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New Atheism’s Idiot Heirs

N

NoName999

Member
This is an interesting article on how the New atheist movement, originally trolling evangelicalism, was hijacked by the alt right and "rationalist" libertarians. This part really stuck out:

Once Bush left office, the promoters of “intelligent design” curricula retreated from the public sphere, and millennials asserted themselves as the least religious generation to date; the group that had coalesced around the practice logically refuting creationists needed new targets. One of the targets they chose was women. Militant atheism had always been male-dominated, but it took several years and a sea change in American politics for the sexism within its ranks to fully bloom. In 2011, skeptic blogger Rebecca Watson described in a YouTube video how a male fellow attendee of an atheist conference had followed her into an elevator at 4 a.m. in order to ask her on a date—behavior that, understandably, made her uncomfortable. The community erupted into what was later remembered as “Elevatorgate.” A forum was created to harass Watson, and Richard Dawkins himself wrote a comment telling her to “stop whining” because she had it better than victims of honor killings and female genital mutilation.
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https://thebaffler.com/latest/new-atheisms-idiot-heirs-nichols

Be a smug little shit to me if old.
 
E

elrechazado

Banned
Richard Dawkins is alt right now? Anyone who exhibits creepy interpersonal behavior is too? Seems to be a term without a meaning anymore.
 
B

badcrumble

Member
OLD ATHEISM: there is no god
NEW ATHEISM: we must preemptively defend objectively superior white western society against the rest of the world via military dominance

seriously what’s wrong with the 19th century version of atheism, it’s straight up less vile and much more able to talk about philosophy
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
badcrumble said:
OLD ATHEISM: there is no god
NEW ATHEISM: we must preemptively defend objectively superior white western society against the rest of the world via military dominance

seriously what’s wrong with the 19th century version of atheism, it’s straight up less vile and much more able to talk about philosophy
Click to expand...

Atheism got Pickle Rick'd
 
A

Arkeband

Banned
There are even larger idiots, namely Jordan Peterson, who take the “intellectual” label and are actually injecting religion; he brags about how his followers are beginning to call themselves “Christian atheists”.

I’d prefer smug atheists over smug post-atheists who have somehow come back around to religion and therefore consider regular atheists morally inferior.
 
A

Atomic Playboy

Member
elrechazado said:
Richard Dawkins is alt right now? Anyone who exhibits creepy interpersonal behavior is too? Seems to be a term without a meaning anymore.
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I don't know if he's alt-right, but he's always been a smug douchebag. There are plenty of atheists who are upset that he's become the face of atheism because he is an antagonistic dipshit.
 
S

Sou Da

Member
badcrumble said:
OLD ATHEISM: there is no god
NEW ATHEISM: we must preemptively defend objectively superior white western society against the rest of the world via military dominance

seriously what’s wrong with the 19th century version of atheism, it’s straight up less vile and much more able to talk about philosophy
Click to expand...

"New Atheism" was always about smug jackasses who thought they were immortal geniuses using their lack of faith as a hammer to hit any vulnerable target to feed their superiority complex.
 
S

SRG01

Member
badcrumble said:
OLD ATHEISM: there is no god
NEW ATHEISM: we must preemptively defend objectively superior white western society against the rest of the world via military dominance

seriously what’s wrong with the 19th century version of atheism, it’s straight up less vile and much more able to talk about philosophy
Click to expand...

It's primarily because new atheism is literally Western Chauvinism, and chauvinism is always appealing to certain groups.
 
T

TSM

Member
Modern atheism in the first world is a mistake because it pays religious belief the respect of acknowledging it's existence. While atheism was necessary in the past, at this point it exists solely so a bunch of self righteous fools can argue with each other over nothing.
 
M

Mr-Joker

Banned
Richard Dawkins himself wrote a comment telling her to “stop whining” because she had it better than victims of honor killings and female genital mutilation.
Click to expand...

So glad that I don't follow Dawkins on Twitter anymore?

elrechazado said:
Richard Dawkins is alt right now? Anyone who exhibits creepy interpersonal behavior is too? Seems to be a term without a meaning anymore.
Click to expand...

Nah Dawkins is just a dickhead who always think he is right.

He makes atheists look bad.
 
P

Pyroclastic

Banned
I had no idea about elevatorgate. seems like the precursor to gamergate, which was the precursor to the current political climate, urgh.

The article doesn't flat out say dawkins is alt right though tbf. I imagine a lot of people who cut their teeth on him, hitchens, and harris are of the alt right now though, even if they've now moved onto goons like argon of sargad.
 
A

Air

Banned
Reading the article now but:

1. I tried to tell y'all
2. This is a great quote: "It became more evident that Damore was less interested in scientific truth than giving credibility to his prejudices when he immediately brought his grievances to the right-wing internet."

Even though I'm not an atheist, I read a lot about the main contributers and people informing the more popular positions and I've noticed that my #2 point is happening a lot more. It's also really difficult to challenge these people because they hide under bad logic and reason.
 
A

Azoor

Member
Temeculan3000 said:
Hitchens was of course extremely Islamaphobic, just like the alt-right. Of course he was better at defending his views.
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I real all of Hitchens' books and saw a lot of his interviews, how was he islamophobic? His critiques of Islam was spot on.

