Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right

[tulipsandroses]

What once seemed like a bracing intellectual movement has degenerated into a pack of abusive, small-minded bigots

SNIP
New Atheism appeared to offer moral clarity, it emphasized intellectual honesty and it embraced scientific truths about the nature and workings of reality. It gave me immense hope to know that in a world overflowing with irrationality, there were clear-thinking individuals with sizable public platforms willing to stand up for what's right and true — to stand up for sanity in the face of stupidity.

Fast-forward to the present: What a grift that was! Many of the most prominent New Atheists turned out to be nothing more than self-aggrandizing, dogmatic, irascible, censorious, morally compromised people who, at every opportunity, have propped up the powerful over the powerless, the privileged over the marginalized. This may sound hyperbolic, but it's not when, well, you look at the evidence. So I thought it might be illuminating to take a look at where some of the heavy hitters in the atheist and "skeptic" communities are today. What do their legacies look like? In what direction have they taken their cultural quest to secularize the world?

Sam Harris: Arguably the progenitor of New Atheism, Harris : SNIP
He argued to Josh Zepps during a podcast interview not only that black people are less intelligent than white people, but that this is because of genetic evolution. He has consistently given white nationalists a pass while arguing that Black Lives Matter is overly contentious, and has stubbornly advocated profiling "Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim," at airports.
SNIP———-
His primary focus these days is boosting the moral panic over "social justice warriors" (SJWs), "political correctness" and "wokeism," which he apparently believes pose a dire threat to "Western civilization" (a word that has a lot of meaning for white nationalists). Consequently, Harris has become popular among right-wingers, and the sentiment of solidarity appears to be mutual.
https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. The New Atheists have been making money for a long time....selling Jesus to the rubes that want to

believe. See...Robertson, Graham, Baker, and many, many more who realized there were bucks to be made, praising Jezus.

[radius777]

2. Most of these guys are racist dorks

who are pissed that some black athlete or singer is more popular than they'll ever be.

[tulipsandroses]

4. Even the smartest men can be bigots, misogynists, and all around assholes

Like the author, I am disappointed to see where these people I once respected are. I used to hang on every word of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

[brooklynite]

3. Last time I checked, "atheist" meant someone who didn't believe in a God or Gods...

...opinion on any other subject has nothing to do with atheism.

[old as dirt]

11. As an old-school atheist all my life...

...that's what I thought, too.

Last time I checked, "atheist" meant someone who didn't believe in a God or Gods...

Then along came the internet a couple decades ago, and I encountered a fundamentalist cult of newfangled "atheism".

[tulipsandroses]

13. New fangled cult might not be a bad way to describe

some of what was happening back then. For those saying Atheism has nothing to do with their ties to bigotry. I think you are missing the point. The entire article is a long read but worth it.
20 or so years ago, you could rightfully say that this was a movement. A movement that helped mainstream atheism so to speak. What the author is really addressing is that a movement that was about intellectualism that espoused rational thinking, science, and logic now uses irrational thinking, anti science and illogical reasoning to defend bigotry. ( No, not all skeptics, non believers have thrown their lot in with white nationalists)
But it’s quite the turn of events to see people who made their name and fortune based on logic, now do the very things they used to accuse others of doing.

This piece ties social media to some of what is happening. Can’t say I agree with everything, but definitely some interesting points made
The Strange Online Legacy of New Atheism
https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2021/09/14/the-strange-online-legacy-of-new-atheism

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. See, this same tendency has been observed more broadly.

High profile people criticized for bigotry tend to respond in one of two ways: mea culpa, or doubling down.

More often than not, they double down, and in doing so create a feedback loop. JK Rowling did this. Dave Chapelle is doing this right now.

[old as dirt]

16. The article kind of reminded me of this YouTube video regarding tau vs pi.

Suspend Your Disbelief (or, how to ruin everything in 7 steps)

[msfiddlestix]

17. Exactly.

Period. Got nothing to do with anything else.

[Dawson Leery]

5. Ayyan Hirsi lied about her background, in turn she was kicked out of Holland

and ended up a darling of these shysters.

