I can be pretty confrontational
Mar. 29th, 2018 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulybut I don't like conflict all that much. This is a bad combination of traits, and can lead to me completely avoiding my $SITE inbox for weeks on end until I'm pretty sure everybody's forgotten what I said.
ANYway, recently I got into a petty argument with another atheist over something stupid they said (seriously) and in order to vent I went to Ana, because she was the only other human in the house. "Ugh, why are other atheists such freaking dipshits? Here's the sad truth, Ana dear, I'd like to believe that atheists are all more rational and more compassionate than theists, or at least the theists I don't like, but on the whole it just doesn't appear to be true."
So she starts talking about her intra-religious discussions with her classmate and manages to drop in that, apparently, her classmate thinks that an anti-Semite is somebody who hates religion.
Me: Wait, wait, what? No, Ana. An anti-Semite is somebody who hates or is prejudiced specifically against Jews, and not necessarily because of religion.
Ana: What!?
Me: Yeah.
Ana: I don't hate Jews!
Me: Glad to hear it.
Ana: I just don't like religion!
Me: Well, then you might call yourself an anti-theist. Or just say you're an atheist and let people work it out later.
Ana: He's been calling me anti-Semitic this whole time! Oh, man, I'm gonna punch him.
Me: Wait, is he Jewish?
Ana: NO!
Me: Well, okay then!
************
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ANYway, recently I got into a petty argument with another atheist over something stupid they said (seriously) and in order to vent I went to Ana, because she was the only other human in the house. "Ugh, why are other atheists such freaking dipshits? Here's the sad truth, Ana dear, I'd like to believe that atheists are all more rational and more compassionate than theists, or at least the theists I don't like, but on the whole it just doesn't appear to be true."
So she starts talking about her intra-religious discussions with her classmate and manages to drop in that, apparently, her classmate thinks that an anti-Semite is somebody who hates religion.
Me: Wait, wait, what? No, Ana. An anti-Semite is somebody who hates or is prejudiced specifically against Jews, and not necessarily because of religion.
Ana: What!?
Me: Yeah.
Ana: I don't hate Jews!
Me: Glad to hear it.
Ana: I just don't like religion!
Me: Well, then you might call yourself an anti-theist. Or just say you're an atheist and let people work it out later.
Ana: He's been calling me anti-Semitic this whole time! Oh, man, I'm gonna punch him.
Me: Wait, is he Jewish?
Ana: NO!
Me: Well, okay then!
Why He Kayaked Across the Atlantic at 70 (for the Third Time)
The Snowball Fight that Mother Nature Won
I helped discover a legendary Seattle speakeasy, sealed up since Prohibition, and recently uncovered during a renovation. These are the incredible murals found inside!
John W. Jones: The Runaway Slave Who Buried Nearly 3000 Confederate Soldiers
Why the Choctaw People Sent Their Meager Funds to Ireland
Trump’s Pick for CDC Director Is Experienced But Controversial
Why Evangelicals—Still!—Support Trump
Useful link: This discussion is over because you're arguing in bad faith.
America’s Unending Tragedy
The Parkland kids keep checking their privilege
Gun deaths could become easier to study thanks to the new spending bill
Facebook faces a reputational meltdown
Cloak and Data: The Real Story Behind Cambridge Analytica’s Rise and Fall
Collateral damage: How Trump threw Canada's refugee system into turmoil
Legal-Aid Services Are Being Starved
The death of the center
Thousands of Croatian far-right supporters march in Zagreb
Police, politicians accused of joining Sri Lanka's anti-Muslim riots
Life is hard in Sisi's Egypt, but voters have little choice
The Kurds Keep Remaking the Middle East
Turkish army and allies in 'total control' of Syria's Afrin
Turkey's 'holy war' in Syria puts a more religious nationalism on display
Senators block Yemen war powers resolution
Why British Conservatives Are Salivating Over the Oxfam Scandal
Survivors of Sexual Abuse at the U.N. Say Their Stories Have Been Ignored For Far Too Long
no subject
Date: 2018-03-27 12:43 am (UTC)As for atheists:
a) people are people.
b) A typical US atheist grew up in a Christian family or culture. To come out as atheist they (i) questioned the assumptions around them and (ii) cared enough about honesty, or not enough about getting along, to speak up against the assumptions around them.
Atheism per se doesn't mean being smarter than anyone else, but being a local-minority atheist kind of entails being questioning of received truths and speaking up about doubt.
They're also likely to have a grudge about organized religion.
(Doesn't apply so much to native atheists like me. I think I am questioning and honest, but I didn't need that much to be atheist.)
So I think those traits carry over. In a different milieu, such atheists will still poke at local assumptions and speak up if those don't seem to make sense. There's a basic willingness to be intellectually confrontational, correct or not. And to not accept things on faith, or to be quiet about things just because they make people uncomofortable.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-27 04:28 pm (UTC)And to be fair, simply having that grudge - even if you express it by using snotty terms like "sky daddy" and "imaginary friend" in mixed company - isn't enough for me to write other atheists off entirely. I may think it's childish, but, well, going through massive life changes often involves some childish behavior, especially when you've been badly hurt.
BUT OMG SOME ATHEISTS! I don't want my fellow atheists to be jerks! I want us to be better! (At the minimum, I want the atheists who claim to be better and more rational to at least make a stab at living up to their own vaunted standards.)