Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Memory Hole Strikes Back!

I use Firefox, and I use a lot of tabs. I mean a LOT of tabs - Firefox usually eats up between 250-500Mb of memory and takes a minute or so to fully open when I restart. The reason for this is that I like to keep an eye on some sites that I occasionally post at, especially those places where you can't (or I'd rather not) subscribe to the comments.

One such site you might remember was Christian Governance (formerly "Christian Government"). Well, a few days ago I noticed one of the pages I never bothered to close started coming up with a 404 error - page not found. I kind of chuckled to myself because I figured that they must have closed down or changed domain names again. For some reason, I didn't close the tab. I then noticed a few minutes ago that the page started loading again, so I revisited it, and found the post back up again, but with the comments section completely wiped out. Unfortunately, the Google cache has been updated to the latest version without the comments. Even more unfortunate, I can't recall the comments happening at that post.

I posted again there, asking where the comments disappeared to. I'm curious what the excuse for the use of the memory hole will be (if one is forthcoming). Anybody else surprised that a Christian website that claims to hold personal responsibility as a virtue will drop an entire section of comments if they don't like the direction a conversation is going?

A little further digging confirms that, yup, the two main threads I posted on a while ago have been scrubbed clean of all comments. Yet again, my neglect to obtain a screenshot of comments at a fundy site has come back to bite me in the ass.

All that time wasted arguing with closed minded ignoramuses, with nary a record of my brilliant wordsmithing saved for future reference!

5 comments:

  1. I can't believe that Peter deleted my comments...
    Well, I do believe it, but I'm fucking angry about it.
    At least I know the first line of argument for presuppositionists next time around. Don't get into specifics, attack the logic, force them to make a statement they can be held to, then proceed. Force them to play by their own rules before they even speak.
    Maybe they will just claim victory based on my unwillingness to give them ground. Who knows.
    I'm starting to feel your frustration....

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  2. It's a lesson that hasn't taken me long to learn: those who claim to support personal responsibility, free speech, and family (etc, etc) the loudest seem to usually be the first to blame somebody else for their failures, censure content they don't like, and cheat on their spouses.
    Fundies in particular apparently like to flaunt their stupidity on the internet, but get furious when somebody is willing to point out their idiocy and/or laugh at them. Of course, this isn't that surprising - I remember the phrase, "there oughta be a law" being very popular amongst the church congregations I used to attend.
    Regarding Peter, I'm reminded of the lyric from Metallica's My Friend Of Misery: "Hearing only what you want to hear, and knowing only what you've heard."

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  3. Speaking of frustration, I hold no illusions that I`m a great debater (or even an average one, really), but I get constantly annoyed that it seems I`m lucky to get religious people to respond to even a fraction of the points that I attempt to make in online discussions. This has been true on my own blog, on the Physorg forums, on fundie blogs, on Scienceblogs, etc, etc.
    My ego would like me to think it's because I make devastating arguments, but maybe it's just because I show up late to the party, and usually wind up sniping from the sidelines while another atheist acts as the main target.

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  4. Hey Sinned34!

    I noticed your comment on that abomination of a site and couldn't help but laugh. You may remember the lengthy, rambling argument I had with them when I first discovered the site, that all got deleted. They said it was because I was hateful, but they could never point to what it was I said that was so offensive. They accused me of changing topics constantly, but neglected to note that it happened because I was addressing their constantly changing positions.

    I know collectively that we're not surprised about their kind of blatant censorship and deception. If they were honest about what they were after, they'd never get it, so lying is really a survival tactic for zealots like that. It's just sad that it's not easier to make them face repercussions for their actions.

    In any case, I just wanted to show some support. You are appreciated out there on the front lines! I feel that simply arguing with these people is enough -- their anger bleeds out far to easily, and I'm betting that does more harm than good for their cause.

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  5. Etchainer,

    Yes, I remember there being a few nonbelievers toiling away at that site, trying to instill a small amount of reason amongst the regular readership. So far it seems only one of the threads I posted at there has survived "the purge."
    It's too bad that such "free speech" warriors tend to be so sensitive that they have to censor criticism and conversations that don't proceed the way that they feel they should. Granted, in the feverish little mind of a theocrat, all conversations should consist of non-Christians throwing up feeble complaints, only to eventually accept unquestioningly the utterances from the True Christian Patriots, based upon the teachings of Supply-Side Jesus. Add to that the fact that many fundies are offended merely by the existence of people who aren't exactly like them ("It's okay for atheists, gays, and darkies to exist, but I shouldn't have to look at them or hear about them! Why should I have to explain to my kids that some people are different than us? Won't somebody think of the children?!?"), and becomes all to clear why those people are so desperate to turn back the clock a few hundred years. Being unable to think for yourself in a time of change must be terrifying!
    I appreciate the support. There are others that do a much better job at attacking the radical Christianists on their own turf than I do, but it's always nice to hear positive feedback on the little contributions that one makes.
    I've been steeling myself for another return to the breech, so we'll see you back out there in the wilds!

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