PZ Myers Blasts Josh Duggar But Protects the Child Rapist on His Blog

In 2011, PZ Myers was hurling invective at creationists, Christians and Muslims.

In 2015, PZ Myers spews his hate at people who point out his hypocrisy regarding those who commit child rape.

Background

I know…most people have lives and are too busy to keep up with PZ’s activities.  Here’s the background in a nutshell.  In the first decade of the 21st century, PZ Myers was one of the prominent voices in atheist activism.  His Pharyngula blog won science awards and PZ was frequently called upon to debate creationists and the like.  His stature was such that he even met with Richard Dawkins, a moment that seems fantastic in retrospect.  PZ’s star was rising!

Then everything went sideways.  Elevatorgate opened PZ’s eyes to the rampant misogyny in the community. A man hit on Rebecca Watson in an elevator and went away after being rejected.  This outrage proved that the atheist community and war-torn Congo were equally inhospitable to women.  Onstage, PZ said:

the Internet community of atheists is racked with these paroxysms of argument over, of all things, the status of women. We’re trying to decide whether women are fuck toys and eye candy for the privileged white men, or whether we are colleagues together in this movement.

The Internet community of atheists is still trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about.  What we didn’t know at the time was that PZ Myers was establishing himself as the judge, jury and reputational executioner with respect to sexual offenses.

Pharyngula soon became all radical feminism, all the time.  The man who desecrated a Koran  and who literally made a video of himself burying a Koran was now the ruler of a kingdom of broken people who love Islam.  A freedom fighter from the Slymepit posted “Classic PZ” quotes about Islam into a Pharyngula thread.  The commenters pointed out that “Classic PZ” was an “Islamophobe.”  Like all great sharers of ideas, PZ deleted literally his own comments from the post.

Perhaps most offensive was PZ’s decision to police the sexuality of straight men in the atheist movement.  The accusations came hot and heavy.

August 6, 2013: PZ snags the assist and names the unnamed man who Karen Stollznow accused of sexual harassment on a Scientific American blog post.  (Last week, Karen Stollznow settled the defamation suit against her and admitted that none of the events she claimed happened…happened.  PZ hasn’t acknowledged this fact, either.  But that’s another post.)

August 8, 2013: PZ relays accusations that Michael Shermer is a serial rapist.  The details in the third-hand accusation were fuzzy and kept changing, but that didn’t matter to PZ and his Horde.  (PZ calls his commenters and fans his Horde because he has designs on world domination.  Plus, it sounds really masculine.)  Shermer sent PZ a cease and desist order, but PZ laughed it off because he doesn’t particularly care for the legal system.

Further research:

Over the next few weeks, nearly every other prominent male received accusations of sexual impropriety from PZ and his band of looneys.  Then…on August 20, 2013…something truly frightening happened on Pharyngula.

Ogvorbis: His Standing in the Community and His Confession

Ogvorbis is a long-time commenter at Pharyngula.  He’s prominent enough to have a Pharyngula Wiki entry about him.  His last blog post to date asks you to “think of the children.”

Little did the Horde know that there was more than met the eye with Father Ogvorbis.

In PZ’s “Stunned Silence” thread, he registers his shock and sadness that Elyse MoFo Anders revealed that she had been raped.  That’s fine.  We’re all sad about sexual assault and we all wish that nothing bad along those lines would ever happen to anyone, including Elyse.

The interesting part is in the comments.  (Here’s page 1.  Here’s page 2.) Ogvorbis’s words speak for themselves.  I reproduce them in full not to bore you, but to let you get a fair understanding of Ogvorbis’s performance that day.

Ogvorbis admits that he was raped by a cub scout leader for a couple years.  This is awful and terrible and we would all love to go back in time and go Olivia Benson on the cub scout leader’s ass.  Fine.

It’s also important to note that he points out that he has been remembering these things gradually over the past thirty years.  Some have theorized that these are “recovered memories.”

More description of having been raped.  We’re all on Ogvorbis’s side.  Remember?  Time machine.  Olivia Benson.

More deserved victim cred to this point.

Uh oh.  Things are getting interesting and even sadder.  Ogvorbis bgns losssing his abbilitty to tyyype as he establishes some facts.

1. Ogvorbis was twelve.
2. Ogvorbis babysat two girls approximately 4 and 7. (He later says the youngest may have been 3.)
3. Ogvorbis was given an additional 6-year-old to babysit.
4. Three girls, 4, 6 and 7 went into a bedroom and began engaging in “sex play” that involved bondage.
5. They did “everything” that day.

Ogvorbis responds to the wave of love the rest of the Horde sent him.  He acknowledges he fears “losing control.”  He’s saying that there’s still a possibility he will rape more very little girls.

More response to the love.  Ogvorbis reveals:

1. He still has hate and rage that he wants to release.
2. He wants to “punish” someone other than him.
3. He knew raping the girls was wrong and one of them was named “S.”
4. He calls his hate and rage a “monster” that is always at risk of escaping his control.

