The Atheism Plus "movement" -- good, bad, ugly?

[Rum]

Ultimately this lot are an irrelevance.

[FBM]

No he's not. He's a Marxist dictator and a murderous despot. As for your denials, lay down with pigs, get up smelling like a pig. That's what Blacks say about Whites, so I'm merely returning the favor.

It's my experience that most Blacks are intolerable bores and intolerant arrogant asses who can never, ever manage to give their Black agenda a rest. Worse than most White people by far in my experience, with the exception of some few KKK zealots.

Not a universal truth, but by and large true in my personal experience.

Don't mind me.. just seeing how much Seth sounds like Tyrannical. Turns out it's a lot.

Fuck you, asshole. Falsely attributing such racist statement to me is a despicable thing to do.

Seth, this is a reminder for the above post. Please heed our Play Nice and related rules. Thank you and enjoy.

[rachelbean]

I feel the love and it is full of awesome

Audley, you're right in the sense that rationalia was forced into a "side" just by being who/what we are, namely a relatively open and lightly moderated forum without a particular agenda. Pappa's joke drew the attention but it wouldn't have mattered how many apologies were made or even if he stepped down and we all disavowed any support or friendship. We allow undesirable people like libertarians and even republicans to talk without being banned. We allow bad jokes to be made without believing they define a person entirely and we disagree by
discussing and arguing as if we could make up our own minds. Worst of all there are women showing their breasts! The only way this forum would ever be deemed acceptable by atheist+ standards is to be shut down completely. We are undeniably on the other side of the fence, but it's a fence they put up while we were busy living, and it has four sides. So, they can scream, "if you're not inside these gates then you are racist, mysoginist, bigots and we don't want to associate with you!", we know that actually all it means is that we're not inside the gates, and rational people elsewhere will come to the same conclusions

[Robert_S]

Quality Rachel, pure quality. (The highest Glaswegian accolade.)

But essentially what they've done is attack other people and groups in the wider loose knit atheist/skeptic network and malign the almost the entirety of those who don't actively agree with them while just fucking whining. Some of us. CES and myself and others have considered this bizarre and worrisome for a while, but it wasn't until it hit here that it really affected anyone here.

Pappa's tasteless query meant we had to choose sides. We weren't really given an option. We either supported Rationalia's right to be an autonomous website of loosely affiliated weirdos who abided by their own rules and be deemed Rape apologists and all sorts of other slurs or we bought into a culture of lashing out, victimisation, refusal to debate and attempts to actually shut down people by various different means.

That they've been pilloried or ignored by most suggests to me they've had little option to become more insular. They are engaged in a pathological groupthink. I mean seriously, a group of pseudo intellectual hand wringing american middle class white net whiners are going to make the world a better place for minorities and neurotics? Talk about privilege, talk about patronising. I guess the emphasis is on white with those knights* I think everyone else has too little fucking time on their hands. They tried to take the loose net of folks that comprise the atheist skeptic community. (And it is a group of communicators, it is a community) and turn all discussion to them and their political and self interests, to be regulated in such a way that they were always right. FUU-UU-UUUUUUUCK that! Moderation is derived from moderate. They are extremists.

So I for one would like to say Ape Lust, good fucking riddance. So long and thanks for the laughs, you feckless clowns. Keep them coming.

(* sorry Robert, I hadsta.)

Excellent Post Audley!



I should point out that while the A+ thing seems to be all over the big names in the FtB crowd, there is some dissent. Perhaps FtB is not quite as monolithic as they seem.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/tokenskepti ... most-days/

http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/ ... onplussed/

Will they be drummed out of FtB? We'll have to wait and see.

[rainbow]

I should point out that while the A+ thing seems to be all over the big names in the FtB crowd, there is some dissent. Perhaps FtB is not quite as monolithic as they seem.

Dissent in Free Thought?

The notion is unthinkable.

