The Smear Campaign Has Begun
Yep, that's what some Christians do with a book they cannot legitimately answer. They will try to negatively smear it or it's authors. And the campaign has begun against The Christian Delusion
.
Some guy who goes by the name of Winston Smith is doing it. He goes by so many different names on Amazon and in several Blogger accounts I cannot remember them all, like KC James, Frank Walton, Andrew, D. Christensen, Anna B, possibly Brenda here at DC, or whatever name he comes up with next. Winston Smith (Frank Walton, et al.) just made a veiled threat about several negative reviews that he claims will be posted about this book on Amazon beginning on Tuesday. See here. As I said he has many email, Amazon and Blogger accounts and uses them in an attempt to smear me and this book because he's threatened by it and cannot answer it. He is deluded. He thinks the Christian truth must be defended by a host of lies, and THAT should give him pause to think he is one of the brainwashed ones, but he's so brainwashed he won't even consider this possibility.
David Eller said that people like him have "a different set of eyes than we do, and they cannot see what we see. Criticizing them, even poking them in the eye, simply does not improve their vision. They are deep inside a Christian box, and until they see the box and the world outside of it, their view is fatally limited."
Another possible name Frank goes by is Lenny, and he has attempted to smear David Eller on Richard Carrier's blog where Richard offers a review of our book. See here. But I did not let him get away with it.
Smear campaigns. Yep. That's how to defend the Christian truth. Right. It's laughable if it weren't so annoying.
. Some guy who goes by the name of Winston Smith is doing it. He goes by so many different names on Amazon and in several Blogger accounts I cannot remember them all, like KC James, Frank Walton, Andrew, D. Christensen, Anna B, possibly Brenda here at DC, or whatever name he comes up with next. Winston Smith (Frank Walton, et al.) just made a veiled threat about several negative reviews that he claims will be posted about this book on Amazon beginning on Tuesday. See here. As I said he has many email, Amazon and Blogger accounts and uses them in an attempt to smear me and this book because he's threatened by it and cannot answer it. He is deluded. He thinks the Christian truth must be defended by a host of lies, and THAT should give him pause to think he is one of the brainwashed ones, but he's so brainwashed he won't even consider this possibility.
David Eller said that people like him have "a different set of eyes than we do, and they cannot see what we see. Criticizing them, even poking them in the eye, simply does not improve their vision. They are deep inside a Christian box, and until they see the box and the world outside of it, their view is fatally limited."
Another possible name Frank goes by is Lenny, and he has attempted to smear David Eller on Richard Carrier's blog where Richard offers a review of our book. See here. But I did not let him get away with it.
Smear campaigns. Yep. That's how to defend the Christian truth. Right. It's laughable if it weren't so annoying.
10 comments:
David Eller is SO spot on there. And the only conclusion I can come to is that debate is therefore pointless.
Personally am about a quarter of the way through Why I Became an Atheist, and LOVING it - looking forward to the next one too.
I never considered Brenda was Winston but, his/her arguments do seem to be revealing themselves to be garden-variety Evangelical apologetics.
Good call John.
The behavior of guys like Winston helped push me towards the edge and leap towards the intellectual health atheism offers.
"possibly Brenda here at DC"
Paranoia the destroyer. Nope, I can absolutely guarantee you I am not whomever you are referring to. I have not even visited your book's page on Amazon and I have never posted under any assumed names there.
I have not even criticized your book, not here, not anywhere because I have not read it. Here on this blog I have criticized atheists and theists alike. I'm generous like that. :)
"Winston Smith (Frank Walton, et al.) just made a veiled threat about several negative reviews that he claims will be posted about this book on Amazon beginning on Tuesday."
Negative reviews are not a "smear campaign" perhaps you should read that wiki page a little more closely. Besides, if your opinions cannot survive in the marketplace of ideas they don't deserve to.
"David Eller said that people like him have "a different set of eyes than we do, and they cannot see what we see."
That sounds suspiciously close to eliminationist speech. So... what should we do with those who are not human like we are?
Brenda, one way to offer good evidence that you are not Winston Smith is to make your profile public. If you don't then there is no reason for me to publish any of your future anonymous posts. It's part of my comment policy.
Just ordered your book today!
I feel for you Mr. Loftus. I've been a target of countless smears and character assassination attempts and it's not the least bit fun. My detractors' smears took place nearly uninterrupted for about a year and a half! It's exhausting and frustrating having to constantly defend yourself instead of having actual discussions with people. You're so right. If someone resorts to these unethical ploys they are the ones who have no argument. What's even more amazing is that these supposedly ethically superior christians are the ones doing this! Hypocrites all around!
My advice (though time consuming) is to post on your blog all of your detractors and their other identities and post it for all to see. Expose their lies and if you run across any of them in the future link to the well-research posted you created exposing them. That way you don't have to keep repeating the same things over and over again when defending yourself. Just link to that post and say, "These charges are all false. It's all right here at this link. Go take a look." That seemed to work for me. I haven't had too much trouble since I confronted one of my detractors with all the evidence. Amazingly enough (or perhaps not) even when confronted with the damning evidence that he lied about me, he still denied it, but he seems to be ignoring me since that last discussion. One still keeps at it, but the other two seemed to have gotten the message.
Good luck!
Surely posting multiple comments under multiple pseudonyms on Amazon is against their policy? If you have evidence why not complain to Amazon and ask them to delete his/her accounts?
Kiwi, the evidence is enough to convince me. He uses the same language in his comments and the timing of what he writes here and then on Amazon are just too coincidental (within minutes sometimes). I could be wrong, but I don't think so. If I am it doesn't change a thing for the smear campaign is here, and he's a part of it, that's for sure. Amazon probably couldn't verify these accounts anyway because they originate from separate email addresses (how many does your sever give you?). Besides I have better things to do.
And just like that, "Brenda" is gone.
Funny how apologists for the absolute "truth" are unwilling to be transparent in their personal presentation.
"Brenda" wrote:
"Negative reviews are not a "smear campaign" perhaps you should read that wiki page a little more closely. Besides, if your opinions cannot survive in the marketplace of ideas they don't deserve to."
1) Directing a hoard of mindless followers to denigrate a book en masse that they haven't even read IS a smear campaign.
2) By that logic, you support radical Islam since it's surviving (and thriving) in the marketplace of ideas.
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