"I can see misogyny from my house!"

Who is Rebecca Watson anyway? I had never heard of her before Elevatorgate. I gather she is involved in the skeptical community and is considered quite a leader in some quarters. However, looking at pre-Elevatorgate videos of her adressing various skeptical groups, her contribution seems quite minimal. The only subject she seems interested in is douche - according to her, using douche is like setting off a nuclear bomb in your vagina. She's quite obsessed on that score, and doesn't see the irony of a "skeptical leader" making such a wildly hyperbolic assertion.

But there is a much darker side to her. Do a little googling and you will find out about her campaign to smear the highly respected scientist Laurence Krauss as a child sex trafficker, and destroy his career. You'll also find out about how see abused the JREF online forums, abusing moderator privileges (which she was accidentally given) to create sock puppets, write obscene comments using other people's identities, even delete other accounts because the owner had committed the unforgivable sin of saying something she disagreed with. (So when Watson's fanboys such as Greg bin Laden call for DJ Groethe to be sacked and replaced by Watson, I have to wonder if this isn't Watson's attempt at payback for JREF holding her accountable for her abuses.)

All of this, let me remind you, was even before Elevatorgate. Obviously she is a very vindictive woman and an extremely nasty piece of work.

When you look at Watson's Wikipedia page, it's obviously a vanity page created either by her or a fan. However, there's no indication that she has any scientific credentials what so ever - and she has few educational attainments of any kind that I could discover despite diligent searching. Apparently she started her career as a street juggler, and now, if you don't mind, she has an asteroid named after her, and thousands of people hang on to her every word. Talk about privilege!

In short, Watson came out of nowhere, rose without a trace, and has made a living the last few years being flown first-class around the world from conference to conference, wined and dined in top hotels, and in return she harangues the audience on what an oppressed victim she is. It's always me me me - "thousands of atheists are sending me bajillions of rape threats."

Watson is ignorant, ill-educated, narcissistic, self-obsessed, and her only talent is shameless self-promotion and self-aggrandizement. She is the Sarah Palin of the freethought movement.