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Getting yourself hated – Part 4

This is a version of a talk I gave to SkeptiCamp Sydney in October 2013. As it was essentially a PowerPoint show with me chatting about the slides I'm reproducing it here with the slides.

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And if that isn't crazy enough …

Say what?

Nothing like ALL CAPS to get a point across. The Toddy Gastaldo mentioned was a chiropractor living in Portland, Oregon. He was absolutely barking mad and used to alternate between abusing me and singing my praises. We had a standing arrangement to go out for pancakes if I ever got back to Portland, but I don't think that was the table the two of were going to grovel at. He was actually an ex-chiropractor because he had handed in his chiropractising ticket when the other bone pushers wouldn't agree with him about the correct posture for women during childbirth.

I have no idea who the FDA killed. The ouralexander site is an advertisement for uberquack Stanislaw Burzynski.

Why would I want to pick on a gay bishop? And which bishop in particular?

Why would I want to fight the Masons? Some of my best friends … Oops. I think I've said enough.

More ALL CAPS. I am worrid, however, at the nature of the dark and gloomy thing that will be knawing at me.

I think this person rejects evolution. His brain certainly has.

Long-time Usenet users will remember the famous David Mabus. He was a relatively harmless kook who used to infest science newsgroups and mailing lists. He used to email me regularly with his whines about James Randi and anyone else who dared to challenge nonsense. He went quiet for a while and then discovered Twitter and a whole lot of newcomers to the Internet who decided he was some sort of a threat. We old-timers just yawned and said "Oh, he's back", but others took him really seriously and kept reporting him to various supposed authorities. He has spent some time under the care of psychiatrists and a panic breaks out if he ever dares to post anything anywhere. I received this from him recently and I know it is impossible to read, but the intent is to give a gestalt view of the sort of stuff he posts. He was the source of one of the great Internet memes when he shouted "GOATS ON FIRE!" for no apparent reason in a conversation one day. There are t-shirts.

There's nothing really remarkable about this email (if you ignore the fact that it came from my late grandmother, Kathleen Turner). If you put you cursor over it, however, what is revealed is the use of the world's most ridiculed font. In bold. And mauve.

And saving the best for last – an email from a supporter of psychic fraud Sylvia Browne.

That's all, folks.


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