I’ve always been proud of the fact that I developed a rational, atheistic, naturalistic worldview by the time I was 16 even though I did not know a single atheist and even though I had not read anything related to skepticism or atheism. I just have a very good fraud detector.
While technically, guilt by association is not something you need to defend against, I do wish to distance myself as much as I can from the religious groupthink that is FreeThoughtBlogs (FTB). To state it with as much restraint as I can muster, not all of us atheists/skeptics/freethinkers are petty, nasty, juvenile, immature, arrogant, narcissistic people.
Through the conflation of muddy subjective feelings / political points of view with the clarity of objective reality, they have dumped so much dirt in the clear waters of free thought, that it has flowed all the way upstream and too close to the rest of who were still exploring the beautiful clear waters which hide so many things wondrous, beautiful, and new.
In a way it was inevitable when too many non-scientifically trained minds got a platform to blather about their feelings, emotions, and political agendas, free from criticism in an area which relies very heavily on clear, logical, and scientific thought.
Their attitude wouldn’t be so disgusting, so repulsive, so loathsome, if they were at least honest enough to admit that they don’t give a damn about real issues of social justice. Stereotyping is bad, but I can’t help but say that these are your typical bunch of over-privileged (Haha. See what I did there?), morally bankrupt westerners who pat themselves on the back for saving the world everyday by commenting on the Internet, driving a Prius, flying around the country (Presumably to save electricity by not using the Internet) giving speeches at conferences and sending $20 to Africa once a year while voting for a black man to show how non-racist they are, who by the way, is no different from the previous white guy when it comes to dropping bombs and killing and torturing innocent people around the world. If FTB is your sample space then the hypothesis of “morality as only a status display” is well and truly a solid theory.
I hope these people do not come to represent skepticism/atheism. If they do, I will have to stop calling myself an atheist and start saying I am an agnostic.
See these for examples of above mentioned behaviour:
Uncivilized Barbaric Behaviour
and too many more to list.
Oh, FFS. “Religious groupthink”? Grow up.
It’s pretty hard to take you seriously when your examples are so shitty. PZ’s post of his response to E-mail is bullying? Not giving bloggers a platform when they’ve shown inappropriate behavior is censorship? Hell, even your “uncivilized barbaric behaviour” link is to Justin’s post about Greg Laden’s E-mail, which is what got Laden kicked off the network.
I get it, you don’t like FTB. That’s fine; they don’t represent all of skepticism, atheism, freethought, etc. But you are, at best, no better than the kinds of behavior you’re deploring. I mean, saying that people on FTB don’t give a damn about social justice? Fuck off. Go find your little corner of the atheist blogosphere that will cater to your notion of social justice and don’t worry about FTB. It would be better than commenting as though you actually knew what you were talking about.
Well said, root2squared. Please don’t stop calling yourself an atheist, though, just because of PZ, et al. I haven’t calling myself a proud feminist because Ophelia, Zvan, Laden, and their ilk have sullied the word. As Justicar said over at the Slimepit:
True words.
Stiff upper lip,old chap!
Life ain’t all that bad.
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle Don’t grumble, give a whistle!
I don’t mind discussing issues of social justice, and I find myself on the whole aligned politically with them. My problem is that they just don’t tolerate dissent very well. If one of them blogs on a social justice issue, and you go in the comments with a genuine point of disagreement, no matter how polite you are, you often find yourself attacked, insulted and possibly even banned or deleted.
@Optimus, @Michael
Thank you.
@notung
I’m sure I also agree with them on most social issues or at least what they say, but I really don’t believe they care about social justice other than some pet projects like healthcare & global warming and you’ll find a lot of hypocrisy there too.
@TCC
Maybe one day you will develop some sense of empathy & realize that people being bombed to bits is a bit worse than some bimbo being inconvenienced by words.
Hahaha, what? FTBloggers are hypocrites, why? For taking the issue of ingrained societal sexism seriously AS WELL AS other issues(the -real- issues, according to… oh yeah, you). Apparently, I forgot about the global care shortage, people can only afford to support one campaign and if they support a “lesser” campaign, they’re ignoring all of the others! Wait, nope, that’s not right at all. Would you complain about a charity for an extremely rare form of cancer affecting hundreds because other types of cancer affect millions? No? Then why would you accuse TCC of not caring about religiously motivated violence because they care about sexism?
“I’m sure I also agree with them on most social issues or at least what they say”
“some bimbo being inconvenienced by words”
Dream on. What made you think that being blatantly sexist and dismissive would help your position? Go campaign for the issues you perceive to be worthy of support(other than whining about the meany FTB bloggers and sweary commenters, that’s SO productive), get the fuck out of the way, instead of falsely bawling about ~the bigger issues~ as a means to silence those who care about the lesser issues you’re trying to minimise, they are issues nevertheless! It’s not fucking good enough, it’s not reasonable, rational or logical. Oh no, did my mean barbaric words remove all the reason and logic from my point? Gotta love tone trolling, it suggests that as long as someone is polite, they are being civil. Ha.
If the existence of atheists who think differently from you(by being less limited with the issues they care about and refusing to offer respect to those in ignorant positions, apparently) are enough for you to give up the identity of atheist, well, you must have some pretty shitty reasons for being atheist.
-Self-admitted drive-by post by a self-admitted lurker who was too curious with the link you left at Ed Brayton’s for their own good. Damn was it easy to refute though. Seriously, anyone new to the issue can read those links and note that any FTB venom is directed at ignorant, dishonest people who are being anything but civil.
Your pathos is unconvincing, your logos is nonsensical, and I couldn’t care less about your ethos. As rhetoric, this post is fails miserably.
By far the most risible part of this post is your accusation of corrupt Western white corruption or whatever it is you’re trying to say. Not only is it false (Sikivu Hutchinson comes to mind, and I think you’d have a hard time pegging Natalie Reed down as a member of Doubleplusungood Miniwestoppress as well,) you don’t even bother providing an example of it!
Judging by the ridiculous examples you did give, it appears that you’re annoyed that Thunderf00t got kicked out. In light of that, your mention of Obama’s war crimes seems mostly a cheap rheotrical ploy: if someone dares to talk about harassment, then they don’t care about brown people being bombed to death!!! That’s a classic derailing trick. If that’s your idea of rational discourse, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you’re banned from every blog on the network.
Let me leave you with a question, one that I don’t want the answer to, but nonetheless one you should give much thought to:
Those brown people killed by Obama’s military, do you actually care about them? Or are they just a rhetorical weapon to you, something to bash those bloggers with?
Ha, a straw man, red herring, and sexist slur in response. That’s brilliant.
R2, good to see you are posting.