Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

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Axiom_Blade said:
Well, she's got a point, if you think that the battles against homeopathy and Young Earth Creationism have already been won. I don't believe that they are.
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There's also a kind of moral superiority sometimes expressed against imaginary dictionary "skeptics". Aside from the debate about where atheism and skepticism overlap (or not), that A plussers have somehow moved on from endless debates about the so called "white male" stereotype subjects such as bigfoot, UFOs , loch ness monster, conspiracies, etc.
Well I don't care for those sorts of subjects now but wouldn't use them as a stick to scornfully beat others even though the most pressing issues , for me and I suspect many others are the ones where political or social change is most possible and effective, such as secularism, separation of religion and state, education (eg creationist/intell design propaganda in schools) , exploitation of the bereaved by "mediums", harmful "alt med" and real life or death issues in countries where people are at risk of real personal danger and harm or even death for "blasphemy" or for being the wrong religion or none.
It's the false idea that they are the only ones somehow debating and dealing with the "real" issues while the rest of the active (and misogynist) skeptical/atheist world is somehow still mostly engrossed in debunking ghosts, ancient aliens etc etc and never move away from those subjects.
 
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Foolmewunz said:
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The very thought that someone like Shermer or Dawkins isn't getting serious hate mail is absurd. Her qualifier, of course, is the escape clause. "Yeah, well I said, no one is sexualizing them in the hate mail."
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I'm pretty sure Dawkins has received hate mail of a sexual nature. Like:

"I HATE YOU YOU DONT THINK GOD IS REAL BECAUSE YOUR GAY AND STUPID!
WHY DONT YOU STOP BEING GAY AND STUPID AND GO HAVE SEXY TIME! I BET YOU HAVE SEX WITH MONKEYS CAUSE EVELOOTON SAYS SO! MISTER GAY AND STUPID!"

http://old.richarddawkins.net/letters/ugly

Charming of course.
 
Axiom_Blade said:
Anyway, all A+ has accomplished is establishing an insular elite, that few know of, and even fewer pay any attention to.
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Thanks for the history summation Ax, and few could argue with your conclusion. What I remain quite curios about is how long they will be able to maintain their non threatening chats in an ever shrinking tent. Right now they have about 20 posters who are basically keeping each topic updated to a degree where it's beginning to look like a Potemkin digital facade.

Time will tell. It will be interesting and entertaining to observe. A few kind words from PZ or RW would boost their prospects substantially, yet none has been forthcoming. And what happened to qwints? Might he have been warned by the secret sub-forum cognoscenti's not to fraternize with the trolls at JREF? We must remember their powers as thought police extend to every corner of the cyberverse. Big Xie is watching you. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmDkqv5QmN4
 
squealpiggy said:
I'm pretty sure Dawkins has received hate mail of a sexual nature. Like:

"I HATE YOU YOU DONT THINK GOD IS REAL BECAUSE YOUR GAY AND STUPID!
WHY DONT YOU STOP BEING GAY AND STUPID AND GO HAVE SEXY TIME! I BET YOU HAVE SEX WITH MONKEYS CAUSE EVELOOTON SAYS SO! MISTER GAY AND STUPID!"

http://old.richarddawkins.net/letters/ugly

Charming of course.
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Dawkins' white male privilege erases harassment.
 
Axiom_Blade said:
Jen McCreight created Atheism+ as a "third wave" of atheism last August. She said:



Basically, A+ was supposed to be the elite, enlightened atheists, and they could kick anybody they didn't approve of out of their clubhouse. Of course, instantly people asked "Atheism and liberalism? How is this different from secular humanism?"

Jen responded with



So, from the very start, A+ has been hostile to established communities (e.g. secular humanism), and was intended to kick out and ostracize all of the "bad", politically incorrect atheists.

Atheism is not a club, though, and you don't get to kick people out. All you have to do to be an atheist is not believe in gods. You're welcome to get up on your soapbox and denounce other atheists, but you can't claim that they're not "true atheists" just because they don't live up to your social justice values, or whatever.

Anyway, all A+ has accomplished is establishing an insular elite, that few know of, and even fewer pay any attention to.
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Still, you have to admire her passion, her drive, her commitment to what is right...

For the 6 or so months she stuck with it before quitting.

Or did she and her fellow A+ warriors defeat the patriarchy back in October or something and I just missed it?
 
It just hit me. I know what it is about Atheism+ that bothers me so. They didn't take it far enough.