Ogvorbis fishes for more love and believes that his confession of multiple child rape may harm his standing in the FTB community.  Boy, was he wrong!

Ogvorbis makes use of the silly FTB cliche: “Intent is not magic.”

So!  That’s a harrowing story, right?  For FSM’s sake!  We’re talking a 12-year-old “doing everything” with three very little girls who were engaged in bondage play for over an hour, apparently.  If you’re a normal person, you might feel a small measure of sympathy for Ogvorbis, but you don’t excuse child rape.  You want to hop in that time machine and bring Olivia Benson to the moment before Ogvorbis went to see what those girls were up to so you could stop the creepiest orgy of all time and so you could get Ogvorbis into some counseling at the very least.

The FTB Horde disagrees.  Here’s a small sampling of the hugs and babysitting offers Ogvorbis received:

I hope you are sitting down, but the only voice of reason that day was Elyse MoFo Anders herself.  Credit where it is due.

Ogvorbis’s Continued Place in the FTB Community

PZ Myers and others in the FTB community have been dismissing criticism of Ogvorbis, a man who confessed to multiple child rapes, for years.  The Ogvorbis steam seemed to pick up after PZ Myers claimed that Michael Nugent was providing a “haven” for “rapists” on his blog, ignoring completely that Ogvorbis admits he’s a rapist.

Mr. Nugent’s vocal resistance to being labeled thus inspired Stephanie Zavan to engage in some serious Ogvorbis rape apologetics.

By all means, read for yourself, but here are the main points of Zevon’s essay:

1. Ogvorbis has been turned into a political football.  (She completely ignores the many times she has used Shermer and Radford and others as political footballs.)
2. There’s really nothing FTB can do.  (More on this later, but Zvayn claims she and FTB are not law enforcement officers and can do nothing to prosecute a rape.   In other news, please check out the post in which she takes Shermer to task for alleged rapes.  And when she excoriates D.J. Grothe for rape apologia and mishandling of harassment at TAM.  And when she urges changes in policy as a result of Ron Lindsay not asking her what he should say first.  But there’s really nothing to be done about rape accusations or confessions from Ogvorbis.)
3. Ogvorbis bears no responsibility, requires no punishment and no judgment whatsoever because he was groomed.  Ogvorbis, in spite of a few child rapes and the impulse to repeat such actions, is a victim of abuse and his actions are therefore excused in every way.

Tony the Queer Shoop, possibly the dumbest of the Horde, agrees wholeheartedly.  Ogvorbis deserves ONLY support and empathy, in spite of how many little girls he admits he raped.

PZ Myers Blasting Others For Doing Exactly What He’s Done With Ogvorbis

PZ picked up on the Josh Duggar story fairly quickly.   Let’s go through PZ’s post point by point:

PZ blasts Ray Comfort for “standing by” a man who touched little girls’ vaginas.  PZ indicates that being “indoctrinated” is no excuse, nor is the fact that Duggar touched the girls before he knew right from wrong.  Then he throws in a good old-fashioned bit of innuendo to imply Comfort has committed sexual sins.

PZ stands by a man who raped a few little girls.  PZ Myers indicates that Ogvorbis was indoctrinated and feels guilty, so it’s totes okely-dokely.

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PZ says that the fact that Josh Duggar confessed and repented doesn’t absolve him of fault.

PZ says that the fact that Ogvorbis confessed and repented absolves him of fault.

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No one at Freethought Blogs, including PZ Myers, has expressed any compassion for the girls who were harmed.  Elyse came the closest, but look at all the love and babysitting offers Ogvorbis received!

PZ and the Island of Misfit Toys Flail About, Stewing in Hypocrisy

A brave hero Slymepitter took the time to mention Ogvorbis in this thread under the name “whataboutogvorbis.”  (The Slymepit is an Internet message board that sprung up to discuss all of these issues that could no longer be discussed on FTB and to laugh at the increasing delusion of the radicals taking over the atheist movement.)  PZ  quickly took down the reasonable posts and changed the nym to protect Ogvorbis.  Nick Gotts, possibly the dumbest of the Horde, joined others in protecting Ogvorbis.

Interesting how the PZ and his demented commenters take the time to revile people who mention Ogvorbis, but completely ignore that Ogvorbis has left victims in his wake, women who are out in the world if they haven’t killed themselves as a result of the abuse, and who have had to deal with what Ogvorbis did every day.

Guess who showed up in that thread?

That’s right!  Ogvorbis himself.  He grabs for those victim points by saying:

1. Both he and Duggar were “taught” to do horrible things.
2. The adults who should have taught them morals…didn’t.
3. Ogvorbis has never reached out to his victims for forgiveness, nor has he received counseling or spoken with law enforcement or anything else.

How did the Horde react when the repeat child rapist strode into the room and put his head on the chopping block?  Reminding Pharyngulites that he raped a few little girls and still has impulses to commit serious, evil crimes?

More love.

More excuses.

More proof that PZ and his friends adhere to only one moral rule:

It’s Okay When We Do It.