Ah look, I’m actually quite sick and tired of this whole schism debate in the atheist and skeptic movements. You know, the whole “decent people who would like to make the movements more inviting, safe and accessible for women and who acknowledge that there is inherent sexism and misogyny prevalent even in our supposedly more enlightened circles a fucking problem” versus the “All I ever wanted is to feel smugly superior to believers and All that feminism talk takes the fun out of hitting on chicks at conferences and What sexism, I never experienced any” team.
But I have to say that I’m seriously over this whole thing. And what’s more, I don’t think my side can win. I am bemused and bewildered at the same time when I see the fight raging for the souls of those in the movement who are on the fence or who try to provide a neutral space for what they think can be a civilised debate between equally valid positions, like Michael Nugent has been doing recently.
The fervor and energy with which the slymers are currently trying to convert Nugent to their cause of having the right to calling women cunts and bitches and stalking and harassing bloggers and activists with whom they disagree is simply breathtaking. At the same time, slyme associates like Russell Blackford or Miranda Hale are retweeting every brainfart from Richard Dawkins as if it was a new gospel, and now Blackford has even discovered the 2 year old “Dublin Declaration” and hails it as some kind of long forgotten masterpiece, in a not so subtle attempt to send a slyme signal to Nugent.
These people are fighting for atheist and skeptics’ souls, and for their brand of squeaky-clean old white guy atheism+ (where the “+” stands for the right to ankle-gnaw, sexually harass, or smear and discredit dissenters or critics of the former) to prevail, as if they were Christian missionaries fighting for the souls of the hunter-gatherers in the jungles of the Phillipines 400 years ago.
And I think they may actually win. Atheism and skepticism is still a predominantly old white guy thing. The women who are influential in those movements beyond the blogosphere are sadly mostly chill girls accustomed, and thereby accomplice, to the “boys will be boys” mentality, just as the female relatives of Tunesian woman Amina are, who may have helped to get her committed to a psychiatric hospital in recent days.
I’m frankly over this stuff. I thought I’d go to the upcoming “Empowering Women through Secularism” conference to help make a difference. But you know what, seeing how Michael Nugent is bending over backwards to accomodate those lying creeps, I’ve lost interest. Maybe I’ll take this blog offline soon too, while I’m at it. Atheism and skepticism fully deserve the leaders and spokespeople they currently have, from Sam “Nuke them from orbit” Harris to DJ “what harassment” Grothe, to Richard “what my racist uncle says when he’s drunk” Dawkins.
Good luck with Atheism+, people. But I’m just not optimistic that we have the numbers, that there are enough decent people around to make a difference.
I’m disillusioned, can you tell? I thought for a while there that atheists and skeptics may be the smart ones. When in fact many of them as just as dumb, inflexible, set in their beliefs, and reactionary as any Sunday prayer circle in Texas or Teheran.
