The famous biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins has offended tens of people with an astonishing tirade of offensive tweets on the social media platform Twitter.
Dawkins, a proponent of the ‘new Atheism’ – a term invented by people bored with plain old Atheism (not to be confused with Atheism Plus, a term invented by people bored with life) – has caused a Twitter storm on several occasions with his tweets, defended by his fans as simply ‘clumsy’.
This latest chapter in the drama began when Dawkins went to speak at a conference early in the morning and had to skip breakfast. He tweeted:
“Fuck me, I’m starving.”
Stephanie Flotsam of skeptical website SkepTit immediately published a ten page blog responding to Dawkins’ appalling comments:
“I find it astonishing that in this day and age we still allow old, rich white men to get away with their disgusting misogyny and lack of knowledge of their own privilege,” she wrote on a computer made with materials mined from land that used to belong to a tribe in a rainforest before they got moved or murdered. “Does he not realise that by saying the word ‘starving’ that he is demeaning the plight of the real starving people in the world? Do we care that he’s hungry? As a biologist, he should know better about looking after his body. Have a packet of crisps! And ‘fuck me’? Seriously, Dawkins, WTF?! As a person who has worked with rape victims, I find a man making fun of the idea of consent the most offensive thing I have read in a long time.”
Later that day, Dawkins tweeted again from the lobby of the conference hotel:
“There’s nothing worse than conference sandwiches. Ugh.”
The skeptical/feminist blogosphere (not be confused with real world skepticism or feminism) reacted with apoplectic fury, with blog posts appearing at a rate of approximately five per minute. Within half an hour, Dawkins was held personally responsible for rape, war, celebrity big brother, the murder of Theresa Halbach, the banking crisis, and fridge raiders. On Twitter, skeptics and feminists who had not read the original tweets and had only skimmed the blog posts because they were in work and aren’t really allowed to use their phones, started attacking Dawkins directly:
“So @RichardDawkins thinks conference sandwiches are one of the worst things in the world? Maybe he should go on holiday to Syria!” @smugskep
“Apparently @RichardDawkins has ran over a Muslim with a trolley of sandwiches. That’s how the leader of Atheism acts? Disgusting!” @scepticpoet
“Not everyone can afford fancy expensive sandwiches. @RichardDawkins needs to check his privilege!” @AtheistFem
Dawkins, apparently unaware of the offense he was causing, later tweeted:
“Back home from the conference. My beautiful wife has made me a wonderful cup of tea.”
Julian Loveme from FreeFall Blogs called this ‘the final straw’ and ‘the ultimate example of CIS white male privilege’. In his 27-page essay on the debacle that is effectively just a list of indignant questions, he repeatedly writes about his confusion and disgust:
“Why is Dawkins’ wife only talked about in terms of her beauty? As if she just exists to please Richard Dawkins’ libido? Why is she not named? Does he not allow her to use her name in the home, where presumably she is kept prisoner? And why does she have to make the tea? Why couldn’t he make it? Does he think because he’s been talking science to other white haired old men that he deserves to be waited on by his mute wife? And why tea? The most CIS of drinks. I’ve been a feminist campaigner since I discovered it at university last year, and this is just the latest example of the worst kind of ciswhitemiddleclassvanillamale privilege that makes life for people like me looking for a fight on the internet really, really, really hard.
I am starting up an online fund so I can afford to talk about this issue endlessly and uninformatively at British universities. Please donate, or I shall be watching you.”
Julian’s online essays Revenge of the Keyboard Warriors and Attack of the Strawmen are available now from his website.
Dawkins has tried to backpedal and minimise the drama since realising the effect his tweets were having, saying that he only meant ‘some’ conference sandwiches, and that he also occasionally drinks coffee. The internet awaits the next round of articulate yet somehow incoherent and empty blogs.
The drama is unlikely to stop any time soon as it is created and nurtured in order to sustain the life force of the many keyboard warriors sitting alone at their computers right now.
Think about their feelings as you check your privilege.
Breaking News: the drama continues here…
The Sceptical Poet 
The famous can get away with nothing , they are under observation and we love to shoot them down.
If you can’t trip up his biology concentrate on other character aspects.
If you want to get away with rudeness and stupidity make sure your not well known. The good news is you can be white , rich and old but must be obscure.
