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LINK Too Many Atheists Are Veering Dangerously Toward the Alt-Right - VICE

There are atheists who actually don't believe in any kind of higher power, and there are those who are simply pissed off at the higher power they say they don't believe in... then there are those who just don't like religion because someone might tell them how they might might live their lives in a more healthful, cooperative spirit.

The first tends toward philosophy. We need not concern ourselves with their political bent, because they will happily lose others in the circular logic of whatever argument they pose. 😉

The second can be problematic because they can be swayed by a well-reasoned (if morally flawed) argument.

The latter ones are the most dangerous, because they will fight to the death for the right to be an asshole.

I have long said that the best part of freedom of speech is that we all get to find out who the assholes are.

hellskitchman 4 May 6
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12 comments

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1

The article ignores the innate sense of religious and ethnic superiority that powers much of white fundamentalist Christianity and its visceral hatred of Islam, Judaism, and even Catholicism, and disregards a significant characteristic of the white nationalist/supremacist/nativist creed of the alt-right - that in many ways it offers, like Nazism before it, an alternative pseudo-religion (weren't alt-right demonstrators in Charlottesville chanting "blood and soil", the semi-mystic call to pure-race paganism first articulated in the would-be occultism of the Thule Society's volk gemeinschafte, and given an ad man's polish by Herr Hitler?).

Just because many of the alt-right have turned away from God does not mean that they are, as the author argues, in any meaningful way atheist. They would appear to have simply exchanged one form of an exclusive (only Christians can ascend to heaven), religious semi-mysticism for another (that This Land belongs only to white, English-speaking peoples).

1

Where is it written than all atheists must have the same political ideologies? I didn't get that memo.

0

No, Hellskitchman, only the first is an atheist. Those who are pissed off at a higher power or want to argue morals with Him are mere dolts.

1

There are many kinds of asshole. My son is mostly homeless, or periodically homeless as you prefer. He will milk any opportunity to get out of the cold weather, then get antsy and ruin in when it warms up. He will find excuses to not work, take advantage of free food. And how much I want to help does not matter, since my help does not encourage him to make lasting improvements. When I see the right tarred as not caring, I think that is unfair. The reason we talk past one another is that we do not agree on the idea that help without mutual goals is that helpful. It’s not fascism to say that the light in my son’s eyes if I offer him a twenty is excitement about drugs. What sucks for me on the right is the knee jerk assumption that anythinggood should be tied to religion, which to me leads to another ineffective solution.

What you said about "help without mutual goals isn't that helpful" is an interesting idea. I am going to have to think about that for awhile. I

What you said about "help without mutual goals isn't that helpful" is an interesting idea. I am going to have to think about that for awhile. I

What you said about "help without mutual goals isn't that helpful" is an interesting idea. I am going to have to think about that for awhile. I

What you said about "help without mutual goals isn't that helpful" is an interesting idea. I am going to have to think about that for awhile. I

3

Not sure I'm following this. Are supposed to somehow kick people out of atheism if they're not doing it right?

0

"Look, you can't take away people's right to be assholes."

Simon Phoenix :
Demolition man 1993

1

I agree with much of your post, and I am definitely in the first category. But I do not nor have I ever veered towards the alt right. I think Ayn Rand was inaccurate in her assessment of altruism and the meritocracy that the alt right espouses is myopic. It has a very limited view of what should have merit.

0

I contend that both political sides are messed up, and being more on the left does not exactly give one the moral high ground. Besides, politics and religion do not mix, and should never be mixed.

Politics and religion are, and should be separare issues always. Having said that, I reject all authority whether political or religious. Priests and cops and politicians are all essentially the same crap if you ask me.

2

Please don't join the mis-defining crowd against Atheists and Atheism. .... it's the absence of theism or freedom from religion. .... there are zero alleged deities to believe or disbelieve.....until believers present evidence for their alleged bible gawd YHWH Jehovah the sounds are gibberish gott gods are mere alleged referents without objects. ...the burden of proof rests upon criminal theocratic who put the illegal religious motto on most coins 1909 and currency 1955
....our legal motto is: E PLURIBUS UNUM not IN vacuum WE TRUST

2

Atheists aren't required to be anything beyond not professing a belief in gods/ not actively believing in any gods. Atheism is not relevant as it does not compel people to do anything nor is it a unified group or ideology.

6

In the first months of this site, there were a number of these aggressively far-rights on the site. But, as time went on, they got little reinforcement from the vast majority of site members and most have gone away.When they appear, we must hake it clear that they do not represent the most of us.

Hear, hear!

@FoundMyNietzsche Yeah, he's next on my block list. So sick of seeing his arrogant drivel.

@memorylikeasieve Don't worry. People like Countrycuz666 do not have the intelligence, civility, or courage to stay on a site like this for long. They simply lack to ability to engage in genuine dialogue and eventually get the message that they are out of place.

3

What The HELL are you blabbering about?!? Equating Atheists with those nasty bastards?

Agreed Objectivist Atheists and greedy TrumpOLINI voters who claim to be Atheists are sexual deviants like Ayn Rand and pussygrabber orangehair. ...their mommies failed to teach them humanity and they are bastard fools withOUT real men in their lives

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