Three Posts that Should Be Required Reading for Ron Lindsay

Greta Christina has gone and said about all I could have said about this situation, and so much more. Ron Lindsay is a fool if he doesn’t read, then seriously contemplate, both of her posts.

A Blatant Misrepresentation — And An Insulting One: The Content of Ron Lindsay’s WiS2 Talk

He Treated Us With Contempt: The Context of Ron Lindsay’s WiS2 Talk

Afterward, he would be a raging dumbass not to head over to Jon Scalzi’s blog to see how a proper apology is done (h/t PZ).

Presidential Statement on the SFWA Bulletin, June 2, 2013

I don’t hold out much hope he’ll be capable of processing any of these, but one never knows. There they are, Ron. They might help you mend a few of the bridges you burned.

understand

And now, a rant:

It’s pathetic, watching these men scream and howl when the ladiez mention they want some equality and respect. You have dipshits like Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg shrieking like what’s-his-guts – wow, he’s become such a non-entity to me I forgot his name – Michael Shermer. Persecution! Censorship! Witchhunt! Nazis! Stalin! Mao! North Korea! ZOMG Freeze Peach!!! They like to think of teh wimminz as emotional and irrational, but Jesus fuck, you can’t get much more emotional and irrational than these privileged little wankers do when called on their bullshit.

Ron Lindsay rode in like a shiny knight and said he was all against hatred directed at women – and then proceeded to stand up in front of women who have put up with an unbelievable amount of abuse and horrible treatment, lectured them on being good little girls, and then embraced their harasser, and that’s only the beginning. Methinks Ron likes to think of himself as a good person, and a champion of women, but he has no idea how to be a true ally and is refusing to learn. He’s just like so many of the he-man-woman-bashers who are happy to treat women with a smidgeon of respect just as long as we keep our mouths shut and our eyes down and bat our eyelashes at them like good little subordinate females.

You assholes make me sick. It’s time for you to extract your heads from your laps, stop performing your self-congratulatory self-fellatio, spend a few minutes thinking clearly about what sort of man gets that rabid over women calling them on sexist bullshit, and decide if this is really the kind of man you want to be.

And if the answer is yes, I have only one short sentence for you to listen to: Stay the fuck away from us.

As for the organizations that allow some of these extraordinary assholes to get away with this behavior: shape up and ship them out, or lose your chance at growth. You’ll dwindle in the dust as the movement marches on. And you’ll deserve it.

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Three Posts that Should Be Required Reading for Ron Lindsay
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12 thoughts on “Three Posts that Should Be Required Reading for Ron Lindsay

  1. 1

    Was very much struck by the contrast between CFI and SFWA, in acknowledging that when a large number of their members and potential members are angry, then this indicates a problem that needs immediate action.

    But on checking further, I note the contrast runs very deep indeed.

    It turns out that when Ron Lindsay attempted to give example of when “shut up and listen” was abused, he actually chose as one example this excellent blog post by John Scalzi!

    See: Shut up and listen, by John Scalzi, (Sept 2001). Now look at the links Ron supplied for examples of “Shut up and Listen” This essay by John Scalzi represents what Ron apparently considers an abuse. Good grief!

  2. 2

    They like to think of teh wimminz as emotional and irrational, but Jesus fuck, you can’t get much more emotional and irrational than these privileged little wankers do when called on their bullshit.

    Yup, it surprised me a little with Shermer as it seemed a massive over-reaction. But he appeared to be quite the egotist so not totally out of character. Ron had written a piece for Surly Amy’s hate directed at women, it was pretty poor but he was “on side” superficially at least (Your link). More importantly he is a “leader” of a large organisation, called “CEO” … There is an expectation of professional behaviour there. So when I saw him describe this post as intellectually dishonest as a North Korean communique and then ad hom her. I was surprised…

    http://skepchick.org/2013/05/the-silencing-of-men/

    Where are the fisks of the above pointing out all the fallacies, ad-homs and where she went wrong? Seems a very measured post to me but if you believed 1/10th of the haters lies you’d think she directly called on her winged feminazgul to bring her his balls on a silver plate by midnight.

    BTW Rons hate directed post… Did you notice this –

    What is especially sad and disgusting about this trend is that some religious skeptics seem to be mimicking religious fundamentalists: they want to intimidate women into silence and submission.

    He blamed “religious skeptics”, no mention of atheists even though I can name many off the top of my head who want to intimidate women into silence.

  3. rq
    3

    It would be so easy to believe it’s a generational thing, that eventually the old ones will die off and we will all live in a new and non-discriminating world… Except that those privileged assholes saying these things are ostensibly leaders, with audiences and acolytes, and their thoughts and opinions will get passed down to further generations, as long as those generations believe that those thoughts and opinions are ok. So, yes – more education, more information, and most of all, more standing up to them and providing better examples of how to be, act, and resolve these kinds of issues.
    Last week Patrick Stewart reached my Personal Hero status; before that, it was Jackson Katz. This week, John Scalzi just might make that list, too.

  4. 4

    @ 2 oolon

    BTW Rons hate directed post… Did you notice this –

    What is especially sad and disgusting about this trend is that some religious skeptics seem to be mimicking religious fundamentalists: they want to intimidate women into silence and submission.

    He blamed “religious skeptics”, no mention of atheists even though I can name many off the top of my head who want to intimidate women into silence.

    I interpreted “religious skeptics” to mean people who are skeptical of religion. I don’t think Ron actually thinks the harassers are religious.

  5. 6

    Well, Ron definitely opens the door for women when they’re entering a big building. So he can’t possibly be a woman-hater. Because those doors are heavy, you know. And without manly men like Ron opening them, women would be stacked up like cordwood outside of big buildings.

    Checkmate, FemiNazis!

    /snark

  6. 8

    @7: Good grief, yes. I’ll bet I’m as old as Ron. Modern feminism was born during our teen-young adult years.

    He must have been smoking the extra super good hash back then to have missed it.

  7. 9

    It turns out that when Ron Lindsay attempted to give example of when “shut up and listen” was abused, he actually chose as one example this excellent blog post by John Scalzi!

    See: Shut up and listen, by John Scalzi, (Sept 2001). Now look at the links Ron supplied for examples of “Shut up and Listen” This essay by John Scalzi represents what Ron apparently considers an abuse. Good grief!

    I encourage anyone who hasn’t read it to read what Scalzi’s guest poster had to say about how he learned to understand privilege and the “shut up and listen” meme. It’s good stuff. I’m happy to have R. Lindsay encouraging people to read it. (And I appreciate the relevant kitten picture. Sigh.)

  8. rq
    11

    I’m sorry if I implied that I thought it was a generational thing. I don’t, actually, but it would be easier if it was – idle musings are useless, I know. However, you (and the work you do) and others are definite proof that this isn’t something that will just die off on its own. I don’t think I have the words to express how grateful I am that you do do the work that you do, that you have done.
    And you’re right, there’s no excuse for Ron.

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