The Atheism Plus "movement" -- good, bad, ugly?

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Lol. Why not just ask the author of the comment for clarification instead of speculating?


...If it matters, that is.

[Sean Hayden]

goddamn good sense, sneaks up on you.

by you I mean me. It sneaks up on me.

[Taqiyya Mockingbird]

[/pedantry]

Yeah.

[charlou]

Lol. Why not just ask the author of the comment for clarification instead of speculating?


...If it matters, that is.

[Taqiyya Mockingbird]

This just in, from Jen McReight:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/201 ... e-for-now/

[Audley Strange]

What's it say?

[Azathoth]

What's it say?

People were mean to her on the internets so she is going away for a cry

[laklak]

Goodness, I've had to wipe a little tear from my eye. Poor baby.

Who knows. Maybe the horde of haters will take up knitting as their new hobby, or a time machine will be invented and I can go back to when we were all happy giggling at creationists together without hurling slurs at any woman who dared to be too uppity.

How about a time machine to take us back to a time before you and your ilk set yourselves up as Supreme Arbiters of All Things Atheist? Christ, what a bunch of self-obsessed children.

[Audley Strange]

Yeah? She'll be back, otherwise I'm sure mother and crone will find a new whining maiden pretty quickly.

[Gerald McGrew]

Interesting...

I wake up every morning to abusive comments, tweets, and emails about how I’m a slut, prude, ugly, fat, feminazi, retard, bitch, and cunt (just to name a few).

And male bloggers wake up every morning to being called an asshole, dick, cocksucker, faggot, moron, retard, fat, ugly, etc. That's kinda what happens when you put yourself out into the wild west world of the inter-toobs.

The stress is getting to me. I’ve dealt with chronic depression since elementary school, and receiving a daily flood of hatred triggers it. I’ve been miserable. And this toxic behavior is affecting all parts of my life. With this cloud of hate hanging over my head, I can’t focus or enjoy my hobbies or work.

This however, is a legitimate reason to stop. I've seen firsthand what chronic depression does to a person, so in this regard I do sympathize with Jen. If she truly suffers from this affliction, then the current atheist/feminism blogging environment just isn't for her. Best to find something else to do.

[Taqiyya Mockingbird]

What's it say?

It said:

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

Goodbye for now
September 4, 2012 at 9:17 pm Jen

I’m done with blogging for an indefinite period of time.

I hate to do this. After my brief vacation from blogging this summer, I felt recharged and ready to write again. But that happiness ended almost instantaneously.

I love writing, I love sharing my ideas, and I love listening to the ideas of my readers. But I simply no longer love blogging. Instead of feeling gleeful anticipation when writing up a post, I feel nothing but dread. There’s a group of people out there (google the ironic term FtBullies to find them) devoted to hating me, my friends, and even people I’m just vaguely associated with. I can no longer write anything without my words getting twisted, misrepresented, and quotemined. I wake up every morning to abusive comments, tweets, and emails about how I’m a slut, prude, ugly, fat, feminazi, retard, bitch, and cunt (just to name a few). If I block people who are twisting my words or sending verbal abuse, I receive an even larger wave of nonsensical hate about how I’m a slut, prude, feminazi, retard, bitch, cunt who hates freedom of speech (because the Constitution forces me to listen to people on Twitter). This morning I had to delete dozens of comments of people imitating my identity making graphic, lewd, degrading sexual comments about my personal life. In the past, multiple people have threatened to contact my employer with “evidence” that I’m a bad scientist (because I’m a feminist) to try to destroy my job. I’m constantly worried that the abuse will soon spread to my loved ones.

I just can’t take it anymore.

I don’t want to let them win, but I’m human. The stress is getting to me. I’ve dealt with chronic depression since elementary school, and receiving a daily flood of hatred triggers it. I’ve been miserable. And this toxic behavior is affecting all parts of my life. With this cloud of hate hanging over my head, I can’t focus or enjoy my hobbies or work. It has me constantly on edge with frayed nerves, which causes me to take it out on the ones I love. I spend most of my precious free time angry, on the verge of tears, or sobbing as I have to moderate comments or read what new terrible things people have said about me. And the only solution I see is to unplug.

