Business Insider’s chief technology officer, Pax Dickinson, has been forced to resign after posting a string of tweets that drew accusations of misogyny and general buffoonery, New York magazine first reported. Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget later posted a statement on the website presumably confirming Dickinson's departure, though not naming him directly:

"A Business Insider executive has made some comments on Twitter that do not reflect our values and have no place at our company. The executive has left the company, effective immediately," the statement reads. "Business Insider's team is composed of more than 100 talented men and women of many backgrounds, and we highly value this diversity."

Dickinson has a history of socially maladroit tweeting, and on Monday he drew attention for a series of tweets that many found to be patently offensive to women.

While Dickinson appears to relish in his ability to start controversy, and admitted to making sexist comments, he repeatedly insisted on a distinction between sexism and misogyny.

@jathansadowski @KMBTweets If the culture literally "hated women", you would hear a lot worse than a few harmless sexist jokes.

Dickinson’s dickinsonishness was the subject of a Valleywag post Monday, titled “Business Insider’s CTO Is Your New Tech Nightmare,” which described Dickinson as having “two thumbs and a homophobic, racist, misogynistic, classist worldview.” Dickinson tweeted a link to the post.

Hey guess who has two thumbs and is today's Emmanuel Goldstein? #ThisGuy http://t.co/j4VAhI7VrM

(Emmanuel Goldstein is a character in George Orwell’s “1984” who appears only as a face on a screen – he’s the top enemy of the state, and Party members are required to express their loathing to him during the daily “Two Minute Hate” ritual.)

Until this moment, Dickinson was not a major social media figure – he has just over 2,000 Twitter followers, and it seems a lot of media types (including this one) didn’t know who he was before this week. Congratulations?

It should be noted that Dickinson is not automatically viewed as public enemy number one by anyone who isn’t a confirmed bigot: Popular blogger Anil Dash, who co-founded ThinkUp and Activate, called Dickinson an “***hole” and an “expert in misogyny” on Monday, but subsequently arranged to meet with Dickinson to talk it out. Dash indicated on Tuesday that he didn’t think forcing Dickinson out was the optimal solution:

Apparently @paxdickinson is out: http://t.co/noy9EagddY I take no satisfaction in this outcome; it's a shame that this was possible at all.

I will still meet @paxdickinson & urge those piling on to reflect. Only difference between his sexism/racism & mine (or yours) is degree.

Pax Dickinson has sinced changed his profile bio to read, "The Worst Person In The World" and published a new tweet:

We will update this story as more information becomes available.

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