Over at his blog (Sept 16), anti-religious activist Richard Carrier has a problem:
Through a confluence of events, none of my girlfriends can make it to MythCon in Milwaukee this year.
Oh, oh. The harem is busy. No worries. Carrier is out to turn lemons into lemonade.
So I’m looking for a date that weekend. You should be aware I’m straight, promiscuous, polyamorous, godless, drink, don’t smoke, and have that cloud hanging over me. And you can ask me anything else to vet me by. I’m an open book. Just contact me by email or FB messenger to inquire.
Kinda makes sense, I guess. After all, why would a promiscuous polyamorous atheist even bother attending Mythcon if you can’t get laid there, right? But I notice that Carrier forget to instruct his potential date about his preferred pronouns.
The Great Scholar Carrier then dangles various perks to expand his harem:
I can offer you access to the event, if you don’t already have tickets; and a share of a bed (platonically even), if you haven’t already booked your own room. I’ll also cover drinks. I’ll be at the Aloft hotel in downtown Milwaukee, also the location of the event afterparty, which is probably where we’d spend most of our time together. The conference consumes all of Saturday, September 22, and I’ll be tabling most of it, although you’d be welcome to sit & chat with me as I do. If you’ll be around the previous evening, you could also join me at the VIP party Friday.
It’s rather pathetic when you have to turn to the internet and use your lofty Mythcon position to try to hook-up. Makes it hard to believe those accusations of him engaging in sexual misconduct, eh?
Shadow To Light 
I’m curious about the sort of woman who would find his self-description attractive. Actually, no I’m not.
Thanks for the extra ammo!
I suspect that they are, “I / me”.
Carrier is a middle-aged, physically unattractive man who desires a lot of sex. That is nothing unusual. What I don’t understand is how he (apparently) finds so many women willing to fulfil this desire. Is it some form of atheist celebrity worship? Typically the sort of celebrities women will lust after will be physically attractive or charismatic in some way. Carrier comes across as an excessively verbose narcissist.
Returning to the OP, Carrier’s evidently now wary of transgressing clearly-stated boundaries and written rules at atheist conferences; the same ‘be my date’ blog post says:
He evidently wants to hook up at MythCon despite the rules explicitly not allowing him to even ask, when there; so he’s seeking to get around the rules to achieve the same ends. MythCon’s Code of Conduct includes:
Hmmm, I’d say that Carrier’s, er, very kind offer to …:
Returning to the OP, Carrier’s evidently now wary of transgressing clearly-stated boundaries and written rules at atheist conferences; the same ‘be my date’ blog post says:
He evidently wants to hook up at MythCon despite the rules explicitly not allowing him to even ask, when there; so he’s seeking to get around the rules to achieve the same ends. MythCon’s Code of Conduct includes:
Hmmm, I’d say that Carrier’s, er, very kind offer to …:
… fails to serve as a warning only for someone who is very naive or an utter fool.
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Looking through Richard Carrier’s other recent posts I find a rant entitled “What’s the Harm? Why Religious Belief Is Always Bad”; and this revealing snippet buried in his endless verbosity:
Do I detect the wellsprings of Carrier’s vociferous New Atheism? Poor victim! Those nasty Christians have criticised his behaviour so he’ll throw a revengeful hissy fit; for the rest of his life he’ll be as spiteful as possible back.
I think we can reasonably assume that Carrier’s “punishing anyone who becomes ethically non-monogamous” means (not exclusively, but especially) “punishing” himself. And that “punishing” (by “peer pressuring and passive-aggressive judgmentalism”) refers to some liberal Christians raising an eyebrow or expressing their disapproval.
It cannot refer to a beating up or a brick through the window, we’d never hear the end of such; whereas what comes across very strongly in Carrier’s blogs is that he is hyper-sensitive to, and infuriated at great length by, any criticism however mildly expressed.
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I note that Carrier is currently pursuing his fellow atheists through the courts, not religious people, liberal or otherwise. Looks like Carrier gets mad at those (Christians) who raise eyebrows, or otherwise express disapproval in ways he considers “passive-aggressive” when he breaks society’s unwritten rules, but he gets livid when his fellow atheists insist on their clearly-stated boundaries and that he may not break written rules. Poor victim! But he can always try to slide around them on technicalities; and it looks like he is trying to at MythCon.
UPDATE on Carrier’s 2.1 million lawsuit:
Mario Quadrucci of Mythcon is bankrolling Carrier’s lawsuit against PZ Myers! Read more (from PZ’s Perspective) about the supposed alt-right backer of Carrier:
A guy with connections to the Alt-right backing a mangina feminist in Carrier? WTF (Wednesday Thursday Friday).?
Given Dhay’s references to the prohibition towards affair requests, this is just blatant hypocrisy: “I can ask someone for a hot coffee, but you can’t”… Also it is unequal opportunities.
