A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck

[Kolesar]

Yes, I knew that would get your attention. It's the title of the article and not my words!

I had no idea this was going on. I found this article on the Facebook "Atheist Safehouse" after joining that group and reading a lot of nasty posts about Islam. The posts were not just criticizing the epistemology of another batty Abrahamic religion, but they were bigoted and racist attacks on every person born into Islam. Any poster who objected to the over the top language was verbally assaulted as being an apologist for terrorists.

The Facebook profiles of the nastiest members had articles posted by the "nationalist" sites of the "alt right". Profile pictures included variants on the Pepe frog mascot. They totally revealed themselves when one of them referred to me as a "cuck", which is a term only used by them.

Somebody actually posted this article in the Atheist Safehouse. Predictably, it led to denial and a postings of nasty memes and name calling. The moderators of that site are fools. The article is from the perspective of an Old World Muslim who became a skeptic and dealt with writing that denigrated him for his origins. Excerpt:
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...Like the majority of young people who grew up in religious environments – particularly those from non-Christian backgrounds – my first interaction with atheism was also my first meaningful engagement with the internet. In these atheist forums I found a race and class-blind safe space, one in which I could express a private contempt for the theological doctrine I had been forced to study during my years in religious school. Indeed, in those atheist communities on the now defunct Totse.com, eBaum's World and, eventually, the darker corners of Myspace, I found a community in which I could reject the identity I was born into, and instead forge a new one on my own terms.

Yet, for a growing number of people who turn to the internet to talk about leaving religion, the online atheist / sceptic community has become more alienating than accepting. Atheism – like most online communities – has always had characters who enjoy being confrontational; Pat Condell – the former comedian, turned old man shouting at clouds – existed long before Reddit. However, recently, rather than remaining an outlier, content like Condell's – which disregards theological critique for snarky racial and orientalist tropes about Muslims – has become a staple of the online atheist community. And thanks to the rise of populism across the western world, connections between the internet's atheist community and far-right identitarians have never been more clear.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/a-reminder-internet-atheists-fucking-suck

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big sigh

https://www.facebook.com/groups/470446856461411/