff out there as well.

there's got to be a way.....to Block Lionel

Once again I dodge the awesome responsibility of writing something serious about the Republican vice-presidential nominee; instead I bring you the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. The Governor of Alaska's own children bear the names Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper, incidentally. Not quite Dweezil and Moon Unit, but in a similar ballpark.

"electric halibut" generates the name Block Lionel Palin, which is fairly unremarkable. Entering the name John McCain, as if to simulate some horrific accident with a contraceptive and a time machine, yields the much cooler Steam Fangs Palin.

the views of my right honourable member

More to follow on the US presidential election later, some of it no doubt in a serious and high-minded vein. Menwhile, in the wake of the media feeding frenzy prompted by the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's Republican running-mate, much of which revolved around the fact that she's a woman, 44, and not unattractive in a slightly scary sort of way, I was prompted to think, in a sort of follow-up to my Women Who Rock list, about Women In Politics, who you, well, you know, who you would, if you follow me. Here's a few for you:

• Oona King. Former Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow and now occasional TV presenter. A lady of considerable charm and erudition, which makes it all the more regrettable that I have to introduce the phrase three cock gob at this point.
• Julia Goldsworthy. Lib Dem MP for Falmouth & Camborne. Slightly posh and schoolmarmish-looking, but in a good way.
• Virginia Bottomley. Every teenager's guilty secret during the Thatcher years. It's the posh thing again, I think, plus the suspicion that she might just possibly be into dressing up in a rubber Gestapo uniform in the bedroom and demanding to see if your papers were in order. And also that both parts of her name sound, well, you know, a bit rude. It's also an anagram of "I'm an evil Tory bigot", amusingly.
• Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine. It's the braids. And it's not just me, look.
• Mara Carfagna, Italian equalities minister and former topless model. The Italians seem to go in for this sort of thing a lot. Remember La Cicciolina?
• Rachida Dati, French Minister of Justice. She could deal out some harsh brutal justice to me any time, etc., etc.
• Several of Zapatero's new Spanish cabinet, including Bibiana Aído, Carme Chacón (pictured) and Beatriz Corredor. I wouldn't mind having a look up her corredor, etc., etc.
• And, of course, Ségolène Royal.
• And Hillary Clinton. Come on, you would, wouldn't you, guys? Guys?