Atheism+ reax from female FTB readers

I never really thought this would be the case in the first place, but as it turns out, not all females are buying into this whole Atheism+, hyper-sensitive, reactionary brand of "social justice" that folks like Jen McCreight, Rebecca Watson, P.Z. Myers and others are peddling over at Free Thought Blogs.

This is refreshing for many reasons, not the least of which is because it shows that quite a few members of the atheist community do indeed think for themselves and don’t just dive in head over feet into a “movement” because some influential atheists, and females at that, say they should. Further, this speaks to the fact that McCreight, Watson and Co., don’t speak for all women in the community nor should they. I’m sure there are many others, but I’ll quickly highlight three women who have provided a intelligent arguments against this “movement” for social justice, which is really just a repackaged version of humanism (See: On Atheism+ and humanism: part 2).

Here is Renee from over at Belief Blower, who seems to have a particularly sharp grasp of reality that seems to be woefully lacking in Atheism+ circles:

… What is more distressing and pertininent (sic) to women is that there are 3 women beind (sic) the "movement": Jen McCreight, Ophelia Benson, and Rebecca Watson.

Normally, I wouldn’t give 2 shits about these women or the movement. But they are actively and divisively stripping apart atheism and attempting to bring together a happy little club of women and sycophantic men under the guise of being more socially responsible. Nothing could be further from the truth. These women are simply angry that they’ve been slighted/harassed/sexed in some way, shape, or form and feel their best course of action is to create a "special snowflake" clique.

Ladies, I’m here to tell you that your tiny fucking "slights" or sexist remarks are part of the real world. Each and every one of you spend an astronomical amount of time on the Internet and when you aren’t chatting it up on your computer, you’re off talking to groups that have organizations *begging* you to be there and willing to pay for your constant mini-vacations. I would be happy to swap my childhood and early adulthood with *any* of you. I know what real sexism and misogyny is. All three of you are so quick to throw around the word "misogyny" and yet not one single one of you can correctly identify the true meaning of the word.

Let me clue you in – it means "hatred of women". Do you understand this phrase? HATRED of women. Not bullying, not chiding, not sexist and/or inappropriate remarks. It is the hatred of women.

Here are two YouTubers, BionicDance:

 

And jpkeitt:

2 thoughts on “Atheism+ reax from female FTB readers

  1. Atheism+ is largely silly and its supporters are somewhat naive. I fully expect that the whole thing will go away in six months, and in a few years the people now pushing it will be somewhat embarrassed even to mention it.

    So far, though, the atheists who have been actively opposing Atheism+ are wrongheaded and malignant. In a sense, Atheism+ is performing a valuable service by getting you to speak up so everyone knows who you are. Sadly, I don't expect you to go away in six months, or to find your stances embarrassing.

    Your best argument against allying with feminism — which is only one of the things that the Atheism+ yahoos are trying to tie into — the argument you think is so good that you quote its source verbatim, boils down to "I had it worse than these people do, so they should shut up and not try to change things"? Seriously? That's utterly ridiculous! "People in your workplace may be breaking your fingers, but it's not as bad as that guy over there whose coworkers broke his spine, so you shouldn't expect treatment or complain to your boss. Sometimes people will casually break their coworkers' fingers, that's just reality. And anyone who tries to speak out against workplace violence is just a mindless sheep." Malignity!

  2. Hi Vicar,

    Thanks for reading.

    I'm not sure I follow your point(s). I followed you through the first paragraph, but I lost you in the second. How are the people who are opposing AtheismPlus malignant? Are you saying that people are attempting to gain notoriety by speaking out against AtheismPlus and speaking out against the great monolith that is Free Thought Blogs? I suppose that could be true to some degree, but in my case, I'm not just paying lip service and writing just to be writing. I really do feel that all this is a redundant waste of time, a confusing conflation of terms and a hijacking of atheism.

    As for your third paragraph, I'm not against allying myself with feminists so long as those feminists are clear-minded and aren't reactionary. But the FTB folks seem to be neither. Just because a couple popular female bloggers had some bad experiences with people who are clearly assholes does not give them license to invent a set of principles with which millions of nonbelievers should then feel obligated to agree … and if they don't … let's show them the proverbial door. This is the atmosphere that seems to have been created. When a person becomes a public figure, as I assume Watson, McCreight, etc., hoped that they would be someday (as they now are), they come under a certain amount of scrutiny, and yes, assholery. If they aren't comfortable with the risks involved, then they should give up their posts at FTB and slip back into anonymity. As for quoting Renee and the two YouTubers, I can't address what they said specifically (only they can); just that I endorse their general dissent and think they were noble for coming forward … as females against a movement led by reactionary and hyper-sensitive feminists.

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