Harris/Pinker/Haidt, etc have a strange affinity for the hard right.

[Sur Zobra]

6. Their atheism has nothing to do with their assholery

[kewhawaii]

7. correct...n/t

[Hortensis]

19. Exactly. Look for other group terms, like populists, authoritarians,

anti-establishmentarians, etc, etc, to describe politically destructive people from across the ideological spectrum who have much more in common than not, regardless of claimed spiritual identity.

In the "dark shadow of the bright light of democracy" is where many religious and atheist assholes overlap big time, along with both socialist and fascist wannabe revolutionaries and the allied but more timidly hypocritical faux progressives and "pro-freedom" antivaxxers.

[peggysue2]

8. Wow!

Sam Harris, in particular. Who's mother is Jewish, so though not a practicing Jew is considered a Jew. Siding with White Nationalists? Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Harris. I'd say the same thing for Ron Dreher at the American Conservative who just can't get enough of Orban's Hungary where the Catholic Church is all in with authoritarianism. Might work in Hungary where Catholicism is the dominant faith but the Catholic bigotry in the US is long and virulent. Many in the White Nationalist/Evangelical community do not recognize Catholics as real Christians, still accuse the Pope, any Pope in league with Satan.

Be careful what you wish for should be in frigging shrieking mode.

Ask me sometime what it was like to grow up in a white Protestant community as an oddball, a Catholic. Not fun, not even close. Add off-the-chart guns and rage and bigotry in the current scenario and red lights should be flashing 24/7.

You get the picture.

They, the White Nationalists, may try to hide behind 'white identity' as the singular passport but the nitty-gritty is just about everyone in this country is vulnerable, unlikely to pass the 'purity' test.

Anyone of minority status be it race, religion, ethnic or gender identity should be on the same page. The current White Nationalist, evangelical movement is poison, a threat to the country and its actual majority, a diverse, pluralistic society.

Unity is our superpower. We need to grab it, own it, take it to the bank, regardless of our political histories. Otherwise?

Well, otherwise is f*cking unthinkable.

[tirebiter]

9. Ayn Rand

Nuff said

[Act_of_Reparation]

14. Most of these guys have very little in common with Ayn Rand.

[old as dirt]

10. When they came for the Muslims, ...

When they came for the Muslims, I was not a Muslim, so I did not speak out.

When they came for the Immigrants, I was not an Immigrant, so I did not speak out.

When they came for the Atheists, there was no one left to speak out.

As Harris once put it, with many of us naively agreeing, "We are at war with Islam." (Note: This was a dangerous and xenophobic lie that helped get Donald Trump elected. As Harris said in 2006, anticipating how his brand of Islamophobia would enable Trump's rise, "the people who speak most sensibly about the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists.&quot

[JanMichael]

12. The anti-woman tilt was apparent to me in 2002.

I went with some friends to a Miami 2002 atheist convention.

Dawkins was with what looked to be a 17 year old. I asked a couple of people is that his daughter? Most of them just chuckled and turned away. I knew he was married at the time to someone that was his age approximately. Must have been an intern or one of Epstein's "escorts".

The crowd was probably 90 or 85% young white male at the time.

I'm still an nonbeliever but I'm really not keen on any 90% plus white male organizations at this point. Which those from 2002 would now be old white males instead of young white males. Like me.

[msfiddlestix]

18. An important story, with a really hideously inappropriate title

Whatever the "New Atheists" are about, the word "Godless" implies anyone who self identifies as agnostic or atheists is "godless" therefore devil worshipers among many other descriptors rooted in religious dogma, which by the way holds the status of highest ranking Grifters above and beyond Criminal Organizations, in my opinion.


I'm not a fan of Sam Harris, haven't heard him speak in decades, but I feel it's critical to acknowledge grift and fraud through out Religious Organizations, Churches, Synagogues Mosques, Temples, etc. has been rampant for centuries and continues to this day.

I do support the Freedom From Religion Foundation when I am able, and I appreciate their efforts on the legal front.



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