There's been a lot of discourse about nu-atheism and internet atheism being reactionary lately but not a lot of talk about what it was a reaction to.
There's been a lot of discourse about nu-atheism and internet atheism being reactionary lately but not a lot of talk about what it was a reaction to.
The particular neckbeardy, fedora wearing, Sam Harris listening trend of atheism was a pretty clear reaction to the evangelical psychosis of the Bush administration.
Other geriatrics here can attest that the character of Christianity at the time was way different than it is now. These days, the fascists are more "culturally Christian" and avoid overt bible apologism. But back in the day, these people were constantly on TV spewing young earth creationism and other shit, and they were largely taken seriously. It's hard to believe now how much time was spent "debating" evolution back then. The atheist backlash at least affected discourse aesthetically for some time, making these views laughable, which deplatformed a lot of evangelicals or made them hide their power levels on TV.
Some argue that this brand of atheism justifies imperialism. It does so really only in theory. There really is no material basis for atheists in the US to justify an invasion anywhere in the world. The truth is that Christianity is still a far more powerful force for imperialism. Bush said that God told him to invade Iraq. I don't see any president saying anytime soon that the US needs to secularize a country through force.
If fundamentalist and political religiosity were defeated, then belligerent atheism would dissolve, but the reverse is not true.
Overall, it really does seem like people over emphasize this group of internet no-lifers because of the cultural cringe they manifested.
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This sidenote that I was going to do is so off topic that I'm actually going to put it in another comment because its just, way too left field
This whole thing has me thinking about RationalWiki. And how despite being athiest to the core, its violently AGAINST the bigoted elements of nu-athiesm. How the fuck did that website come to be. What are its origins. (Not that RationalWiki cant ever be cringe, its got some terrible takes on AES countries obviously and its obsessed with Christy Myth in an unbecoming way).
You know Atheism has been around for thousands of years before a bunch of hat wearing racists got real popular with debate nerds, and will continue to exist for probably as long as their are humans, right?
It really sounds like a lot of you have only ever encountered atheism from New-Atheist bullshit, when that is literally five or six years out of a thought tradition that goes back a very, very long time.
You know religions have been around for thousands of years before specific hat wearing racists got really popular with feudal warlords, and will continue to exist for probably as long as there are humans, right?
Nothing you're saying about atheism is that unique to it, and while "absence of belief isn't a belief" is technically correct as a default position, the delicacy of a lack of belief is often as fickle and temporary as a subatomic particle. "Atheists are cooler and gooder than religious people" is self-satisfying to say but not useful in analyzing a society where there simply isn't and maybe will never be a complete banishment of belief or superstition.
I really don't understand what you're getting at. Atheism is Empiricism encountering religious delusion. Atheists, at least the ones who are serious about it, don't believe in gods and fairies and magic and healing vibrations because there's no evidence of any of those things, and they do believe in an empirically observable universe.
“Atheists are cooler and gooder than religious people” is self-satisfying to say
Yeah that's the hat wearing racist new-atheism I'm talking about, the phenomena that is a blip in the history of atheism and doesn't define it or even comment on it in any meaningful way. People weren't running around France shivving priests during the Revolution because they saw South Park make jokes about Mormons.
And the Soviet Union did a really, really good job of getting rid of religion, with relatively little violence, in like 70 years. It's not some pie in the sky when you die thing. Socialist societies have been very effective in relieving people from religious belief, and I sincerely hope we'll continue to be effective in the future. Europe is doing a pretty bang up job, too, with religious adherence plummeting since WWII.
RationalWiki isn't the worst but it does :bootlicker: Big Yud's cult quite a bit.
Idk who or what Big Yud is. I am less online than you.
But also who or what is it.
I first learned about Big Yud and his cult from offline sources, basically by going to college in the cult's backyard. He's a fanfic writer that wrote "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" and was paid millions by billionaires for it while palling around with them and starting a crank foundation that ostensibly was made for "AI research" but had no actual educated experts on staff, just a bunch of autodidact jerkoffs who liked to sex pest around with the "pets" they coercively drugged while lobbying for more money from billionaires.
If you ever want to go down the rabbit hole for any reason, there's soooo much more.
“Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” was funded by billionaires lmao? Thats incredible. Thank you for this gift.
To the tune of millions, including millions from literal vampires like Th!el .