For those not aware, PZ Myers is THE science blogger today. His blog, Pharyngula, gets more hits per day than most blogs get in a month, year, lifetime, etc…
Recently his blog host, SEED, and more specifically their blogging platform, scienceblogs, has had a number of issues regarding their agreeing to have PepsiCo pay to have a blog there and then rescinding that offer to PepsiCo after many people complained. Due to this issue, many people have left ScienceBlogs, including Bora, Deborah Blum, David Dobbs, grrlscientist, and many more…
Now PZ has decided to go on strike. Now he CLAIMS this is to get the attention of those who run ScienceBlogs and force them to be more open in communication. However I think it’s quite clear that this is just a smokescreen.
PZ is scared. He’s scared of Thinking-Critically.
It’s no coincidence that the same day we here are picked up by Dogma Free America that PZ does this. He and I both know that the true reason he is stepping down, is that he wants to go out on top. By leaving the blogging world now, he can claim it was standing up for his principles; and that he left at the top of his game. He knows that it’s just a matter of time before Thinking Critically becomes THE preeminent science, skepticism, and free-thought blog on the web. And PZ can’t handle the idea of being beaten.
So here is my offer to Mr Myers. Instead of running away from us, come join us. Instead of being scared of the future, embrace it and help it unfold.
In short PZ, you are welcome to join us in blogging here… Come to your new online home, and we’ll make you feel welcome…
Jeff Randall
Sarah Hippolitus
Brian Gregory
Jason Tilery
Luis Reinoso
Matthieu Guibert
Hey, PZ! We won’t sell out to PepsiCo (Coca-Cola, maybe…), but NEVER PepsiCo!!
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PZ is, unfortunately, little more than an entertaining blow-hard with utterly no philosophical understanding (or nuance, for that matter) of science or religion. Thinking Critically would do worse to have him join the blog; we need less O’Reilly types – not more.
That’s right! If only he were fewer of a dick!!
I am curious why you call PZ a “blow-hard”…
Do you have specific instances where he has been incorrect or made false statements of some sort?
Do you have some examples of him insulting somebody who was “blameless”?
While it may or may not be true that he does not have an expert level “philosophical understanding” of some topics, I don’t think he has ever claimed to. He is a biologist. When he posts about biology, he is posting an an “expert” in that field. When he posts about any other topic, he is posting as a layman, who may or may not have a certain level of familiarity with the subject.
From what I have read over the years, his understanding of non biological science seems quite strong. I’m not even sure I’m really aware of any “major” issues that have come up where it was claimed he was wrong on a scientific topic from one of his posts (although to be fair, I do not read the comments on his blog very thoroughly, usually). I’d love to see some examples of where he is wrong scientifically, if you have them.
As for his grasp of religion, or his take on religion. From what I have seen, he usually makes posts that go after a specific person making a specific claim or doing a specific action.
When Bill Donohue makes an asinine statement, you don’t have to be a biblical scholar to respond.
When somebody allows their child to die because they believe in prayer over medical treatment, ridicule on a blog should be the least of their “issues” they should be forced to deal with over such horrific actions.
As for the O’Reilly line, I’d disagree, but I can understand the comparison actually. PZ is to religious people and pseudo-scienctists, as Bill is to those who value truth, reason, and critical thinking…
And finally:
I don’t agree 100% with any person I’ve ever met. I don’t agree 100% with the other authors here. I don’t agree with PZ 100%. Clearly you and I don’t seem to agree 100%.
but what matters, at least for me, with the authors of this blog, is that they use the best available evidence to make their choices and guide their writing. PZ seems to do that.
Plus adding 150-200k hits a day to the blog, would not suck…
LOL….you know my thoughts on PZ, but I could sacrifice my principles to get more blog hits. You can take that however you want…
I’m no expert, but I get the impression that since PZ Myers has become so high-profile and has a massive following he doesn’t like to be seen to lose face. He’s got a massive audience and I think that he’s conscious of that and he plays up to that. Trouble is; this is fine when he’s joining in with popular sentiment and banning certain unpopular individuals such as me (recently – okay, probably a well-deserved ban:), but when it comes to standing up to the crowd (and I have been getting some nasty comments from people on his blog, plus having false accusations of posting offensive messages on other peoples’ blog levelled at me) he won’t (either doesn’t want to, or is too scared to) act against them as well. Plus he’s paved the way for a lot of transphobic abuse towards me from other posters on his blog and arguably fallen back on those old stereotypes, by intimating that I’m a fella. Sometimes populism can be a really shallow ideaology.
Becky, I checked out your blog a bit to get a it of background on where you’re coming from.
When you claim you’ve been falsely accused of saying things you did not say, you gave two links.
The first link you gave, are you the one who posted under the name “Anonymous” and signed the posts “Becky”.
For the second(to Pharyngula) has 600+ comments. Can you give a link (or comment #) to make it a bit easier to find what you’re referring to.
As for your other posts against PZ, while I understand where you’re coming from, and agree in part, I think you’re missing one aspect of the “shame-faced old men in dresses” line. For me to enjoy seeing somebody embarrassed by something, does not mean it has to be something that I find embarrassing myself. For instance there are pictures on facebook of me kissing a drag queen. I could care less. However if there were pictures of Pat Robertson kissing a drag queen, I would get immense pleasure out of seeing him squirm in reaction to those pictures. It’s not due to homophobia on my part, but due to knowing the state of his homophobia and the schadenfreude of knowing somebody you dislike is having a bad time.
Now, to your comments here:
I think this is true of almost everybody, regardless of their position or stature.
True enough
I’d need to see an example of where you think he should have stood up to them, and failed to. When you get as many comments as he does on his posts, it’s next to impossible to respond to all of them.
So you think you deserved to be banned
But also, that he should have defended you
I really need to see examples of what you said, and what was said at/to/about you before commenting too much.
Again,I’d need to see the specific posts/comments in question…
True….
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