People, the time has come for the fourth wave of Atheism.

I give you Atheism++

We promise to be much more smug, judgmental and cliquey - and there will be free ice cream*




*free ice cream will be the store brand - I'm not made of money**


** once the donations start pouring in (and the line of jewelry that I'll be rolling out takes off) we can talk about an upgrade.

No time-wasters, please.
 
Savant said:
Still, you have to admire her passion, her drive, her commitment to what is right...

For the 6 or so months she stuck with it before quitting.

Or did she and her fellow A+ warriors defeat the patriarchy back in October or something and I just missed it?
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I don't even think it was 6 months. McCreight basically took a hands off position with her "I'm leaving the internet" post back in September, and has since distanced herself from the group because what ended up happening was the most obnoxious SJW's forced their way into power and consolidated it very quickly.
 
Wildy said:
I don't even think it was 6 months. McCreight basically took a hands off position with her "I'm leaving the internet" post back in September, and has since distanced herself from the group because what ended up happening was the most obnoxious SJW's forced their way into power and consolidated it very quickly.
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So, basically, "If I can't be team captain I'm taking my ball and going home."

I guess it's sort of an object lesson. Be careful what you wish for.

Maybe she should have let a few of the "old white guys" stick around - they might have taken her side.
 
Fizil said:
The worst thing for me about this whole A+, FTB, RW brouhaha has been that I apparently am not a feminist. I always used to think I was, but apparently not agreeing with specific ideas about patriarchy theory and rape culture means that I am actually a misogynistic pig.
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Similarly, what I have taken from it is that I am apparently not even for social justice. That's a shame, because I used to think I was. Before A+, if someone had asked me if I was in favor of social justice, I would have said "Of course!" But that was back when I foolishly thought social justice simply meant providing equal opportunities for everyone. It was in those naive, carefree days before I realized that social justice also apparently entails unwavering devotion to, and violent defense of, über-left political dogma; ridiculous policing of thoughts and words to expunge anything that could ever be remotely construed, no matter how irrationally or at however great a stretch, to be the tiniest bit offensive to even the most demonstrably unbalanced person (provided that person is a member of some marginalized minority); adoption of an entire new vocabulary full of made-up pronouns and catch phrases to demonstrate how deep in the in-group one is; and most importantly, a large dose of self-loathing for my gender, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic class, sexual preference, physical capabilities, level of comfort with my own physiology, and probably a few other things that I had little to no say in.

And that's what I wonder most about A+: whether they realize that in their strident pursuit of Social Justice™, they are actually turning off decent people who would otherwise be interested in social justice (lowercase), and making them throw their hands up and say "If that's what social justice is, then I want no part of it."
 
Odd Story

Why does RW click on links from anonymous sources? Isn't she afraid to catch a virus? Why didn't the pervert use an anonymizing service to hide his traces? Isn't he/she afraid of getting caught (the IP belongs to a web hosting service near Cologne, Germany)? Why did he/she use the name "rand0mathe1st" to make it clear that this came from an atheist? Which "Rule 34 porn site" was it? Why doesn't RW bother to have the offender identified and punished (what he did poses a crime in Germany, so it should be possible to identify him through the web hoster)?
 
Verklagekasper said:
Why does RW click on links from anonymous sources? Isn't she afraid to catch a virus? Why didn't the pervert use an anonymizing service to hide his traces? Isn't he/she afraid of getting caught (the IP belongs to a web hosting service near Cologne, Germany)? Why did he/she use the name "rand0mathe1st" to make it clear that this came from an atheist? Which "Rule 34 porn site" was it? Why doesn't RW bother to have the offender identified and punished (what he did poses a crime in Germany, so it should be possible to identify him through the web hoster)?
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RW thrives on internet controversy about herself.

This thread contributes to the internet controversy about RW
Therefore
By posting on this thread you are helping RW achieve her ends.
 
tsig said:
RW thrives on internet controversy about herself.

This thread contributes to the internet controversy about RW
Therefore
By posting on this thread you are helping RW achieve her ends.
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No problem with that. Honor to whom honor is due, I admire her ability to become a celebrity just by wanting it.
 
Savant said:
Hmmm, perhaps Atheism++ is too computery and would not be a safe space for the innumerate.

I'll re-brand as Atheism Extra+
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Double Plus Atheism?

We are at war with rich old white men. We have always been at war with rich old white men.
 
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