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Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

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RebeccaBradley said:
Richard Carrier has now weighed in, with what amounts to an Atheism+ manifesto: http://freethoughtblogs.com/carrier/archives/2207/

He makes it abundantly clear that, if you are not willing to declare yourself an Atheist+ forthwith and unreservedly, you are a sexist, racist scumbag lacking in all reason, compassion and integrity. Though he does advocate giving such sorry excuses for humanity (ordinary atheists like me) one chance to repent our sins, telling his A+ readers to "...be empathic enough to assume at first that someone being an ignorant dufus is really just ignorant and misinformed, and not a douchebag; give them at least one shot at being educable, before kicking them into the sewers to wallow with their peeps."

The implication is, of course, that he and his A+ colleagues are the infallible arbiters of reason, compassion, and integrity.

Hmph.
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Yeah, and the problem with secular humanism is that it's just too damned inclusive.

Honestly, his shrill demands for demonizing and marginalizing anyone who disagrees with him seem to me no different than any other cult leader trying to cement his power.

Vile = being mean to the people I like
Compassionate = being mean to the people who are mean to the people I like

I wonder how he reconciles his preference for the term "douchebag" with his strident feminism, but not enough to read more of his stuff.

I agree with some of what he says, but his dogmatic tone and demands for groupthink and ideological purity marching in lockstep toward a better tomorrow make him nothing but another demagogue trying to whip up a mob in my book. I'm sticking with the herd of cats.

Or, as Richard says, "one vote for douchery. Got it."
 
"to start a blog series building a system of shared values that separates the light side of the force from the dark side within the atheism movement, so we could start marginalizing the evil in our midst, and grooming the next generation more consistently and clearly into a system of more enlightened humanist values. Then I just got overwhelmed with work and kept putting it off on my calendar for when I had a good half a day or so to get started on that project."

HAHAhahahaHAHAHA!!!! Oh mercy. That is SOLID. ***********. GOLD. MONEY.

Wow, oh man. Earth shattering changes! VIA BLOG!, but I'm a skotch busy now.

Cripes that is unbelievable. If a truther posted that garbage here, he'd be laughed off the site.

Is Free Thought Blogs a Poe site?

eta:

"2. We believe in being compassionate. That means we believe it is important to have empathy for other people (men, women, white people, black people, rich people, poor people, and anyone suffering illness or misfortune or unfair treatment, and so on) and to act in the best interests of human happiness (rather than in the interests of our own vanity, greed, or self-righteousness, for example).

.... And if you are complicit in that, or don’t even see what’s wrong with it, or worse, plan to engage in Christian-style apologetics for it, defending it with the same ******** fallacies and tactics the Christians use to defend their own immorality or that of their fictional god, then I don’t want anything to do with you. You are despicable. You are an awful person. You disgust me. You are not my people."

Poe site right? Nobody could be this big a hypocrite
 
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WillyWonka said:
This is very much like the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses people in disfellowshipping. How can you be disfellowshipped in atheism?
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Qayak: So, essentially, they have created a new religion, dogma and all, and are now setting down methods of conversion.
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Both are fair comments. On a personal level, I'm sad and disappointed; I went to a debate Richard did in Calgary, and had a great time with him and the other local skeptics at the post-debate bar session. He's a nice guy - but this new dogmatism is very disturbing.

ETA: Zeggman and 16.5's posts came up when I refreshed. Yup, I'm also happy to remain in the douchebag brigade. And I sincerely wish it was a Poe site, but it ain't.
 
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RebeccaBradley said:
Both are fair comments. On a personal level, I'm sad and disappointed; I went to a debate Richard did in Calgary, and had a great time with him and the other local skeptics at the post-debate bar session. He's a nice guy - but this new dogmatism is very disturbing.

ETA: Zeggman and 16.5's posts came up when I refreshed. Yup, I'm also happy to remain in the douchebag brigade. And I sincerely wish it was a Poe site, but it ain't.
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Well it is baffling, why are the alleged free thinkers at "Free Thought Blog" staking out a civil war right in the middle of what they must consider their real battle?

It is like they are Patton and he got his wish to attack the USSR, but is doing it right in the middle of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Atheism Plus= Pyrrhic Victory Plus.
 
