The Story of Possummomma October 12, 2008

The Story of Possummomma

By Guest Contributor
October 12, 2008

Mark at The Calladus Blog does a remarkable job highlighting the saga of Possummomma, a fellow blogger whose health problems kept her indoors — literally in the dark — and whose blog was taken down because of some nuts harassing her.

Truth be told, I’m not familiar enough with the recent portion of the story to know how much of either side is accurate and I’m not in contact with Possummomma. But if Mark is right, then it’s a sad day for atheist bloggers — one of our own has been threatened enough to take down her own site.

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  • I feel sorry for her stress.

    I didn’t really have the patience to follow the whole saga, but it disturbs me that people are so afraid of dissent and ideas.

    Also disturbs me that people idolize people for spewing out kids like a Pez dispenser–and I somewhat like the show, no dis intended.

    How do you get parents that hold extreme beliefs to be reasonable? I wonder if you told the parents that made their children starve about female genital mutilation if they’d say, “Oh, that’s barbaric paganism! But we’re doing God’s work…..” or if they’d see their hypocrisy?

  • I’ve been a huge fan of Pmomma’s blog for probably a year. I never commented much, but whenever I saw that she had updated, it would be the first blog I read that day. She might return to blogging with an invite-only blog, but at this point, it’s not looking good. It really is sad. One of my favorite blogs might be gone because of some assholes on the internet.

  • justin jm

    I also feel sorry for Possummomma. I can’t imagine staying indoors my whole life (and that’s coming from a person who stays in playing video games a lot!). I hope she gets better. I also hope the problems with harassment end so she can go back to blogging.

  • Vincent

    is there a place we can flood her with emails showing our support?
    I too love her blog, though I don’t read it that often because I have no children and a lot of it had to do with raising atheist children in a hostile community.

  • Kelly

    Funny, I just went to her blog to read, and I see it’s down or now invite only. I really enjoyed her stuff, and I’m really sad to hear this news.

  • Vincent,

    I’ve just started an open thread for supportive comments here. Obviously I’m not at liberty to give her email out, but I’m letting her know about this thread so she can read comments there.

  • Goliath

    Thank you, Martin, for that open thread.

    I hope she can read all the posts she’ll be getting from that thread.

  • Jen

    What a strange story. And how sad for Possummomma! I have wandered onto her site before, through carnivals or links, and I thought her work was delightful.

  • I really feel like shit over this. I subscribe to her blog and I’ve been reading her content, but I had not been following comment threads. I could’ve seen this coming and helped out battling the harassment, but I was all nonchalant.

  • Andrew

    I started reading her blog pretty soon after it was founded (thanks to a link on the ACA blog). I was enraptured by it and read it regularly.

    Then one day, a few months ago, I was very bothered by an emotional, unfair post on a subject I would rather not get into again. I used the benefit of my direct experience with the issue. I politely offered another point of view (a reasonable one) and asked some awkward questions. Her response was not what I would call enlightened… My arguments were sliced and diced with quotations and plenty of unwarranted or even understood personal insults.

    I then wrote this long reply but debated with myself before posting it. I came to the conclusion that she was an emotional person (as the majority of us are) and was having trouble separating herself from this particularly strong issue. Added what I know about her disease and her recent setbacks… I let it go. I didn’t post the response, and I deleted her bookmark.

    I realized in retrospect, that it was her behavior towards trolls or just the random Christian that made her blog so interesting to me in the first place, and that just didn’t sit right with me once I realized it. Although I know nothing of her current situation, I can understand how her attitude and tactics may have gotten her into trouble that has nothing directly to do with being an atheist.

  • Sonya

    I, too, was quite disappointed the day I went to PMomma’s blog and it was no longer there. I always found her to be funny and insightful and knowledgeable. I’m sorry to see her go.

  • possummomma

    Thank you for your support. I still don’t know what I’m doing with my blog, but knowing that I will have support is uplifting.