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 Topic: A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck

 (Read 2382 times)
  • 1« Previous thread | Next thread »
  • A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck
     OP - June 14, 2017, 10:16 PM

    The excerpt below and title above come from this article. I'd imagine anyone who has observed the scene - such as it is - for the last half-decade or longer could not fail to observe the phenomena listed there. More established secularist organisations - like CEMB, say - have to cope with this changed environment; do you think they are succeeding?

    Quote
    I became an atheist for a few years during my late teens and early twenties. A combination of metal-induced angst, anime chat forums and a charity shop copy of Hitchens' God Is Not Great led me away from the Islam I grew up with and toward the supposed enlightenment of atheism.

    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.

  • A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck
     Reply #1 - June 14, 2017, 11:26 PM

    The thing that annoys me about some Atheists, both online and offline is the sense of superiority; as though they think that they deserve a medal for realising that religion is nonsense. Yes, I understand that some of us were heavily indoctrinated and that leaving the religion that we were raised with was not at all easy. Yes, it's something to be proud of but it hardly makes you a fucking genius. How many millions have also done the same. You are not unique love, get over yourself already.

    It was great to vent about how wrong, sexist and intolerant Islam was at the start, then after a while it got super boring. Repeating the same things over and over again didn't make me feel smart, more like a dull broken record. Those nasty far-right characters who kept appearing around ex-Muslims were a massive repellent as well. This is the only ex-Muslim online community that I have anything to do with because time is too precious to spend arguing with these people who don't care to hear other perspectives anyway, as they are so sure that they are right.
  • A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck
     Reply #2 - June 15, 2017, 03:33 AM

    I think it helped that my first exposure to online communities wasn't an idealistic exploration of atheist communities. Basically, I'd already been able to experience that most people online are jerks, just as most people in real life are jerks. Most online atheists being jerks wouldn't be something that would remotely surprise me.

    how fuck works without shit??


    Let's Play Chess!

    harakaat, friend, RIP
  • A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck
     Reply #3 - June 30, 2017, 06:54 PM

    https://youtu.be/Lyp3tHpGxw4
  • A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck
     Reply #4 - July 01, 2017, 04:42 AM

    Let's look at this by the numbers. I'm not going to address the claim of Pat Condell being a racist in this comment; I might look into it later but I'm not looking at it right this minute. Pat Condell's channel has 69,963,845 video views and 176 uploads. That's an average of ~398,000 views per video. Not bad. Let's look at some other youtube atheists for comparison. Laci Green's main channel has 145,801,178 views across 167 videos, an average of ~873,000 views per video. Jaclyn Glenn has 70,340,433 views across 383 uploads, an average of ~184,000 views per video. AronRa has 25,025,600 views across 442 videos, an average of ~57,000 per video. Francesca Ramsey has 29,847,973 across 287 uploads, ~104,000 per video. Kat Blaque: 10,296,934 views, 334 uploads, ~31,000 per video. Milo Stewart: 3,848,854 views, 88 videos, ~44,000 per video. Matt Dilahunty: 4,919,930 views, 147 uploads, ~35,000 per  video. The Atheist Experience: 30,862,806 views, 1,103 videos, ~28,000 per video. Hemant Mehta (The Atheist Voice): 20,602,769 views, 440 uploads, ~47,000 per video. Rebecca Watson: 5,377,541 views, 427 uploads, ~13,000. The Bible Reloaded: 31,169,777 views, 433 uploads, ~72,000 per video. Thinking Atheist: 34,358,561 views, 530 uploads, ~65,000 views. Real Time with Bill Maher: 347,291,027 views, 1,257 uploads, ~276,000 per video. TJ Kirk (the amazing atheist) 359,326,030 views, 1,394 videos, ~258,000 per video. Now if we just put them in a spreadsheet and rank them by average views, here's what that list of names and numbers looks like:

    Laci Green   873,000
    Pat Condell   398,000
    Bill Maher           276,000
    TJ Kirk           258,000
    Jaclyn Glenn   184,000
    Francesca    104,000
    Bible Reloaded   72,000
    Thinking Atheist   65,000
    Aron Ra           57,000
    Hemant Mehta   47,000
    Milo Stewart   44,000
    Matt Dilahunty   35,000
    Kat Blaque   31,000
    Atheist Experience   28,000
    Rebecca Watson   13,000

    Pat Condell is indeed up there near the top of the list. Not the very top, but close. However, if we then go back through and sort this list again, but using age in years of the channel, total views, then average of views per year of the channel's existence rounded to the nearest 100,000, (weighted by column C [z-a] then column B [z-a]) this is our new list:

    TJ Kirk1132,700,000.00
    Bill Maher1131,600,000.00
    Laci Green818,200,000.00
    Jaclyn Glenn611,700,000.00
    Pat Condell107,000,000.00
    The Bible Reloaded56,200,000.00
    Hemant Mehta45,200,000.00
    Thinking Atheist84,300,000.00
    Atheist Experience93,400,000.00
    Francesca Ramsey112,700,000.00
    Aron Ra112,300,000.00
    Kat Blaque71,500,000.00
    Milo Stewart41,000,000.00
    Rebecca Watson11500,000.00
    Matt Dilahunty11400,000.00

    So....does Pat Condell speak for all youtube atheists? Just by the numbers, looks like we can say "no". Does any one person on that list (or any other list) speak for all atheists? I'll let Richard Dawkins have the last word:



    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.
  • A Reminder: Internet Atheists Fucking Suck
     Reply #5 - July 01, 2017, 04:43 AM

    Oh and in case you wanted to actually see the numbers in a spreadsheet like a dork, here you go:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MkupGtG0eHuxEMimBK6-mfB8Alo2VdzQ_wZFpseTak0/edit#gid=0

    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.
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