Except for Philosophy professors. They are paid to think.
So in essence they are not free thinkers.
Let me make your joke serious: Not all atheists are free thinkers. Any atheist who is still a committed "true believer" in any ideological dogma -- political, economic, or philosophical -- is not a free thinker.
True. Whether it's belief in the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent state, refusal to consider sharing, belief in exceptions to "violence is not the answer" (still considering self defense personally, hard to eradicate beliefs; I think self defense is justified certainly but it's still not moral to hurt someone if you can capture or otherwise de-escalate a situation, and even with crime restitution is more sensible than capital punishment in most cases), the original sin doctrine of people being responsible for the mistakes of their ancestors A.K.A. judging people for the way they were born/bigotry based on demographics (including against whites and men), the belief in the supremacy of a race or gender when the science clearly shows greater variance within groups than between them, the belief that science already has all the answers (if it did there wouldn't still be scientists running experiments), or one of the multitude of other illogical beliefs, people are not good at discerning truth from fiction, and that includes agnostics.
Paying actually increases freedom, because so many things cost money. Maybe he is beholden to think a certain way to a harmful effect, or he is coerced into conforming to society but you are very far from that point when you complain about being paid.
It increases their personal freedom but it invalidates free thought. As you mentioned those that pay may have an agenda that they insist should be adhered to.
This isn't "Silly, Random & Fun " anymore. Man atheists are so rigid.
Me neither. For my thoughts I need about tree fitty.
Dang ol' loch ness monster.
We only think we are free thinkers...
Some times I wish I got paid to think. Maybe I would hand out more stupid comments and then get paid to think that through. Double Whammy ? Lol