The Intersection

The Intersection is the blog (for want of a better word) of journalist (for want of a better word) Chris Mooney and writer (for want of a better word) (((Sheril Kirshenbaum))). It is often referred to by the Pharyngulian commentariat as "The Intersuction".
==Refugee Camp==
The Intersection acted as a refugee camp for banned Pharyngula trolls, such as John Kwok, Silver Fox, J.J. Ramsey, John A. Davison, Caledonian and (one of the people to post under the name of) Bilbo. Anthony McCarthy complained heavily about being banned from Pharyngula, even though he never actually was. The high number of Dungeon residents there led many Pharyngulites to call it 'The InterDungeon'. Any post mentioning Pharyngula (or even using any of the individual letters comprising the word) would trigger an avalanche of pompous, self-pitying, semi-coherent whinging.
==Finest hour==
:See also You're Not Helping
The Intersection's finest hour occurred in October 2009, when Mooney was completely taken in by a serial fantasist who sang tragic ballads of cruel persecution at the hands of the wicked New Atheists.
The affair started when someone calling himself Tom Johnson posted a comment accusing atheists of harassing the religious at nature conservation events. For a long time, Mooney had been droning on about how aggressive and counterproductive New Atheism was, and this seemed to provide the perfect example. Competent journalists will naturally treat an anonymous source with healthy skepticism, especially if the source happens to tell them exactly what they want to hear. Needless to say, Mooney wrote a pompous article declaring the story to be Exhibit A in the case against New Atheism. The accuracy of the story was questioned by those who weren't gullible idiots. Mooney responded by ignoring the content of such criticism, and instead gloating that he must have hit a nerve.
Tom Johnson was in fact Walter "Wally" Smith, who would later go on to create the infamous You're Not Helping sockpuppet collective. Several of the YNH sockpuppets were already active at that stage. "Vindrisi" was participating in the general chorus of anti-New Atheist bile, and "Bilbo" was attacking those who dared to criticise the Tom Johnson story. The truth was revealed nine months later, shortly after You're Not Helping imploded. By that time, Wally's sockpuppets were creating a substantial fraction of The Intersection's comments.
Mooney has decided that he was the true victim of the Tom Johnson fiasco. He has never apologized to any of the people he derided or defamed.
==Decline==
More recently, The Intersection has seen a decline in visitor numbers,[citation desired] with many posts receiving no comments. This is likely due to the increased moderation that occurred after the revelations about sock-puppeting (moderation was already quite high even before then).
==Previous URLs==
*http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/
Category:Blogs
Category:Humanism
Category:Science