Those who wish to have their tickets refunded
There will be only two men to celebrate science and reason in Phoenix tonight instead of three. (Still zero women, of course. Women know nothing of reason and science.)
The Celebration of Science & Reason event in Phoenix tonight will move forward with Sam Harris & Matt Dillahunty in conversation. Those who wish to have their ticket refunded due to the absence of Lawrence M. Krauss, please call the the following numbers:
Venue sales: 1-800-745-3000
Presales: 604-785-3690
I suppose this is a built-in hazard of having these all-male Celebrations of All the Brain Things That Women Can’t Do Because They’re Stupid – one or more of the men will turn out to have a long string of sexual harassment and downright assault in his or their past or pasts.
Do they go together to some extent? This peacocking vanity of pretending to be movie stars Thought Leaders and this unfortunate tendency to trip and fall onto women?
Yes, I think so. If they get a little fame they get a lot of immunity and looking the other way along with it. “Oh Doctor Professor Man sells tickets, we can’t possibly not invite him when he’s so kindly willing to perform, we’re sorry about the gropes or the insults or both but THE MAN SELLS TICKETS thank you for understanding.”
movie starsThought LeadersThinky KingsKinky Things?
It’s more of a guy thing, Ophelia. You wouldn’t understand.
Okay, I’m leaving…don’t hit me too hard!
Did he jump or was he pushed?
Serves Pangburn Philosophy right for booking him in the first place.
I think we have a trend.
Translation: this policy has “evolved” in the sense that our old policy was “we don’t give a shit about harassment allegations if the accused is a Big Name who brings in $$$.” Our new policy is to give a shit if the publicity gets bad enough to possibly impact our bottom line. But we sure as hell don’t want to talk about it.
Arrrgh, shit – Nick is a friend of mine. That’s CFI’s statement, not his.
I don’t blame him one bit for the statement. It’s artfully worded, and it’s about all CFI can or should say — they don’t want to get drawn into defending their past, shall we say insouciance, regarding Krauss’s behavior. And given that record, they can’t denounce Krauss too vigorously without opening themselves up to the obvious rebuttal. As a spokesperson, there’s not much more he can or should say.
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to forget about their lousy record here or refrain from pointing out the whitewashing.
No, definitely not. I wasn’t protesting your comment, just wishing CFI had done much better and distancing Nick.
I’m pretty appalled by Ron’s response. I guess this clarifies why the 2013 Women in Secularism was so fraught.
It’s cool, I didn’t take it that way. We’re on the same page here, including our views of Ron Lindsay. I know that leaders of non-profit organizations have to walk a tightrope sometimes between bringing in the money that pays the salaries and keeps the lights on, and compromising your values. But it sure seemed to me that Lindsay wasn’t even trying to balance — he sided with the money every time.
Well in all fairness & full disclosure & stuff, I like Ron. But how he handled this? Not so much.
Ugh it’s all so depressing. How many generations will it take before women can be equally part of organizations like this without all the damn obstacles?
I don’t find Ron Lindsay’s handling of this to be much different from the attitudes I see in many men that are around me that consider themselves liberal, feminist, etc, but that balk and pale whenever the tsunami comes too close to them. They may be remembering, deep down, that time they were insensitive or crass around women, patted a woman’s butt in passing, or told a lewd or sexist joke in the presence of women. Or they may just see the posts on #MeToo each as a separate post, rather than a pattern of behavior that women are documenting. So they say it has gone too far, that a touch on the knee or a pat on the shoulder isn’t a problem. Taken as one pat on the knee, and one touch on the shoulder, no, it wouldn’t be, at least not if women truly had equal opportunities with men. Then it could be brushed off. But they can’t possibly understand the day-to-day, 9-5 (or whatever shift we work) crap that women put up with, and the way it builds up and builds up into a continual disparagement. After all, if you see one incident, and it isn’t one of the truly egregious ones, like a man popping his penis out in front of a woman, it might not look like so much, and it might seem that any negative reaction to it is an overreaction. But to see the sum total of a woman’s existence, a woman’s experience, that is something none of them have done, and what they do see, they see from outside.
This isn’t to spare Ron or excuse him in any way, but from the description of the incident, it might be easy for another man to just say, so he asked her for sex, so what? Just part of standard male-female relations, and not that big a deal. Unless someone has to live with this constant everyday sexism, they can’t possibly get it. They have no idea how exhausting it is to play dodge the lechers every day for years, only to go into middle age and be treated like you have literally no value at all.
I think it’s time for a reality show. All men who have failed to recognize the crap that this creates for women (we could start with Ron Lindsay if you like, but I nominate JT Eberhardt) compete in this reality show to see who can survive the turned tables for a given period…say, a 7-8 week run for a contestant, just so it isn’t, oh I can do this for an hour and then I’ll be back in my own male comfort zone. They could win a T-shirt that says “I survived being treated like a woman” and a dinner out with Hillary Clinton.