We hang on the words of the great and famous for we are some how convinced they know everything about everything.
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And why isn’t this grade school tirade in the form of a POEM Mr. “Poet”? Hmmmm
Maybe your jealousy is showing….
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I’ll take good satire over poetry any day.
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Tell me when you find it!
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Every time I read comments by feminists I can never tell whether they’re just trolling, kidding or if they’re terminally deranged. It sure looks funny until some idiot in charge takes it seriously.
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Is this a satirical website like the onion which makes stuff up? Or why aren’t there any links? Also I couldn’t find your quotes with google.
So I’m very skeptical about this whole post. Why do I never find those “radical feminists” people complain about?
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Do you really need to ask? He didnt send any of those tweets and it is funny because he upsets people often on twitter.
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I went looking for those tweets, but couldn’t find them. I guess he deleted them because they were so offensive…
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Yes it is satire.
Yes the tweets attributed to Dawkins never existed and were satirical for the purposes.
Yes the loony fems do actually exist.
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Excellent!
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Why should I even care that:
Dawkins is hungry?
Hates convention sandwiches?
Drank tea?
Who made it?
The banality of the Internet continues to underwhelm.
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Well done. Satire’s a bitch to those who don’t get it. That video the “skeptics” went ape about highlights how feminists too often are silent about abuses within Islam. Sure, it’s wicked, but that’s the point.
When feminists get more upset about Richard Dawkins, who does not threaten women at all, than they seem to about theocratic misogyny, it’s problematic.
This is why feminism is losing respect. It needs to be qualified. I want no part of the feminism that whines about Richard Dawkins, thinks women are weak and need to be protected, uses terms like Mansplaining, and trumpets faux calls of bigotry at every offense.
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When I read the words “old, rich white men” I knew what to expect: the typical bull… sorry: cowshit by a certain type of …
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Class. Pi**ing myself laughing.
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This is “satire”, right? Too bad it isn’t really funny.
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One man’s trash is another’s treasure. I did a “spit take” laughing.
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Humour is subjective, numbnut.
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Hilarious and like all good parody so close to reality, some people have difficulty distinguishing it from the truth. It’s sad but SJW’s and Nu Feminists have turned me from being a proud lefty who in the past marched against clause 28 and for the WLM to someone who has sympathetic leanings with the average Daily Mail reader.
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Obviously, tongue in cheek.
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OMG! I love Professor Dawkins even more now! Great scientific mind and brave man with a wonderful sense of humor, what more can you ask for?
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“I’ve been a feminist campaigner” … shouldn’t that read “feminist champaigner” ?
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Stop picking on Mr . Dawkins. He is busy saving the world from creationists! I Te Amo Mr. Dawkins
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Can someone point me to where I can find these:
Julian’s online essays Revenge of the Keyboard Warriors and Attack of the Strawmen are available now from his website.
The serach box in this site did not help, google neither.
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Hi Chris, the essays are not real.
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…would you really want to read them anyway?
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Dawkins tweeted: “Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice.”
“It” was a life with Down syndrome in the womb of a woman wondering what to do.
Please pour on the sarcastic jokes on why this should not offend!
O, after the few more than “tens of people” were offended, RD apologized and all is well.
Ahhh
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After reading all this uptight complaining………
fuck me, I’m starving!!
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Please stop you 3 way feminist.
Stop been ing bitchy about everything.
You making a bad name for every women, like me.
Then we can think and know when he say beautiful wife, that means he is in love and sees only his wife and don’t has interested in other womens.
You rich boring girls stop saying you talk for all women then you don’t.
And if you wanna do some good goto Africa and help there with food, and not just sit at home and cry that no one loves you.
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QUOTE:
Julian Loveme from FreeFall Blogs called this ‘the final straw’ and ‘the ultimate example of CIS white male privilege.
/QUOTE
* privilege’.
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You really should tag this as satire. How else would we know, other than by reading a helpful comment?
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[…] on from his previous Twitter tirade of misogynistic, anti-semitic, Islamophobic, sandwich-hating tweets, Richard Dawkins has once again set the world of internet outrage addicts aflame with a new set of […]
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Not sure if people don’t get satire or are trolling. Not possible to tell.
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