In 99% of all cases when a Leftist/Progressive applies the label “Alt Right” to someone, it’s just a malicious slur. In the other 1% of cases, the target welcomes the label. People who are actually Alt Right are proud of it, so it’s pretty easy to pick one case from the other.
> Atheist Activist Uses Status as Conference Speaker to Hook-Up
It’s tempting to look at this as simply demonstrating how much of a libertine Richard Carrier must be. I note instead that when Carrier was presented with explicit, clear boundaries that definitely would be enforced, his response was to seek a way to trample those boundaries.
Which was brought back to mind by the current furore in the Tech world over a Jacob [aka Jake] Appelbaum, and the guidance I found on how to ensure there are “No More Rock Stars” like Appelbaum:
I note that for a long time Carrier has presented himself as a sex-positive, consent-aware feminist:
Some similarities, surely.
The original case having been thrown out in Ohio for lack of any relevancy to Ohio, Richard Carrier is suing in three states separately. But:
<blockquote?I haven’t been served yet…because Richard Carrier is acting as his own lawyer, and he flubbed something in the filing so no papers were delivered to the accused.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2019/05/10/i-guess-im-being-sued-i-guess/
Evidently Carrier is not competent to be his own lawyer; and if Carrier is not now being bankrolled by Mario Quadrucci (see replies above), whose attitude seems to have been that he had read Carrier’s account of how his case had impeccable merit, he was convinced of the truth and validity of Carriers case, you defendants try to convince me otherwise — presumably the gullible Quadrucci has become less gullible.
And perhaps Quadrucci observed how Carrier, having been set clear boundaries for his participation in the 2018 MythCon conference, immediately set about a letter-of-the-rules work-around to violate the spirit of the boundaries, demonstrating once again that conference organisers would do well to avoid inviting Carrier in any capacity.
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I put this here in the “Atheist Activist Uses Status as Conference Speaker to Hook-Up” thread because it looked like Carrier had finally been granted a foot back in the door at atheist conferences, and if he behaved himself he might be invited back into the conference speaker circuit.
Were I a conference organiser I would be very aware that Carrier has a continuing history of boundary-pushing, and an aggressive, litigious attitude towards those who criticise his disregard for the letter and spirit of set boundaries. What conference organiser in their right mind is going to invite Carrier? In any role?
Ever again.
PZ Myers has revealed the information which Richard Carrier has (so far) kept quiet: Carrier has not yet announced, either on his Blog, FaceBook page or Twitter that:
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Carrier’s trying to creep back, mind, and has friends helping him: there’s an ‘Anti-Theist International Convention 2020’ happening next May, and as part of taking the mickey out of the Convention Myers tells us that:
Carrier’s not a speaker there. But. If you look at the post-Convention ‘Atty Awards Banquet’ page you can see that one of the eleven awards is:
Hmmm, I wonder who they have promised that?
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So what is an Atty Award — ATI, gottit?:
Ah yes, a small trophy and a fantasy promise of fame and influence.
I note that the two organisers are nobodies, failed authors, with two indifferent and ignored books apiece: I looked up Lance Gregorchuk’s two books on Amazon – the first is a 20-page booklet for kiddies – and found that despite them (both) being published in 2012, seven years ago, the first still has a mere 11 reviews and an indifferent 3.5 out of 5 stars, the second still a mere 9 reviews and 3.7 stars. Looking up John Richards, I find on his website on Patreon (where he repeatedly refers to himself as “John Richards Antitheist”) – Patreon reports he has but 4 patrons – that he, too, is an author of two books, writing as “Elliot George”: after five years his 2014 “Godbuster: Banishes all known gods” still has a mere 6 reviews (after subtracting one duplication) and 3.4 stars; his 2017 “Theist!: The Dreadful Consequences of Thinking Like a Theist” still has but 1 – yes, one – review after two years.
The ‘Atty Award for a Lifetime of Service to Rationalism’ trophy is earmarked for Richard Dawkins — that should draw in Dawkins, and in turn draw in his adulators. Although the other ten awards are open for nominations, you can readily pair most of them off with the speakers and cynically reckon the awards are hooks meant for them, so the nominations are probably — we will see — just a hook to get inevitably disappointed hopefuls and their nominating supporters to attend on the off-chance they might have a hope of a mantelpiece trophy.
I agree with Myers that it’s laughable (and my web designer step-son would grind his teeth at the abysmal quality of their site’s web design!), though the real time to laugh will be May.
Oops, that “real time to laugh” should have been April. Mind you, PZ Myers is continuing to poke fun (and express his disgust) right now: in his 28 November 2019 post “Marketing atheism badly” he provides an over view, and quotes from, a YouTube’d interview of ‘Anti-Theist International Convention 2020’ organiser Lance Gregorchuk (see previous response) by a David Worley:
Myers links to Worley’s eleven minute edited summary video, which Worley entitled “Atheist Convention Organiser Threatened Me With Sexual Assault”:
Specifically, that’s (said to Worley, @10:05) “When you come to the event I’m gonna put my hand on your knee. I’m gonna rub it up your leg; and you can say what you want.” Yes Gregorchuk is that weird. And he’s defending “guys” like Lawrence Krauss (and — see above — will Richard Carrier be there to receive an award?) and, yes, also defending “guys” like himself doing that to women at conferences — conferences such as the ATI Conference he’s organising. So basically, he’s threatening any woman who turns up there with assault, he thinks it’s fine for “guys” to do that.
