Woofin’ and Beefin’

I used to work with a young lady that described someone else’s belligerence as “woofin’ and beefin’.”  I love that language.  But I do want to avoid fights with others in the neighborhood.  I’ve already had a pretty negative interaction with one other blogger on this network and decided to just drop out of that scene instead of pressing it.  I made my feelings on the general topic clear here (my islamophobia post), but will not address that specific conversation or go back there again.

Likewise, I have been affiliated with and linked to people who have had some rough interactions with another prominent skeptic blog site.  I agree with their point of view completely, but I don’t want to say anything negative about specific other people in the progressive atheo-skepti-sphere, from my little corner.  That is to say, if I have a problem that I feel compelled to address, I’ll do as before and avoid naming names and getting into specific exchanges.  But I will post my feelings on the subject in general.

I hope that doesn’t seem too passive-aggressive or cowardly* to the people who need advocates the most. If it becomes a problem for any of you, let me know how you feel.

*Per a thoughtful suggestion, I might stop using this word on my blog. I’ll have to change the mouse-over text on the tab for the site if I do. Still thinking about it.

 

Satan Says: Islamophobia is Real

this is reposted & slightly edited from a previous iteration of this blog
Trigger Warnings – child sexual abuse, racism, islamophobia, anti-semitism, ableism

Deep Rifts 2.0 is about the division between regressive and progressive sides of the atheist and skeptic communities. Before this rift, one notion popular in atheist communities was that we were the free thinkers who arrived at our beliefs by reason and observation, while our opponents – the theists – believed what they were told like mindless obedient dogmabots. It’s a nice idea for atheists – in a society that despises us, we get to feel superior to the mainstream in some respect. Since the rift though, some of us have used this against our atheist opposites. What sense does that make? Where is this dogma codified? Who is walking in lockstep, refusing to question our dear leaders? This casts a lot of doubt on the original premise as used against theists, which is a loss for all of us. (Edit: I now know it’s ableist to think oneself superior on the metric of intelligence, so at this point I’m not feeling that loss so much.)

I’m not going to mirror my atheist opposites’ mistakes and claim they are a monolith, even though their beliefs line up better with the unjust status quo of the USA. I’m just going to keep poking holes in this ridiculous meme. The progressive side of the divide is not a monolith. We have our disagreements, and these are not small ones. Some of us continue to work with or promote people like Richard Dawkins (less so now than when this originally posted), some have joined in the masses ridiculing his ignorance and his strange grudge against Rebecca Watson. Some of us want to find common cause with theists to promote the secularism that can protect us all, some want to keep eviscerating the foundations of faith at the expense of potential allies. Some of us don’t have a decided stance on one more of these essential issues, and some people who generally come down on the progressive side are professional fence riders. All of this can be found within one blog network – Freethoughtblogs – if you look long enough. On the common cause vs. evisceration issue, you can find discord even within the A+ forums (now dead), and I am personally riding that fence at the moment.

One of these important areas of dispute – and the topic of this post – is the legitimacy of the term “islamophobia.” [Read more…]

Great Galloping Satans!

Hello FtB, I’m Great American Satan.  Two or three of you might recognize me from my time at atheismplus dotcom (dead).  I also have a tumblr, which is mostly reblogs of short insightful posts from random people and longer articles / excerpts from various people more thoughtful than myself.  Occasionally I make art.

My handle represents a bit of punchy immaturity on my part.  As I’ve said elsewhere, if you ain’t living your life in a way that would piss off an ayatollah, you ain’t living right. That said, I stand against islam only as much as I personally reject all abrahamic faiths.  Islamophobia is for cowards.  I also refuse to capitalize religions, as you may have noticed.

What you will ultimately see here:  At least one post a week of some kind.  Most will be writing, some will be art, and some will be shameless self-promotion of merchandise I’m currently developing with social justice themes.  If I ever start to make more money than poverty level + medical needs of family, I will start donating a good part of proceeds to charities that benefit various oppressed groups.  It’s hard to know what the future will bring, but this doesn’t seem too likely as of yet.

My greatest struggle in advocating the movement is anger.  It hurts my ability to write persuasively, sometimes just hurts my mind.  Once you’re clued in to the kinds of oppression that affect those you care about, the world is full of landmines.  Because I can’t always write anything of use to the cause, I will use my art skills and provide other services.

See you around!

 

Note on moderation:  At A+, I used to change the words of slymers and regressives into funny harmless things.  That was too much work – more than they deserve.  So here, I’m just going to set any offensive or sealioning crap to go straight to a garbage bin that I’m not even going to look at.  You’re welcome.  <3

EDIT – They’re heeee-eeere.  I just added my first crap human to my spam filter.  Congrats, you know who you are.