I know that because I'm an Ex-Muslim Arab myself.
 
R

RustyNails

Member
RangerX said:
He really isn't though. Anyone who says Dawkins is alt right knows nothing about his politics.
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He is. Remember he defended a guy that had a creepy encounter with a woman in elevator? And his bigotry filled letter to her comparing her encounter with supposed plight of muslim women? Here, i'll post his letter
Dear Muslima,
Stop whining, will you. Yes, yes, I know you had your genitals mutilated with a razor blade, and ... yawn ... .don't tell me yet again, I know you aren't allowed to drive a car, and you can't leave the house without a male relative, and your husband is allowed to beat you, and you'll be stoned to death if you commit adultery. But stop whining, will you. Think of the suffering your poor American sisters have to put up with. Only this week I heard of one, she calls herself Skep"chick", and do you know what happened to her? A man in a hotel elevator invited her back to his room for coffee. I am not exaggerating. He really did. He invited her back to his room for coffee. Of course she said no, and of course he didn't lay a finger on her, but even so... And you, Muslima, think you have misogyny to complain about! For goodness sake grow up, or at least grow a thicker skin.
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Still not a piece of shit?
 
S

Stead Fast

Banned
Never underestimate the Right's ceaseless absorption of any and all emotionally stunted niche of society, so long as it bulks their numbers.

Also, this is a fresh reminder, not being a Nazi or part of the Right doesn't stop people being complete pieces of shit like Dawkins can be.
 
T

Temeculan3000

Member
Azoor said:
I real all of Hitchens' books and saw a lot of his interviews, how was he islamophobic? His critiques of Islam was spot on.

I know that because I'm an Ex-Muslim Arab myself.
Click to expand...

I should clarify: His statements would be considered Islamaphobic in the eyes of your typical liberal today.
 
N

Neece

Member
RustyNails said:
He is. Remember he defended a guy that had a creepy encounter with a woman in elevator? And his bigotry filled letter to her comparing her encounter with supposed plight of muslim women? Here, i'll post his letter

Still not a piece of shit?
Click to expand...

Not only that but he has refused to be in the same building with this woman, which effectively bans her from attending any of the secular conferences that Dawkins is invited to.
 
A

Always-honest

Banned
Slackbladder said:
That's why I'm not an Atheist. I'm a Humanist.
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Better. God doesn't even come into the picture. So atheism neither. I would never call myself an atheist either. Mostly because i just don't think about or need religion. It's people who made religion and made the religious rules. It's people who can unmake them.
 
mario_O

mario_O

Member
badcrumble said:
OLD ATHEISM: there is no god
NEW ATHEISM: we must preemptively defend objectively superior white western society against the rest of the world via military dominance

seriously what’s wrong with the 19th century version of atheism, it’s straight up less vile and much more able to talk about philosophy
Click to expand...

What's wrong is to put all atheists in the same basket. And most alt-rigth, right, and libertarians are Christian fanatics. It's a stupid falacy.
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
Yeah most of these guys just come across as complete assholes. Not too dissimilar from your average youtube provocateur, they are using their assholeness to get views/ sell books.
 
S

Stead Fast

Banned
v1lla21 said:
What do you even do at an atheist forum.
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Guesswork here, but maybe practice cult-esqe rituals of verbal hatred against all non-atheist-believers whilst adopting many modern religious tendencies of treating women and minorities as lesser people chat about how God is fake and junk.
 
F

Fhtagn

Member
mario_O said:
What's wrong is to put all atheists in the same basket. And most alt-rigth, right, and libertarians are Christian fanatics. It's a stupid falacy.
Click to expand...

Right, that’s why “New Atheists” is capitalized, as it is a specific group of very loud, very obnoxious, often toxic atheists, where as the rest of us lowercase unaffiliated atheists having been wanting them to stop being so embarrassing (and now worse than just merely embarrassing) for so very long now.
 
K

Khaz

Member
Internet recluses latch on anything that brings them a sense of superiority. Atheism is very good at that. It gives them the intellectual superiority they crave for.
 
B

bizzarewars

Banned
This is purely anecdotal, but every time I see someone in my college classes boldly proclaim aloud that they're an atheist, they've been a complete fucking idiot. So yeah, I think that there might be a positive correlation there.
 
A

Azoor

Member
Fhtagn said:
Right, that’s why “New Atheists” is capitalized, as it is a specific group of very loud, very obnoxious, often toxic atheists, where as the rest of us lowercase unaffiliated atheists having been wanting them to stop being so embarrassing (and now worse than just merely embarrassing) for so very long now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they were talking about a specific type of atheists, not all of the atheists "community".
 
J

.J.

Banned
I'm an atheist. Militant atheists are the fucking worst people. Instead of just living their truth with confidence and defending that truth where it's needed, they choose instead to lash out with infantile, petty bullshit that has frequently been little more than thinly veiled racism. Some of these people may as well be laying around in diapers to protest safe spaces--their rhetoric is just as effective.

That kind of stupid bully mentality of COURSE winds up overlapping with this horrible sexist, racist bullshit. Dignity and honor are key components to being "right", and if you can't hold onto those things, you risk becoming ghoulish caricatures of what you think you are.
 
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