RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/March 2015

March 2015
#Thingsjesusneversaid Cracked.com goes over some truly impossible examples of Poe's Law (though they unfortunately didn't link to our article on it). Actually The Onion: Open-Minded Man Grimly Realizes How Much Life He's Wasted Listening To Bullshit. It's not easy being Scientology in the Information Age. The decline and fall of Kent Hovind, as told by an ex-employee. Did you know that VenomFangX was brought to Christianity by watching Hovind videos? "I teach human evolution at the University of Kentucky. There are some students I’ll never reach." (Old, but good) "The Control Group is Out of Control": An essay on parapsychology and equally dubious experimental procedure in psychology. The problems with evolutionary psychology according to an actual biological anthropologist. Mars One is sounding pretty scammy. You might want to hold off on donating to We Are Atheism after Hemant Mehta at The Friendly Atheist uncovered some discrepancies regarding how much money is being donated and how it is being used. During the Great Depression, American businesses had to find a way to quickly rehabilitate their image before FDR piled on too many regulations. And they succeeded by recasting capitalism as the handmaiden of Jesus. One lingering aftereffect -- the belief by many that America is a Christian nation. Cracked delivers yet again: 8 Obvious Signs Statistics Are Lying To You. While women's pay continues to lag behind men's, girls take the lead over boys in educational success. How Gamergate has destroyed the reputation of video games in academia. The Faith Healer Next Door, a story about exactly how a couple of misguided parents could let their child die while they watched.

This video will make you angry, or how content on the internet act like infectious diseases (particularly, things that make you angry). During the midst of the Watergate scandal, Nixon's chief-of-staff, H.R. Haldeman, and attorney general, John Ehrlichman -- both Christian Scientists -- took time out from the coverup to insert language into a child-welfare bill giving parents religious exemptions for neglect and/or abuse based on religious reasons -- i.e., faith healing, "spare the rod, spoil the child", etc. (Note:  The first half of this longish article is a history of the first century of child welfare advocacy in the US.) My Year Ripping Off The Web with the Daily Mail Online. Activists, take note: some of the people on your side are sick of your shit Why you trust the internet more than your doctor. Behind the militance of New Atheism lies the dream of a global monoculture and a single, very Western, and very modern value system. (Or: the Grauniad's (hopefully brief) descent to rock bottom in cushioned by lots and lots of straw. Complete with eugenics!) Oh no! The Sarkeesian Effect production team of Davis Aurini and Jordan Owen has broken up! And Roosh V plays Yoko Ono in the public story. We Hunted The Mammoth has the details. Who gets custody of the skull props is as yet unclear. Update: It gets worse, as Aurini compares Owen to Elliot Rodger (summary).