Fundies Say the Darndest Things
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Fundies Say the Darndest Things! (FSTDT) is a popular web site that hosts a database of quotes, usually from Internet message boards. FSTDT is structured as a blog, where readers can leave comments and vote for their favorite quotes. It gives out up to 30 satirical awards each month.
FSTDT is largely inspired by Bash.org, but mostly comprises quotes from forums rather than IRC, and focuses on bizarre religious or pseudo-religious quotes rather than humorous quotes in general. FSTDT derives its name from the TV show Kids Say the Darndest Things.
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[edit] History
Fundie: A usually religious person or entity characterized by one or more of the following: an extreme lack of rationality, fondness of logical fallacies, repeated use of emotional appeals, rigid adherence to Bronze Age mythology, endorsement of pseudoscientific nonsense, opposition to the First Amendment, bigotry and discriminatory attitudes towards minority groups, belief that certain children's media is the work of Satan, and propensity to post Bible verses instead of valid argument.
—Allan Glenn[1]
FSTDT began when Allan Glenn started using humorous quotes from message boards in his forum signature. Glenn featured a new quote in his signature each week, while saving the old quotes in a text file. This file began circulating the Internet, with many people adding their own quotes to the list. Seeing that his collection was becoming popular, Glenn decided to create a website dedicated to bizarre religious quotes[2]. In August 2003, the site was renamed from Christians Say the Darndest Things to Fundies Say the Darndest Things.[3].
Glenn operated FSTDT until August 2004, when he decided that updating the site by hand was far too time consuming[4]. FSTDT remained dormant until May 2005 when Glenn began receiving offers to resurrect the site from various programmers. Glenn ultimately approved an automated replacement (with voting and comments) made by a programmer known online as "Yahweh".
Allan Glenn died of cystic fibrosis aged 20 on November 4 2005[5] and since then Yahweh has owned and administrated FSTDT.
[edit] Site details
FSTDT is a non-profit satirical website operated by a small group of volunteers. New quotes are submitted via Internet form, where they are stored in a moderation queue awaiting review by a site moderator. Around 300 new quotes are accepted each month.
Over the course of each month, up to thirty quotes are given satirical "awards", including "Post of the Week", "Post of the Month", "Tinfoil Hat Prize", "Bizarre Creationist Assertion of the Month" and "Bigot of the Month Award".
[edit] Criticism
The most common criticism of FSTDT is that quotes are taken out of context. However, every quote on the site is displayed with a link to the source where it was found, and the FSTDT FAQ states that any quotes found to be taken out of context will be removed[6].
The site is also criticized for quoting people without the original author's knowledge or expressed permission. Critics have claimed that this is indicative of copyright infringement. FSTDT has stated it is consistent with the Section 107 of US Copyright Law on fair use; it says that quotes are being used for non-profit educational purposes, the quoted material is limited to a few sentences or paragraphs at most, the quotes are obtained from public Internet forums that are freely accessible by anyone with an Internet connection, and the quotes themselves have zero market or monetary value.
Another criticism is that the readers who post comments on the site may be as 'fundie' as those who are quoted. FSTDT appears to acknowledge this, and is known to publish quotes from its own comments areas and forums.[7]
FSTDT is generally criticized for being very liberally biased. This comes from the fact that the site regularly features quotes from opponents of homosexuality and gay marriage, opponents of abortion, anti-secularists, anti-feminists, and conservatives. The site admin states that he does not actively single out conservatives, but claims that 'atheists are just uninteresting and unfunny'. FSTDT does quote atheists occasionally [8].
Recently, some FSTDT critics have attempted to label FSTDT administrator Yahweh as a fundie himself for his vocal support of animal rights and placing a link to PETA on every page of his site [9]. Yahweh is a strict vegan who categorically opposes the use of animals for food and in medical research. Although he has made a number of controversial statements, such as his claim that "there is no moral difference between taking the lives of animals and mentally similar humans," many posters acknowledge that Yahweh supports his claims with well-researched, detailed and "reasonable arguments" [10].