To those of you who have provided endless support: Thank you, and I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve failed you for not being able to deal with all of this despite the support you’ve given me. I may still occasionally write about science or topics that don’t attract abuse (aka, don’t expect atheism or feminism articles from me for a while). I’ll also still work to get the Atheism+ website and forums (1000+ people already!) running and self-sufficient, since I know a lot of people are really appreciating that community. And I’ll do the speaking gigs that I’ve already committed to (Kansas City 9/9, Lexington 10/6). But I simply can no longer deal with an obsessive horde of haters who are trying to make my life miserable, because they’ve succeeded.

So, goodbye for now. Maybe I’ll be back eventually, if the hatred subsides. Who knows. Maybe the horde of haters will take up knitting as their new hobby, or a time machine will be invented and I can go back to
when we were all happy giggling at creationists together without hurling slurs at any woman who dared to be too uppity. But until then, I need to focus on keeping myself sane and happy – and that’s just not going to happen within the toxic atheist community.

[Ayaan]

When I was an admin at the old RDF forum, I found it easy to laugh off hate PM's I received. However, having suffered from bouts of depression in the past myself, I can see where it would be far more difficult to deal with them.

[Audley Strange]

@ Taqiyya Thanks.

Okay so some thoughts on that. First of all she loves listening to the ideas of "some" of her readers. The ones that agree with her. She loves them so much she even started a safe place where they could come and praise her free from the hassle of critique. So why then did she keep the comments section open if it was stressing her? Also is it mandatory as a U.S. citizen that you must tweet? Or was she born in a country that didn't have any public figures and so did not know about the reaction some people would have when some other people start making faith based claims abou... oh wait!!

So yeah it's all right when the atheist and the bitter horde are side by side at mocking the creationists, but it's a no no when we mock batshit crazy radfem bullshit because the horde identify with that?

Hmm seems to me if you don't like having terrible things written about you, perhaps you should not be part of a gang that gleefully indulges in it. Seems to me if you are fine with mocking people about their nonsense beliefs you should be cautious about promoting yours as "true". If you can't you should stop identifying yourself as a critical thinker, skeptic or even atheist.

There is a term. WANYPA (we are not your personal army) that get's banded about on /b/ whenever some SJW starts suggesting Anonymous takes on their pet peeve. It's a term those who are too narcissistic just to join a group and help, but instead make a big deal about something and demanding others should act, should learn.

I'm sorry she's found it difficult, but tough shit.

[Seabass]

I don’t want to let them win, but I’m human. The stress is getting to me. I’ve dealt with chronic depression since elementary school, and receiving a daily flood of hatred triggers it. I’ve been miserable. And this toxic behavior is affecting all parts of my life. With this cloud of hate hanging over my head, I can’t focus or enjoy my hobbies or work. It has me constantly on edge with frayed nerves, which causes me to take it out on the ones I love. I spend most of my precious free time angry, on the verge of tears, or sobbing as I have to moderate comments or read what new terrible things people have said about me. And the only solution I see is to unplug.

Jesus. She should have quit loooong before it came to that. Why blog if it makes you miserable?

[colubridae]

I don’t know why the skepchicks et al took the line they chose. I do know that they were wrong. They took a stance directly against what I (and I think most atheists) stand for. They deliberately chose the line ‘you are with us or you are our enemy – think like us or receive our hate’. Any support dried up with this choice.

I sympathise with anyone being abused. But striking out blindly at all around you lessens that sympathy. Several months ago I felt the wrath of FtB for agreeing with Sam Harris. I walked away knowing their ‘friend or enemy’ stance was wrong.

That Jen McCreight was brought to this comes as no surprise. Her mind set is faulty. Joining a 'movement' that demands obedience is playing with fire. Play with fire and sooner or later you’ll get burned. The Atheist+ movement had plenty of warnings that their view was faulty. Their self-delusion only strengthened. My guess is that many of them will see her withdrawal not as another useful insight into the flaws of dictatorship, but as a vindication of their strategy.