(Worley’s unedited seventy minute interview can be found linked from there if you really want punishment.)
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Myers starts his summary:
Here, I think, is where we can discern various reasons why Gregorchuk is doing the interview: one is that he wants to promote his Conference to Worlock’s atheist audience — this might well have backfired, I note that fellow YouTuber ‘Godless Scummer’ had fully intended to go to the Conference to see and meet some of his heroes, but now he won’t; another is Gregorchuk wanting free post-Conference publicity from Worlock via those post-Conference videos; another, the hope that Worlock might be flattered into thinking himself in the running for the ‘#5 Atheist Podcaster of the Year’ Atty
Mantelpiece OrnamentAward, the person nominating Worlock would want to be there as well, bonus eh; another is that the Conference and the interview are self-publicity by Gregorchuk, who seems to have a massive ego, an urge to dominate and denigrate others (such as Warlock), and a wish to set up himself and co-organiser John Richards as Big figures in New Atheist atheism.Perhaps he has a realistic eye on the life-expectancy of Richard Dawkins and is pre-positioning himself to take over Dawkins’ hegemonic leadership. No chance, I reckon: Dawkins had genuine talent as a science writer, whereas Gregorchuk is a genuine nobody with demonstrated poor writing and speaking abilities.
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Interesting: I was foolish enough to click on the eleven second Vimeo advert next to each category of Atty Award on the website; when it finished there was a choice of three others to play next, and the one on the right is Gregorchuk promoting the Convention and its speakers; and what’s interesting is he is more enthusiastic about the Atty Award ceremony after the Conference than he is about the Conference speakers; looks like the Conference speakers are but a hook to draw people to the Award ceremony, and that the latter is the main event so far as Gregorchuk is concerned.
The awards are:
Lifetime of Service to Rationalism Award — going to Richard Dawkins.
1. Atheist of the Year 2020
2. Best Atheist Author 2020
3. Best Atheist Author 2020 for Children
4. Jesus Mythicist of the year
5. Atheist Podcaster of the year
6. Public Atheist Award
7. Best Atheist Image of 2020 (social media)
8. Best Atheist Video 2020
9. Young Atheist of the year 2020
10. Hitchens Trophy for Atheist Eloquence
I see that to nominate someone for an Award the nominator needs to:
Hmmm, that should be “sections”, surely — add illiteracy to the organisers’ incompetence. Anyway, that tells us that there’s at least two judges, but who? It can’t be the Conference speakers, plainly several of them are wave-ins for one or other of the Awards themselves. Dawkins is probably a wave-in for ‘3. Best Atheist Author 2020 for Children’ — who else has written a book for children of atheists recently — so not him either. Yep, I reckon we’re left with Gregorchuk and Richards being the judges — we will possibly find out in due course — because who else is left?
What arrogance, for nobodies to award Awards supposedly (as claimed by them) “probably the most prestigious Awards in the Atheist Community and winning a Atty Award will not only get you recognition within the Atheist Community, it will give you a chance to enjoy giving worldwide speaking engagements as well as Keynote presentations at many events around the world.”
Yep, looks like the fantasies of arrogant nobodies are being sold to suckers.
H/T atheist YouTuber Rachel Oates, who rips into Gregorchuk in her “Atheist Conference Organiser Excuses Sexual Assault” at: http://www.youtu.be/fmZLfDLdCKc.
She’s an experienced website designer (or specifier) herself, and reports that the name of the Conference currently varies between pages (“UK Atheist Convention / Anti-Theism International Convention 2020”), which is incompetent web design.
And the prices are a rip-off, with a VIP Ticket (Admission to all the sessions and banquets for the 2020 event plus a Champagne After-party with our Speakers, Presentation book signings and Photo-opportunities for the event) costing £699. Wow! And scrolling down you find this is just the reduced Early Bird price and that the VIP Ticket regular price is an astonishing £999.
Now that really is fleecing gullible celebrity-worshippers!
Looking at the other Early Bird prices, the main header announces:
Early Bird Ticket (booking closes 31.12.2019)
Weekend Pass £199 per person (becomes the regular price £249)
Sessions alone £139 ** (becomes the regular price £199)
Banquet alone £79 (becomes the regular price £99)
** Yet underneath, where you click to buy, the Early Bird price for Sessions alone is not £139 but £149.
Incompetent! (Except at fleecing? — But it remains to be seen whether UK atheists are that gullible.)
There’s a lot more to ridicule, but I’ll leave that to anyone who’s interested; and I’ll confine myself to noting that here, surely, is the makings of yet another failed atheist Conference.