Ophelia Benson's continuing complaining

Ophelia Benson - Wikipedia

On July 2 of 2012, I hosted -- along with Karla Porter -- a discussion titled "Women and the secular community" [listen here] and invited all of my Facebook friends (including, at the time, Ophelia Benson). The event was described as follows (from the Facebook event):

The NEPA Freethought Society Podcast will be having a very special Livestream episode (streaming at www.nepafreethought.org/livestream) featuring Karla Porter and Justin Vacula concerning an ongoing discussion in the secular community -- more specifically in the blogosphere -- regarding women in the secular community this Monday at 8PM EST. 

Topics to be discussed are sexism, harassment at conferences, anti-harassment conference policies, harassment, tone, specific posts and comments by identified feminist bloggers including "Sisterhood of the Oppressed," a recent GoogleDoc by Paula Kirby (http://bit.ly/Od1bqB), "On Harassment and Policies: An Open Letter to Skeptic and Freethought Leaders" by Todd Stiefel (http://bit.ly/LFr5Vg), "Closing the File" by Ophelia Benson (http://bit.ly/M1ff4c), "Why I Won't be at TAM this year" by Rebecca Watson, (http://skepchick.org/2012/06/why-i-wont-be-at-tam-this-year/) and much more

During the discussion, Karla and I discussed -- as promised -- e-mails blogger Ophelia Benson received which ultimately lead to her neglecting to speak at and attend The Amazing Meeting. Ophelia didn't like the treatment she received on the podcast and posted her dissatisfaction on my Facebook profile and elsewhere. Here are some of those comments:

(her initial comments from my Facebook page)



Following that, she then complained about the podcast once again on her blog (which she banned me from commenting on following what I thought was a very reasonable proposal):



...she then followed up on Twitter:





...and there's also this:


...and now she's doing it once more:



I don't really understand this. Ophelia Benson doesn't want to appear as a guest on my podcast which apparently bothered her so much that she keeps mentioning it, but she continues to talk about it. I have given her an opportunity (one which still stands) to rectify whatever harm or misrepresentation she believes she's incurred and she wants nothing to do with it. She's also banned me from her Twitter and blog. Apparently, she doesn't want to have a conversation, but she keeps mentioning the treatment she received on the podcast while hurling insults at me. What's the point?

When I disagree with people so much that I post about what they say, I welcome a dialogue with them. I don't hurl character attacks, I don't call them 'disgraceful,' 'unethical,' 'not too careful with the truth,' 'a hack pursuing a vendetta,' a 'dishonest hack,' an 'asshole' or claim that their posts are 'calculated insults.' Apparently, Ophelia isn't interested in dialogue, but rather is only interested in attacking people with whom she disagrees.

Ophelia, while you're at it, why don't you just dedicate an entire post to how much you disliked the podcast and hop on the train of your fellow blog writers who delight in calling me a 'vacuous shitbag troll?' Remember, though, hate directed at women is uncalled for...but everyone else is fair game.