Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

[adamwho]

Atheism plus word cloud (created by A plusers).


Try to find the words 'atheist' or 'skeptic'

http://i.imgur.com/Plgv6rk.jpg

Edited by jhunter1163: 

Image contains profanity.

 

[jhunter1163]

"Aren't you guys going to solve society's problems?" "Not now, we're making our word cloud!"

 

[zooterkin]

Atheism plus word cloud (created by A plusers).


Try to find the words 'atheist' or 'skeptic'

[qimg]http://i.imgur.com/Plgv6rk.jpg[/qimg]

Well, "atheists" is one of the bigger words, though "skeptic" is very small; but I do wonder if the list was filtered, since I can't spot "freeze peach".

 

[Brainache]

Well, "atheists" is one of the bigger words, though "skeptic" is very small; but I do wonder if the list was filtered, since I can't spot "freeze peach".

I can see "Ceepolk" in there though. Why does zeep get zerp name in the cloud, but others miss out?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

One of my personal favorites has a pretty even mix, two Fighters, a female Tank and a male Grappler; two Fragile Speedster DPSers, a male emphasizing maximum damange with almost no defense, and a female trading some damage for a counter-attack-based defense improvement; and ranged damage provided by a female Squishy Wizard whose roll is moderate-range and AoE damage (and healing), and a Ranger who provides long-range precision damage.

Vindictus, right?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

From Ceepolk saying not to address "the religion of brown people" [...]

I've just googled that thread, and it seems that the received wisdom is that if you're white and you listen to hip-hop, then you're appropriating another culture, which is colonialism and therefore evil.

Well, that's good to know.

But then they also talk about Elvis "stealing" his songs from black people. So if music derived from black origins isn't allowed, either, then that means that white people can't listen to any rock or metal, either. Dance music is out, as well, that would mean.

So, folk it is. As long as it's not American folk, that is. Coz, you know, black people again.

 

[brodski]

I've just googled that thread, and it seems that the received wisdom is that if you're white and you listen to hip-hop, then you're appropriating another culture, which is colonialism and therefore evil.

Well, that's good to know.

But then they also talk about Elvis "stealing" his songs from black people. So if music derived from black origins isn't allowed, either, then that means that white people can't listen to any rock or metal, either. Dance music is out, as well, that would mean.

So, folk it is. As long as it's not American folk, that is. Coz, you know, black people again.

That will rule out most English language folk music, given the influence of Child and Sharp on the traditional stuff (collecting songs from America to try and recreate a partially lost English/ Scottish/ Irish tradition), and the later stuff is out too- given the influence of the blues on it.

You're probably safe with singing Summer is Iccumin In. Although the sexual references (abd association with buring virgins to death in giant wicker men) probably means that that's out too.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

The thing is, I thought that taking good ideas from other cultures was a good thing. Isn't that how cultures develop and survive? The more diverse a culture and the more outside influences it has, the better, I believe.

It seems, though, that you can define any influence from a different culture as "colonialism" and people will think it's self-evidently wrong.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Interestingly, SXSW is neither an atheist or a skeptic conference. As far as I know, most speakers are male and the majority of attendants are also male. I d not think that they have a "Code of Conduct" either. So what is the big fuss about TAM if she has no problem going to this conference.

SXSW is a very "Austin" event and one that heavily promotes social media so I can see why they'd want an unaccomplished blogger and Internet celebrity on a panel. The question for me though is, will the ones out there... why her?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

And here's another thing, isn't describing Islam as a "religion of brown people" a little, well, racist? Does she believe that there are no white Muslims?

 

[s_pepys]

And here's another thing, isn't describing Islam as a "religion of brown people" a little, well, racist? Does she believe that there are no white Muslims?

ceepolk would be a brilliant bond villain. wonder who could play her?

 

[WillyWonka]

SXSW is a very "Austin" event and one that heavily promotes social media so I can see why they'd want an unaccomplished blogger and Internet celebrity on a panel. The question for me though is, will the ones out there... why her?

Maybe the atheism and skepticism schtick is getting old for her and she is looking to diversify. Then SXSW is a good venue. She might have been suggested by either of the two other participants of the panel. My point is that she drawn a line-in-a-sand about TAM not being a "safe place" because of the lack of code of conduct and women speakers. She does not seem to have a problem with SXSW however.

 

[s_pepys]

Maybe the atheism and skepticism schtick is getting old for her and she is looking to diversify. Then SXSW is a good venue. She might have been suggested by either of the two other participants of the panel. My point is that she drawn a line-in-a-sand about TAM not being a "safe place" because of the lack of code of conduct and women speakers. She does not seem to have a problem with SXSW however.

she'll probably invent a problem with sxsw pretty soon given the audience reaction to her.

