If youre curious why Ive pulled back a bit from my atheist activism. This article sums up a lot of what Ive been feeling more and more over the last couple years. With the atheism movement in particular and with internet social liberalism --- among other social movements -- in general. So much of it comes from the respect Ive lost for a lot of the leaders and participants of many movements that I still consider myself a part of, and the toxic flavor that the internet has brought to them. Ive seen people I used to respect be more concerned with ideological purity and take downs than with being concerned with education or if the people they label enemies are really enemies at all. Ive seen people with the right politics dogpile and bully anonymous people on the internet for stupid Facebook posts or tweets, turning them into 15 minutes of a fame versions of Emmanuel Goldstein. Do we really need to bully a random, albeit dumb, teenage girl who killed a lion and hound her Twitter feed with abuse? Shes not the Pope, a Senator, a social movement leader or a national media figure, whose words affect the actions and beliefs of millions or people. Shes just a dumb kid. And perhaps there are better ways of making her less dumb than persistent verbal abuse and harrassment. I see otherwise well-meaning people assuming malice in people who are probably only just bone-headed. Instead of quietly -- or privately -- correcting them, we need to create a public display, a show trial and mob justice. There is a difference between someone who is powerful, malicious and genuinely hateful, and someone who is ignorant, momentarily dumb, or someone with a minor ideological difference. In the current internet gunslinger culture, we have people wanting to make their name by publicly defeating each other, and never having the introspection to wonder if public shame is ALWAYS the best tool for the job. And far too often, Ive seen a witch hunt end with the chief stone-thrower admit that the victim didnt deserve the rocks. But no apology for the incited stonings. Because its important to raise awareness of the issue. Now, there are people who deserve to be called out. And there are powerful, hateful people who - if not called out - will do a lot of damage if they arent challenged. But we need to temper our zeal to slay dragons with the hesitation to first see if the target deserves such rage or to be labeled as an enemy in the first place. So with all of this, Ive pulled back a lot from my appearances on Ask an Atheist, in part because I can say that my hands arent totally clean. Ive been reevaluating my role in social movements, and looking to eradicate the parts of myself that I dislike when I see them in others. But the worst part of this? Is that Ive been pretty terrified to post something like this, because of the toxic response and dogpiling that usually results. And it just isnt worth it. I remain proud to be many things, among them Im an atheist, a liberal, a supporter of equal rights, a secularist, a skeptic, a feminist, a freethinker and a rationalist. But I wish I wasnt so frequently ashamed and angry with so many of the people that also carry such labels. Lets not pretend that just because we face social stigma or are often marginalized that we cant also be bullies too. Our behavior isnt graded on a curve. Just because someone else is acting like a monstrous prick doesnt give us carte blanche to do the same. Lets drain the toxic soup out of the internet culture weve created. We can be so much better than this, people.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 06:47:20 +0000
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