Jim's reactions to a curious incident

After I read the discussion with Matt in the Atheism Plus forum, and saw his video about the incident, I indulged my impulse to say that I hope that he never tries to help me the way he tried to help them. I posted that in my introduction thread, as just a personal reaction. It was all about me.

Of course it wouldn't be fair to say that, without facing up to whatever anyone might want to say in response, but I'd rather do that here, rather than in my introduction thread.

The reason I posted my reaction to what Matt did, and not about what happened to him, is because what happened to him was nothing new to me, and it has already been discussed by me and others, so it wasn't worth repeating for me. What I saw Matt doing and saying was new to me, and looked very bizarre. I can understand how he thought he was helping the Atheism Plus movement, as it was being portrayed in its publicity, but it seemed really strange to me for him to think he was helping them by publishing that video.

On the other hand, if he realized how much that video could hurt them, it makes me wonder how much he was committed to helping them in the first place. That's part of what I meant when I said I hope he never tries to help me the way he tried to help them. I was also thinking that I would never want someone to try to help me by pretending to be someone I don't know, coming into a room where I'm working with some traumatized people, to test my reaction to a complete stranger trying to tell me what I'm doing wrong, without showing any other interest in me or anyone else in the room, then completely abandoning his plan for helping me because my reactions didn't measure up to his expectations, and afterwards publicly denouncing me. I really would never want anyone to try to help me that way.

(later) I'm not saying anything about Matt's character and personality in general. He might be someone I would like and admire, and from what I've seen, he looks like a good friend of the A+ movement in its largest and best sense. What I'm saying here is just my impressions of this one particular incident. Judging from his own words and actions, what he originally intended to do in those forums looks disrespectful and not genuinely friendly to the people who were actually using them, what he actually did looks hostile and contemptuous of Internet etiquette, and even his allegedly friendly intentions evaporated in favor of defending himself against reproaches.