 

[Krikkiter]

I've just googled that thread, and it seems that the received wisdom is that if you're white and you listen to hip-hop, then you're appropriating another culture, which is colonialism and therefore evil.

Well, that's good to know.

But then they also talk about Elvis "stealing" his songs from black people. So if music derived from black origins isn't allowed, either, then that means that white people can't listen to any rock or metal, either. Dance music is out, as well, that would mean.

So, folk it is. As long as it's not American folk, that is. Coz, you know, black people again.

One of the great things about music is that when people appropriate styles and do it well it creates diversity. Elvis though? Hmmm... imho he took something that was cool, organic and creative and made it into something that was gaudy Hollywood crap and made lots of money out of it. That only happened because he was white. He perverted something and made money.

Hip Hop is different. Black guys were making money out of that before white guys tried it so the white guys that did it had to be very careful. And they were. They did it with style and with the utmost respect.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Elvis though? Hmmm... imho he took something that was cool, organic and creative and made it into something that was gaudy Hollywood crap and made lots of money out of it. That only happened because he was white. He perverted something and made money.

That sounds mostly like a value judgement on the quality of his music, rather than something which can be said to be objectively true.

 

[Krikkiter]

Maybe the atheism and skepticism schtick is getting old for her and she is looking to diversify. Then SXSW is a good venue. She might have been suggested by either of the two other participants of the panel. My point is that she drawn a line-in-a-sand about TAM not being a "safe place" because of the lack of code of conduct and women speakers. She does not seem to have a problem with SXSW however.

The A/S schtick isn't making her money any more. Well, not enough anyway. Blogs and conferences are how she makes her living - she has nothing else - so unless she's getting conference gigs she's just not propping up the bank account. EG didn't work out so well for her in that regard, in fact it kinda backfired. This will too.

RW and co. have made their careers out of being the center of internet dramas. They're finding out that that doesn't quite work out the same irl.

 

[Krikkiter]

That sounds mostly like a value judgement on the quality of his music, rather than something which can be said to be objectively true.

Probably. Like I said, it's only my opinion but the fact is that he sold waaaaaay more records than black guys doing the same thing at the time.

Still, you're right. Definitely just my opinion.The connection is probably a bit too tenuous to be anything more than that.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Probably. Like I said, it's only my opinion but the fact is that he sold waaaaaay more records than black guys doing the same thing at the time.

I don't think anybody would deny the inherent racism of the time. There's no question that the white public should have taken to the black performers as much as they did the white ones, and there's no question that the black performers should have been paid as much as the white ones.

What I'm questioning is the assertion that Elvis shouldn't have recorded the music he did. I mean, he loved the music, he spent his youth hanging out in black clubs listening to it, and when asked about his music in interviews he always said that he was just playing the same things as black musicians had since long before he was making it. But, even if that were not true, and if he had hated the music and was just doing it for the money, I still don't see why he shouldn't have recorded it. It's not like his not doing so would have caused black musicians to be given more credit or to be paid more. It wouldn't have made the times less racist and the music he did produce arguably was a small part in getting us to where we are now, with racism less pervasive than it was back in the 50s.

 

[H'ethetheth]

And here's another thing, isn't describing Islam as a "religion of brown people" a little, well, racist? Does she believe that there are no white Muslims?

I don't know. I just read on there that the "sociological definition" of racism is quite different from the colloquial, legal and dictionary definitions.
According to "some sociologists", racial bigotry is apparently not racist when the racial bigots are part of the oppressed racial minority. Maybe ceepolk is brown her/him/itself?

It does explain that ridiculous statement by P.Z. Myers that "if you're white, you're racist."

 

[Krikkiter]

I don't think anybody would deny the inherent racism of the time. There's no question that the white public should have taken to the black performers as much as they did the white ones, and there's no question that the black performers should have been paid as much as the white ones.

What I'm questioning is the assertion that Elvis shouldn't have recorded the music he did. I mean, he loved the music, he spent his youth hanging out in black clubs listening to it, and when asked about his music in interviews he always said that he was just playing the same things as black musicians had since long before he was making it. But, even if that were not true, and if he had hated the music and was just doing it for the money, I still don't see why he shouldn't have recorded it. It's not like his not doing so would have caused black musicians to be given more credit or to be paid more. It wouldn't have made the times less racist and the music he did produce arguably was a small part in getting us to where we are now, with racism less pervasive than it was back in the 50s.

Hmmmm... would it make any difference if I did this (on reflection):

imho he the record industry took something that was cool, organic and creative and made it into something that was gaudy Hollywood crap and made lots of money out of it. That only happened because he Elvis was white. He The record industry perverted something and made money.

Regardless, thank you for making me think about it more closely.