[Robert_S]

I feel the love and it is full of awesome

Audley, you're right in the sense that rationalia was forced into a "side" just by being who/what we are, namely a relatively open and lightly moderated forum without a particular agenda. Pappa's joke drew the attention but it wouldn't have mattered how many apologies were made or even if he stepped down and we all disavowed any support or friendship. We allow undesirable people like libertarians and even republicans to talk without being banned. We allow bad jokes to be made without believing they define a person entirely and we disagree by
discussing and arguing as if we could make up our own minds. Worst of all there are women showing their breasts! The only way this forum would ever be deemed acceptable by atheist+ standards is to be shut down completely. We are undeniably on the other side of the fence, but it's a fence they put up while we were busy living, and it has four sides. So, they can scream, "if you're not inside these gates then you are racist, mysoginist, bigots and we don't want to associate with you!", we know that actually all it means is that we're not inside the gates, and rational people elsewhere will come to the same conclusions

Yes!!! WE can test our ideas about social/political/gender/race in the fire over in Serious Stuff, talk about food or drink or... other things we like to put in our mouths elsewhere in the forum. This place isn't really about a movement. It is a hangout. It is the corner bar right by the atheist convention that just happens to be very atheist-friendly and the convention staff can fuck right off if they wish to exercise any jurisdiction here thank you very much.

[Thinking Aloud]

Yes!!! WE can test our ideas about social/political/gender/race in the fire over in Serious Stuff, talk about food or drink or... other things we like to put in our mouths elsewhere in the forum. This place really isn't about a movement. It is a hangout. It is the corner bar right by the atheist convention that just happens to be very atheist-friendly and the convention staff can fuck right off if they wish to exercise any jurisdiction here thank you very much.

Very subtly FXD

[Clinton Huxley]

It's a short step from announcing the birth of a new ideological movement to starting to pile up the skull pyramids.

[Thinking Aloud]

It's a short step from announcing the birth of a new ideological movement to starting to pile up the skull pyramids.

I've started mine in the back garden already.

[DaveDodo007]

I feel the love and it is full of awesome

Audley, you're right in the sense that rationalia was forced into a "side" just by being who/what we are, namely a relatively open and lightly moderated forum without a particular agenda. Pappa's joke drew the attention but it wouldn't have mattered how many apologies were made or even if he stepped down and we all disavowed any support or friendship. We allow undesirable people like libertarians and even republicans to talk without being banned. We allow bad jokes to be made without believing they define a person entirely and we disagree by
discussing and arguing as if we could make up our own minds. Worst of all there are women showing their breasts! The only way this forum would ever be deemed acceptable by atheist+ standards is to be shut down completely. We are undeniably on the other side of the fence, but it's a fence they put up while we were busy living, and it has four sides. So, they can scream, "if you're not inside these gates then you are racist, mysoginist, bigots and we don't want to associate with you!", we know that actually all it means is that we're not inside the gates, and rational people elsewhere will come to the same conclusions

This is the reason I'm glad to be Ratz. I'm so left wing I'm happy to be called a socialist and have even crossed over to communism some times. Though if you are not prepared to hear different view points, how will you ever challenge your preconceptions? Labeling people as the enemy just because they disagree with you is a well worn path that leads to all sorts of problems and even a cursory glance at history shows this to be a really bad idea. Lets face it how boring would your friends, the pub, work and other social interactions be if the world was some conformist circle jerk.

[Clinton Huxley]

It's a short step from announcing the birth of a new ideological movement to starting to pile up the skull pyramids.

I've started mine in the back garden already.

Nice!
Put some alpine plants on it, could look lovely.

[Clinton Huxley]

I think we should try to get a Rationalia blog on to FTB. There is nowhere near enough bacon on FTB.

[JimC]

CES wrote:

The post was awaiting moderation, but now has disappeared.

Thank fuck we don't do that crap!

(plus it would be too much like fucking hard work... )

[colubridae]

Here’s a nice dilemma for the atheist+skepftbchickistas


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19354560


On the one hand:-

book-burning, very nazi.

Criticising someone’s sexuality, definitely not very PC. definitley nono for skepchos



On the other hand:-

these are sisters fighing the good fight against the vile abusive anti-wome oppresi... ....patriarchy.

If someone posts this to their sanctityness I predict technospin unlimited or complete denial.

[Coito ergo sum]

doops.