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16.5 said:
Well it is baffling, why are the alleged free thinkers at "Free Thought Blog" staking out a civil war right in the middle of what they must consider their real battle?

It is like they are Patton and he got his wish to attack the USSR, but are doing it right in the middle of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Atheism Plus= Pyrrhic Victory Plus.
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Alas, it looks like they now consider the civil war to be their real battle. And us douchebags - ahem, "vanilla atheists" - are clearly the real enemy.

(I like your Patton analogy.)
 
Kahalachan said:
Atheism + is failing already. I already have a more fitting label. Idiot atheists.
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To be perfectly honest, the biggest problem with that site (beyond the fact that the writing is horrible) is how stunningly self-absorbed those people are.

"you disgust me." Really? On what farking planet did he think that was an effective argument?

It tells me that he is an insignificant troll not worthy of consideration.
 
Kahalachan said:
Atheism + is failing already. I already have a more fitting label. Idiot atheists.
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Hmmmmm... that seems to imply a connection between atheism and their being idiots. How about we just call them 'Idiots" and their movement "Idiocy?"
 
WillyWonka said:
I looked at Carrier's blog and one paragraph caught my eye:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<
1. We believe in being reasonable. This means, first, that we believe in being logical and rational in forming beliefs and opinions. Which means anyone who makes a fallacious argument and, when shown that they have, does not admit it, is not one of us, and is to be marginalized and kicked out, as not part of our movement, and not anyone we any longer wish to deal with.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is very much like the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses people in disfellowshipping. How can you be disfellowshipped in atheism?
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It's called Secular Shunning. It's becoming a standard technique of the FTB commentariat.
 
Walter Ego said:
It's called Secular Shunning. It's becoming a standard technique of the FTB commentariat.
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And, to make it easy to identify who's in or out:
Jen McCreight said:
I want to improve the atheist movement, not create a splinter faction or something. But it’s fabulous marketing-wise and as a way to identify yourself as a progressive atheist, or whatever term you want to use. I know I’d love for people to start wearing A+ pins and Surlyramics so I know who I want to chat with.
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Skeeve said:
just check the posts under the hashtag #atheismplus for a laugh.

can you separate the parody from the serious?

they've gotten so much grief there, they tried to co-op the #aplus tag, but others are already using it, and THAT was hilarious to read as well when it first started happening.
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Hands up I admit it the @atheismplus account had me fooled there but...

https://twitter.com/atheismplus/status/238549214798417921

I've noticed recently that ginger people rarely get invited to speak at atheist conferences. In future we need at least 50% on every panel..
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Yup its a parody. The profile bio now reads

https://twitter.com/atheismplus

This is an unofficial fan account of the new new movement. Are you ready for the THIRD WAVE of atheism? If not, GTFO.
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They had me going for a while there.
 
Walter Ego said:
It's called Secular Shunning. It's becoming a standard technique of the FTB commentariat.
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Ah, human nature, endlessly amusing.

Still, the atheists who were so cocksure of the enlightened superiority of their agenda in the 1790s took to beheading the enemies of the revolution to purge
their ranks of retrograde opinions. I suppose mere secular shunning of the undesirables has to be considered some sort of progress.

If they ever do break out the guillotines, everyone will have to replace their A+ logos with A# (A-sharp). Quadruple plus good!
 
Ocelot said:
Atheists plus we care about social justice,
Atheists plus we support women’s rights,
Atheists plus we protest racism,
Atheists plus we fight homophobia and transphobia,
Atheists plus we use critical thinking and skepticism.
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Sorry, I'm just an atheist. I'll leave the religious ******** to someone else.
 
Merton said:
True, religion informs political opinions because the religious have doctrines to follow, ... but we atheists don't. Our common ground in politics amounts to a message of secularism [...]
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Not even that: I've met atheists who claims that religion has benefits as regards social cohesion, morality, etc., and therefore it should be promoted by the state.
An incredibly misguided view in my opinion, but there are indeed atheists who hold it.

Also, I've met plenty of theists who are secularists. The smart/non-totalitarian ones tend to recognize the fact that the separation of religion and state is beneficial to everyone, whether they be theists or atheists.
 
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