Me and Larry Flynt

Welcome to the 21st Century on Facebook, where images that weren’t even considered pornographic in the Cold War Era are now being effectively suppressed by the American Taliban.  I’m opening this up for public discussion as I ponder, at the bare minimum, the degree of incompetence of a company that has such a complete track record of nearly every aspect of my life, and yet could so easily be misled into taking what I believe many of you will agree with is a customer service social faux paux of the highest possible order.  They didn’t just ban the picture, they banned me from any posting on Facebook over an illusory violation of a breach in their “terms of service”!

For fuck’s sake they’ve never so much as lobbed a first warning at me in response to any of the umm…more colorful language I use on Facebook with enthusiastic reckless abandon.  I’d at least have a bit more sympathy for Facebook, but no more respect, if that was the issue under consideration.

Keep in mind I ignored their first warning to remove the photo after reading that if I didn’t remove it immediately it would be put under a higher level of scrutiny, which I naturally assumed would involve some actual person at Facebook Central Command laughing his ass off while deleting the “complaint” that spawned the banning.  A complaint lodged by what I suspect was some militantly pissed off rightwing goober offended by my liberal politics or lack of proper respect to the memories of their imaginary Jeebus.  

Before you take the trouble of wasting your time trying to explain to me how it’s all automated, I’m going to respond that it hardly matters to me from my perspective.  If they are willing to pass off this decision to artificial logic, they need to do a much better job of programming, and I’m willing to make an example out of myself in the greater interest of maintaining free speech on the internet.  

Facebook may well be a private company, but they are operating in the public space on infrastructure built and maintained at great taxpayer expense and have a certain responsibility in regard to that position which is totally independent from their ham-handed customer service policies.  And let’s be clear, that’s what is ultimately at stake here unless we’re willing to push back against the religious trolls intent on defining pornography down to a level where a picture of a naked Barbie doll gets you banned from all social media for life.  Slippery slope and all.

In any event, I think it’s highly ironic that at a time where tech, mainstream and financial news headlines are filled with stories of youth fleeing Facebook in droves, they are willing to risk offending someone of my advanced age (and online spending habits) by willy nilly banning me over the aforementioned “pornography”.

What rights of mine have been violated, if any?  Have I not been recklessly slandered by someone that Facebook could easily identify to me (under court order e.g.) so that I may seek compensation for damages in a court of law against this defamation (I’ve essentially been accused of being a public pornographer).  If there’s an eager young lawyer out there looking for a pro bono case to make a name for himself (win, lose or draw), I’m easy to get ahold of.

It’s “only” a 24 hour ban right now, and a minor perturbation in terms of access to Facebook, but  in the overall picture of which social media service I intend to give the bulk of my data (and hence their income stream), you can bet that unless I get some type of feedback from Facebook in the form of an apology (at a minimum), I’m going to be moving off their service (like so many others have lately) and will share my marketing information with a data management service that has the competency to judge my character more judicially based on the weight of a hundred thousand web postings I’ve already shared with them against the baseless complaint of one lunatic pearl-clutching prude intent upon helping them ruin their market share.  In the meantime I encourage those of you who support or sympathize with me on this issue to help spread this blogpost as far and wide as possible.  All it takes for evil to take over is the lack of action by a few good men.

Enjoy.

Shameful Non Self Promotion

Just wanted to take a quick minute to point my readers in the direction of several other bloggers who have also taken the time to comment on the PZ Myers #DickiLeaks rape allegations aimed at Michael Shermer.

I’m pretty sure that Myers will escape any libel charges by hiding behind the skirt of Larry Flynt’s Supreme Court ruling making it nearly impossible for a public person to sue for libel damages.

We’ve reached the point of epistemic closure on the #atheimplus movement when they have to hide behind the skirt of the world’s most notorious pornographer to do their own scatological ramblings.

What Honest Skeptics Think of PZ’s Actions

First off, Mr. Shermer himself.  His not-so-cryptic tweet from yesterday. You’re gonna want to click on that picture to see the Saturday Night Live skit he’s referencing.:

I want to take a minute here and add my opinion on how I think Mr. Shermer should respond going forward.  Ignore and mock the troglodytes at PZ’s house of diminishing returns.  Have his lawyer shoot off an email to National Geographic inquiring as to their standards of operations.

Somebody find that info on Nat Geo contact and tweet it to me.  Don’t make me have to get all #flirty with you.  Need I remind you that there’s limited seating for disciples in the 66 VW microbus?  Don’t let that put any pressure on you.

Thunderf00t, doing yet another masterful takedown in his series on the whacked out women of #Atheismplus.  This one is a real treat.

Al Stefanelli, who chose to distance himself very early on from the flagrantly abusive actions of #AtheismPlus and their American Girlyban terrorist cult:

This is not ‘bringing to light‘ a problem in the skeptic community. It is not an attempt to reveal some sort of dark underbelly of rampant sexual abuse that permeates the skeptic conference circuit. It is yellow journalism, if I even dare to use the word ‘journalism‘ in connection to anything that has come out of Pharyngula for quite some time. Full article here.

Atheist Revolution speculates on PZ Myers motives:

It is difficult for me to imagine that someone without a history of conflict with Shermer would jump the gun like this in a public disclosure that seems calculated to harm his reputation. It is similarly difficult to imagine that PZ would have done this had the accused been someone with whom he had no prior conflict. Full article here.

RDUBWILEY, adds another YouTube video bemoaning the anonymous nature of the PZ’s rape charges against Shermer:

 Here’s blogger/cartoonist (The Pigman) doing what cartoonists do:

Here’s another bit of analysis dripping with enough disgust to make the cut.  (h/t @esaboojam) From the Skeptic Ink Network:

When I first lacerated Myers and Watson and their ilk, people were surprised at my vehemence and wondered whether I was not going too far.  Well, now you see why.  I knew the sort of people they were, and are, and I knew that no compromise was possible.  Full article here.

Mr. Myers just updated his blog post with even more damning “evidence” that Mr. Shermer is a serial rapist.  I won’t link to it because I don’t link to pornography on this blog, but here’s the accusation (another mystery woman – the elevator must be getting pretty crowded by now?):

Michael Shermer helped get me drunker than I normally get, and was a bit flirty.

Seriously?  A bit flirty?  OMG, call the cops.  Oops, I forgot.  The American Girlyban are on record pointing out how the cops don’t help them.  They’ve all but accused the police force of passing them around the precinct re-raping them while uploading it to YouTube.

If the latest anonymous accuser had taken her complaints to the cops, they would have informed her that there is no law against “flirty behavior” and likely would have tossed her ass in the slammer for public intoxication, thus verifying the fact that the cops don’t give a dam about women.

I’m sure my list of those who strongly dissent with Mr. Myers is not comprehensive.  Others may want to add content in the comments section or just forward links to me through my Twitter account @thetimchannel.

Edited to add stuff. Don’t complain. It won’t cost you any more than you’ve already paid.

Enjoy.

“It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate
the sexual appetite of America.”
Larry Flynt.

Priceless. Flynt is a true icon of free
thought and has a brilliant talent for
subversive stunts that illuminate the
hypocrisy of our era.

Enjoy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost