Opinion of Memphis

[Joe Republic]

Seeing the result of this poll as well as the one for Simfan recently, and the outpouring of love for Libertas of all people, tells me that I just don't get this forum any more.

[Paul Kemp]

One of our more putrid members, in my sincere opinion.

[Boris]

Seeing the result of this poll as well as the one for Simfan recently, and the outpouring of love for Libertas of all people, tells me that I just don't get this forum any more.

It has to do with an appreciation for the diversity of viewpoints and personalities. I don't have a problem with Memphis, but people who engage in cliched religion-bashing and espouse pseudo-MRA ideas are a dime a dozen on the internet. Your Simfans, BRTDs, Libertases, jmfcsts are a bit more difficult to come by, and what makes Atlas a pretty special place.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What’s striking about Memphis the Mendacious that I think goes oft-overlooked is his pettiness. One example of this that springs to mind is the time I made a thread in the Off-Topic board about a subgenre of romance fiction whose moral and artistic assumptions I was interested in criticizing, and he came into the thread for no other purpose than to insult me for being interested in it. That’s on top of the bigger and more obvious problems, such as his habit of making really strange claims about sociology, comparative religions, and related disciplines and presenting them as cold hard fact that the rest of us are just too stupid to accept; his going out of his way to communicate his contempt for gender nonconformity in situations where it would be not only morally preferable but actually far easier for him to just accept other people’s accounts of their own lives and experiences;  his tactic of wrapping himself in the banner of sex-positive feminism when it suits his purpose to accuse other people of being misogynistic, then going back to his MRA ways when that purpose has been fulfilled; his recent insistence that anybody who doesn’t share his religious views is a horrible rape apologist; his rampant quote-mining and use of his signature as a venue for public humiliation of posters he doesn’t like; his constant insulting and belittling of other people and cowardly use of tone arguments and thought-terminating clichés when other people decide to give as good as they get; and much, much more! Unless his forum persona is dramatically different from the way he behaves in his day-to-day life, he is simply not a good person, and should be recognized as the absolute worst kind of poster: One who manages to be staggeringly terrible almost without parallel, but without actually breaking any rules.

I’m glad we have him, though, in that this forum was bound to attract somebody with ‘~Le Dark Memer’-style opinions, and we’re lucky that ours at least doesn’t also have a ‘~Le Dark Memer’-style personality.

[Mr. Smith]

@R2: You must've slept through the last bit, I did not give warm approval. I left it at slight lean FF.

But with all the insanity, craziness that comes out here, his is far from he absolute worst. And for all the cold cynicism, bitterness, pettiness, message-shooting,...there is a sincerity to it, there is some cold logic to it, and there is articulation.

And he's a stopped clock at a very critical point, even if the motives and the focus are screwed up.

And if there are those crazier, obsessed and probably more dubious people, who I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here until the line is crossed, then I owe a stopped clock that benefit.

He's not someone I'd vote for in the polls over the average Atlasian, but he hasn't crossed the line into HP from what I've read (only 4 have crossed that line).

[memphis]

Most of Madeleine's points boil down to what I said earlier in this thread. I value facts over feelings, when the two are in conflict and I see little need to apologize for that. I don't believe in denial, bargaining, anger (most of the time; nobody's perfect), and all the rest. I've found it's best to skip right on to acceptance of whatever uncomfortable truths life brings my way. I've long ago figured out that can make me unpopular. We were discussing this same point quite a long time ago, and I pointed out that when I was in 2nd grade, I was telling classmates that Santa was not real. Another poster, who I don't see as much lately and isn't in this thread replied "That makes you an A$$hole!" I didn't reply to him b/c there didn't seem much point in it, but I also think it made a good analogy for a lot of the squabbles I get in here. I'm not a vindictive person. I don't offend for the sake of offense, and in real life I'm pretty good about keeping opinions to myself. But when you sign up for a political forum, there's no sense in getting your panties wadded when somebody doesn't agree with you. I find it very puzzling how many people get so offended so easily here and I am even more puzzled by how many people just follow the crowd when it comes to controversies. I've been here long enough to watch the lemmings swing one way on gay marriage, and then follow each other just as hard in the opposite direction. Why would anybody volunteer to discuss politics just so they can follow the crowd? What's the point of that? In short, I don't understand you people any more than you understand me. And I can accept that very easily. If you can't, that's your problem, not mine.
EDIT:
I will go ahead and remove Madeleine's quote from my signature, both as gesture of goodwill to a much more sensitive person and because I don't like the message of censorship that it promotes.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Most of Madeleine's points boil down to what I said earlier in this thread. I value facts over feelings, when the two are in conflict and I see little need to apologize for that. I don't believe in denial, bargaining, anger (most of the time; nobody's perfect), and all the rest. I've found it's best to skip right on to acceptance of whatever uncomfortable truths life brings my way. I've long ago figured out that can make me unpopular. We were discussing this same point quite a long time ago, and I pointed out that when I was in 2nd grade, I was telling classmates that Santa was not real. Another poster, who I don't see as much lately and isn't in this thread replied "That makes you an A$$hole!" I didn't reply to him b/c there didn't seem much point in it, but I also think it made a good analogy for a lot of the squabbles I get in here. I'm not a vindictive person. I don't offend for the sake of offense, and in real life I'm pretty good about keeping opinions to myself. But when you sign up for a political forum, there's no sense in getting your panties wadded when somebody doesn't agree with you. I find it very puzzling how many people get so offended so easily here and I am even more puzzled by how many people just follow the crowd when it comes to controversies. I've been here long enough to watch the lemmings swing one way on gay marriage, and then follow each other just as hard in the opposite direction. Why would anybody volunteer to discuss politics just so they can follow the crowd? What's the point of that? In short, I don't understand you people any more than you understand me. And I can accept that very easily. If you can't, that's your problem, not mine.

'kay

[Paul Kemp]

UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS

[Antonio the Sixth]

3edgy5me

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I value facts over feelings

I like when people try so so hard to be Spock and end up sounding like Sheldon from The Bang theory.

[H. Ross Peron]

[memphis]

Well, yes, I would strongly prefer a debate to these meek little cartoons, hat accusations, and strange little one liners suggesting that I'm trying to impress others. I think it's abundantly clear that I don't give two twats about Atlas Forum approval. I will give Maddy credit. He, at least, doesn't resort to such juvenile tactics. I also wouldn't get near Mtn Dew and Cheesy Poofs. I'm strongly anti- junk food. Anyhow, I'm done here. Carry on with the 3 edgies and cartoons. You're all ever so clever.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've taken the liberty of bolding all the points in my post that his I-am-enlightened-by-my-own-intelligence defense still doesn't cover even if we assume that it's true--in one case because it is itself a dishonest debating tactic, in the others because they genuinely are simply being an asshole with no 'speaking hard truths' involved one way or another.

What’s striking about Memphis the Mendacious that I think goes oft-overlooked is his pettiness. One example of this that springs to mind is the time I made a thread in the Off-Topic board about a subgenre of romance fiction whose moral and artistic assumptions I was interested in criticizing, and he came into the thread for no other purpose than to insult me for being interested in it. That’s on top of the bigger and more obvious problems, such as his habit of making really strange claims about sociology, comparative religions, and related disciplines and presenting them as cold hard fact that the rest of us are just too stupid to accept; his going out of his way to communicate his contempt for gender nonconformity in situations where it would be not only morally preferable but actually far easier for him to just accept other people’s accounts of their own lives and experiences; his tactic of wrapping himself in the banner of sex-positive feminism when it suits his purpose to accuse other people of being misogynistic, then going back to his MRA ways when that purpose has been fulfilled; his recent insistence that anybody who doesn’t share his religious views is a horrible rape apologist; his rampant quote-mining and use of his signature as a venue for public humiliation of posters he doesn’t like; his constant insulting and belittling of other people and cowardly use of tone arguments and thought-terminating clichés when other people decide to give as good as they get; and much, much more! Unless his forum persona is dramatically different from the way he behaves in his day-to-day life, he is simply not a good person, and should be recognized as the absolute worst kind of poster: One who manages to be staggeringly terrible almost without parallel, but without actually breaking any rules.

I’m glad we have him, though, in that this forum was bound to attract somebody with ‘~Le Dark Memer’-style opinions, and we’re lucky that ours at least doesn’t also have a ‘~Le Dark Memer’-style personality.

[afleitch]

AREN'T ATHIEST'S SO F-CKING FAT LOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!1111

[DC Al Fine]

Kind of a dick.

[Deus Naturae]

Kind of a dick.

^this, but I sympathize with him because of the asinine way in which people respond to his posts. Imagine if there were a Christian poster who people responded to with "lol Christfag" and by posting memes making fun of fundie Christians every time he criticized atheism.

[politicus]

Kind of a dick.

^this, but I sympathize with him because of the asinine way in which people respond to his posts. Imagine if there were a Christian poster who people responded to with "lol Christfag" and by posting memes making fun of fundie Christians every time he criticized atheism.

Atheism is not what is controversal about Memphis.

[Gustaf]

This is hilarious. Memphis thinks the reason people don't like him is because he speaks uncomfortable truths? I don't give a sht that he's "honest" or lacks empathy. The reason I dislike him is that his views are horrible and not based on any facts whatsoever. He's so zealous in his fanatic denial of reality that it's almost scary.

Also, as Madeleleine pointed out there is a nasty petty streak to Memphis. For example, he still retains a quote from me in his signature where it is very clear in context  that I'm satirizing patriarchal attitudes. He knows this but has put it there to make me seem hypocritical or something. I don't particularly care but it's pretty telling of his character.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Kind of a dick.

^this, but I sympathize with him because of the asinine way in which people respond to his posts. Imagine if there were a Christian poster who people responded to with "lol Christfag" and by posting memes making fun of fundie Christians every time he criticized atheism.

Atheism is not what is controversal about Memphis.

In fact, it's Memphis (ok, along with his countless fedora-wearing likes from reddit) who gives Atheism a bad name.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

>rambles on about "uncomfortable truths" and "reals b4 feelz" and so on

>immediately misgenders someone in his next post

seriously memphis?

[Sopranos Republican]

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

HP=Horrible Pyramid

oh, look a bunch of mastabas staked on top of each other at Saqqara.
No mere mortal could have come up with this so Imhotep must be a god. 

[Deus Naturae]

Kind of a dick.

^this, but I sympathize with him because of the asinine way in which people respond to his posts. Imagine if there were a Christian poster who people responded to with "lol Christfag" and by posting memes making fun of fundie Christians every time he criticized atheism.

Atheism is not what is controversal about Memphis.

Then what is?

[Gustaf]

Kind of a dick.

^this, but I sympathize with him because of the asinine way in which people respond to his posts. Imagine if there were a Christian poster who people responded to with "lol Christfag" and by posting memes making fun of fundie Christians every time he criticized atheism.

Atheism is not what is controversal about Memphis.

Then what is?

The misogyny for me. Beyond that his (actually very common) combination of viewing himself as some sort of superrational, enlightened übermensch, here to spread wisdom to the dumb and ignorant  with having piss-poor argumentation and a, let's say, weak grasp on reality. It comes off as pretty off-putting.