Huh. I kind of vaguely though that “the atheist community” would be horrified by the DDOS attack on Saturday. Huh. I haven’t seen much of that. (But maybe I’ve missed it. That could be. I don’t see all the things.) I have seen some of the other thing – like for instance accusing us of blaming our “fellow atheists.”
Huh. No we haven’t. Not one person said “it was our fellow atheists who did this!”
But that’s ok, because the way to accuse people of something and not be held accountable for it is to preface your accusation with “I am hearing rumors that.” Then, for extra points, when someone points out that it’s a pack of lies, you say you were rebuking the people spreading the rumors.
So I have heard there has been DDOS attack against several social justice Atheist websites. Also I am hearing rumors that they are blaming other atheists for these attacks. It blows my mind that the first people you would point your finger at would be your fellow atheists when there are hordes of religious people out there who would like nothing more than to either convert you or ruin you. Well done kids.
Yeah, that’s someone rebuking people for spreading rumors that we are blaming other atheists for these attacks. Suuuuuuuuuure it is.
I still like some atheists. But “the community”? No. Too many assholes like that in it.
Except that it is clear that being atheist was not what caused these sites to be targeted, being feminist is. There is in fact an active anti-feminist element within atheism and it is they, not the people they target that tarnishes the “community’s” name. Not all atheists are my fellows. As I’ve explained to plenty of theists, gods are just one of the many mythical critters I do not believe in. Some atheists are hateful, dishonest, misogynists who’ve gone out of their way to make this “community” especially unwelcoming. MRAs are often libertarian and atheist. You cannot have a progressive, inclusive, fact based, intrinsically social justice oriented movement with them welcome in it and the people they denigrate and threaten silenced in it. If there is room under the tent for them, then there isn’t any for me.
Exactly. I prefer liberal believers to these shits. That’s what Chris Stedman has been saying all along, and I see his point a lot better than I used to. Mind you I don’t think we’re in exactly the same place; I still don’t revel in talking about faith-based things; but I do see his point.
If there is any blaming of atheists, this is short-sighted. There’s not much evidence at all of who actually did it.
I have also read some people suggesting it was atheists attacking secular feminist sites, and indeed the sites attacked are all more known for feminist sites than atheist sites, and so I do get the logic behind it.
That said, there’s no reason it couldn’t have been believers, as well. Feminism is not just hated by atheists, but by theists, as well.
I’m hearing rumours that the author of that particular piece hasn’t been paying attention, perhaps due to some kind of head-in-anus situation.
Obviously, if you have dozens of atheists going “FtB and Skepchick are the worst thing ever because feminism” for years on end and then both sites get DDOSed along with just one other feminist site, the most reasonable thing to do is assume it was theists.
It wasn’t really very horrifying. Frankly, as much as I like FTB, a DOS attack isn’t nearly as morally outrageous as the personal harassment, which has also been going on much longer and has done permanent damage to the community. When I found out, I basically just rolled my eyes and thought “oh, crap, those guys again.”
(Not that I’m aware of any evidence about who did it, but given the choice of targets, Occam says it’s likely the same crowd that the harassment comes from.)
Remember kids:
Women discussing their personal experience about certain men = unsubstantiated rumour that must be rejected, and/or followed with accusations of lying and accusations of attempting to destroy the atheist movement.
Unsubstantiated rumours about a group of mostly feminist atheists from no known source = sufficient evidence to reprimand.
That said, Anita Sarkeesian isn’t active within the atheist movement to my knowledge. It seems that the only common factor between the three groups is their outspoken feminism. Anti-feminism is a better explanation than theism. While it’s true we don’t know the perpetrator’s identity, these groups tend to fight more with the secular anti-feminists than the theistic anti-feminists.