I had to skip out on all the talks of the last day of the American Atheists convention — we’re entering the last two weeks of the semester, with lots of extra work, and usually I spend my weekends catching up on grading and preparing for the next week of content, so I’m already behind.
It was a good weekend though, although yesterday was all deja vu. So many talks on social justice! It sounded like an atheist conference from 15 years ago, with all the liberal weirdos standing up and talking about feminism and gay rights and how the atheist community needs to fight for equality, except this time around we didn’t have audience members leaving their seats and cornering the speakers later to hiss at them about how “atheism only means disbelief in gods, how dare you taint the meeting with liberalism” and then the speakers get assailed with nothing but hate mail from the unbelievers for a year afterwards. So it’s getting better. I think the religious right is actually helping things, because nowadays everyone is seeing the horrible consequences of raging conservatism on the country. The few times I heard Trump mentioned, the audience was snarling/groaning/booing in response.
One difference: no one was talking about science. Not one talk the entire weekend. I think that might be another unintended consequence of so many of the atheist-scientists of yore having turned out to be such roaring asshats. Thanks so much, Dawkins & Coyne & Harris & Pinker, you’ve made science a toxic pill in everyone’s mouth.
Did you get a chance to see or meet Genetically Modified Skeptic? I’ve seen some of his videos and he seems cool.
Well ‘i’m still taking about scince PZ and so are you!
I had a similar experience with local atheists at a meetup. It was kind of, dare I type, woke!
I wonder if Trump is having the same effect on atheist politics as he is having on other countries? Canada, Australia and New Zealand have seen huge shifts in support away from their conservative parties. In Canada it was about 30% shift.
If any of you have the $$$ and the time, please go to QED in Britain this fall. It is the last QED conference ever.
And if you are an academic, maybe ask questions about job openings when you are there.
Scratch that, ask about job openings regardless of your work. Britain has slowly begun to bounce back after 14 years of Idiocracy.
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BTW by now 45 years after Reagan took over it should be blatantly obvious the Religious Right and the Loony Right are joined at the hip.
I’m curious, if no one talked about science, what did they talk about? The weather? Politics? The price of eggs? Whose mythology better describes the universe? Does god only like straight, white males and women who know how to have dinner ready by 6pm?
John, this is what PZ wrote they talked about: “It sounded like an atheist conference from 15 years ago, with all the liberal weirdos standing up and talking about feminism and gay rights and how the atheist community needs to fight for equality“.
(It’s right there)
It’s almost as if they didn’t recognize themselves as a vulnerable minority.
[interlude]
@9
Wow that’s a throwback to my childhood in late 70s. I always wondered if they sampled my favorite electronic handheld game at 3:23…:
0:16 in the commercial is close!
Goinf off on a tangent: This is how we got into the nightmare we face; with disinformation, media manipulation, the setting up of scapegoats, and gradually turning people into alt-right believers. A choleric Scotsman put together a two-hour video that is surprisingly watchable.
‘Shut up about “Cultural Marxism” .https://youtube.com/watch?v=VfM-YtGqerw
Birger, I checked with the bubbly AI:
Me: adumbrate both the popular perception and the scholarly understanding of the term “Cultural Marxism”
AI: Certainly! The term “Cultural Marxism” carries different meanings depending on the context in which it is used.
Popular Perception
In popular discourse, particularly in political and ideological debates, “Cultural Marxism” is often framed as a conspiracy theory suggesting that Marxist intellectuals—especially those associated with the Frankfurt School—deliberately sought to undermine Western traditions, values, and institutions. This perspective argues that these thinkers promoted ideas such as identity politics, political correctness, and social progressivism to erode traditional cultural norms. Critics of this view often dismiss it as an oversimplification or misrepresentation of academic theories.
Scholarly Understanding
In academic circles, “Cultural Marxism” is not a recognized school of thought but is sometimes used to describe the application of Marxist analysis to cultural phenomena. Scholars typically refer to Critical Theory, a framework developed by thinkers like Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse, which critiques power structures, ideology, and mass culture. This approach examines how economic and social forces shape cultural production, often focusing on issues like media influence, commodification, and ideological control.
Would you like a deeper dive into any particular aspect of this discussion?
And here I thought the weirdos were the ones who refused to “talk[] about feminism and gay rights and how the atheist community [or indeed any other] needs to fight for equality.”
@ 5. birgerjohansson : QED?
Ah this one? :
Source : https://qedcon.org/
Even despite Brexit.
https://fortune.com/europe/2025/04/16/trump-brain-drain-talent-us-applicants-uk-jobs/
John Morales @ 12, 15
Thank you.
StevoR @ 14
Thank you.
And the slow recovery of Britain is one of the few good news of this (and the preceding) year.
BTW ‘cultural marxism’ is the oldest culture war trope, the old boogyman whose target is whatever ‘Them’ is right now. It might be trans athletes, rock bands whose records have satanic messages if played in reverse (!) but it always leads back to Ze Joos.