Atheism Plus forum: ‘privileged, observational ass’

A user named d4m10n posted the following on the Atheism Plus forum on Oct. 29:

Atheism Plus vs. SlymePit

I’m posting this on both forums, word for word. My apologies in advance.

I’m working on a post comparing the two forums (which are alike in a number of surprising ways) but so far it is mostly quantitative and historical and oddly dry. I’d like to try and get a sense (mostly from non-mods) of what it is about the moderation rules, stated goals, and unstated ethos of this particular forum which draws you to post here. I have my suspicions, of course, having lurked quite a bit, but I don’t want to paraphrase when I can quote directly from the users themselves.

The writer, of course, got some snarky replies from the folks on the A+ forum, although he clearly said he was posting it on both forums, so as to not to show favoritism.

A person named Sun Countess replied with this gem:

The only thing we have in common is that we’re both like churches. At least that’s what all the idiots seem to think. I think that’s because we both have members.

What we’re not is a zoo or an experimental lab, so you can take your privileged, observational ass back to the slymepit. See, we treat people here like human beings with value, and when you come in asking to perform an experiment on us that you get to walk away from, and even joke and laugh about with people at the slymepit, then you have shown that you are willing to devalue other human beings. You will fit in very well over there.

Wow. So many assumptions, so little time. The first thing to note: the writer gets called a “privileged, observational ass” without provocation, and then in the next sentence, Sun Countess talks about how Atheism Plus supporters treat people like human beings. Nice.

Not only is the writer “privileged,” a favorite word that A+ folks like to throw around like candy at all who have the audacity to ask questions or disagree with their smug point of view, the writer also apparently does not treat people like human beings with value, is performing an “experiment” on just the A+ crowd (again, Sun Countess ignores the point that the writer was posting to both forums verbatim), will walk away and make jokes, again devalues humans and is actually a troll from the SlymePit. And they wonder why so many in the nonbelieving community have such contempt for Atheism Plus.

In any case, here is the equivalent post at the SlymePit. I thought this reply from Michael K Gray provided an interesting observation:

Executive summary:
Slimepit – Exposes Hypocrisy as well as it’s members are able.
FfTB – Conceals Hypocrisy as well as it’s members are able.
A✝Theism – A frightening view into a bizarro-ward of feeble damaged circus-freaks.

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