Today Morgan and I talk about how the American Humanist Association hurt a bunch of white boys’ feelings, why Officer Edward Nero was acquitted of all charges in the wrongful death of Freddie Gray, and why Oklahoma wants to impeach President Obama for not allowing them to be bigoted assholes. You don’t want to miss this!
My guest for today is Eli Bosnick. He is a stand-up comedian who co-hosts the podcasts Scathing Atheist, the Skepticrat, and God Awful Movies. Today we’re going to talk about his backstory, why Christian movies are so bad, and why he’s the spokesman for trigger warnings and safe spaces.
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[Picture credit: Problematic People]
So last week I wrote a satirical article for TheHumanist.com suggesting that we ban white cisgender men from public bathrooms because, statistically speaking, they’re more likely to be rapists than transgender people. All my friends got the joke, as did the editors of The Humanist. However, if your read the comment section, it appears a lot of people didn’t get the joke. Now as a writer, I’m always open to constructive criticism, and perhaps they’re right and I didn’t make the joke obvious enough. Nevertheless, both the article and the AHA’s new focus on social justice have greatly upset the seedy underbelly of the anti-SJW Internet, including the Donald Trump of the YouTube, Mr. Sargon of Akkad.
In his latest 20+ minute video, Sargon attacks the recent launch of the Black Humanist Alliance, the Feminist Humanist Alliance, and the LGBTQ Humanist Alliance (full disclosure: I’m on their Advisory Council) as “racist and sexist.” I tried to watch the video, but after hearing nothing but strawman arguments for the first two minutes, I stopped watching it. Apparently he mentioned my article, but like I said, I didn’t watch the entire video, so hopefully he at least got my pronouns right (he probably didn’t).
Now I try to be a good skeptic and at least consider any possibility that I’m wrong, but honestly Sargon doesn’t do a very good job convincing me otherwise. For starters, shortly after the AHA announced the new initiative, he asked them “why they would side with racists and sexists.” Yeah, not a good idea to start a constructive dialogue with a strawman argument!
Sargon also seems to have missed the memo that the Feminist Humanist Alliance used to be the Feminist Humanist Caucus, which was established in 1977. And that past Humanist of the Year recipients include Gloria Steinem, Barbara Ehrenreich, Alice Walker, and Margaret Atwood, among many others.
Probably the most damning thing to Sargon’s reputation as a rational “classical liberal” (i.e. right-libertarian) is his recent petition protesting the supposed free speech violations on college campuses by . . . censoring teachers that disagree with him. The petition is such a joke that even the anti-SJW website Problematic People called him out on it. As Kristina Hansen writes:
Sargon of Akkad is one of the reasons I distance myself from the label of anti-feminist. I urge you to do so as well. Too many self proclaimed anti-feminists are hardline fundamentalists. Too many of them, like Sargon, refuse to accept that not everything that comes out of feminism is useless or inherently wrong. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. There are indeed many points and ideas within feminism and feminist literature and academia that do have some merit and certainly some value, and which do require consideration, inquiry, and discussion by all of us. To outright dismiss everything just because it is coming from a feminist or social justice perspective is intellectually dishonest and serves only to further divide the discussion and polarize feminists and anti-feminists, rather than engage each group in what should be a search for truth. But again, the idea that Sargons petition does not hold enough merit to stand on its own is his, not mine. Remember, his petition is not a legitimate attempt to redress grievances or enact any change. Sargon claims it is a rhetorical device to stimulate conversation. In plain English, it is the latest antic of a demagogue and a panderer. [Emphasis mine]
Hansen continues:
Universities must maintain academic freedom – the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members. When scholars attempt to teach or communicate ideas or facts that are seen as inconvenient to external political groups or authorities, they may find themselves targeted for public vilification, job loss, imprisonment, or even death in some places. Sargon has publicly said, in the livestream we had, that he is all for professors who teach social justice courses to lose their jobs. Sargon is against academic freedom when he advocates such a position. [Again, emphasis mine]
So much for classical liberalism!
Perhaps Sargon just needs a safe space. Maybe we can all pitch in and buy him a room where he can suck his thumb and hug his teddy bear whenever he feels triggered by someone with a different opinion than his. Or maybe the next article I write for the Humanist will include trigger warnings just for him so he will no longer be oppressed by different opinions.
Or he can just be like the rest of us and put on his big kid britches. But that’s not very fun, is it? Why engage in rational dialogue about complex issues when you can just sit behind a computer and be a bully to people you don’t like? It certainly pays a lot more than being rational.
My guest for today is Pat Green. He is a former minister turned taxi driver, and his first book “Night Moves: An Ex-Preacher’s Journey to Hell in a Taxi” was released last summer. Today we’re going to talk about his journey, what driving a taxi has taught him about humanity, and what it’s like to be a parent of a transgender child.
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So Morgan from No Religion Required and I just started a side project podcast called The Biskeptical Podcast, which is a bimonthly show that takes a look at politics, religion, and current events from the perspective of two bisexual atheists. And this is our first episode! Today we discuss what’s at stake now that Donald Trump is the unofficial official GOP nominee, and why the Tenth Amendment doesn’t mean states can ignore federal government anti-discrimination policies. Enjoy!
My guest for today is Gleb Tsipursky. He is the author of the book “Finding Your Purpose Using Science,” and the president of the organization Intentional Insights. He is also a tenure-track professor at Ohio State University, and a historian of science researching the intersection of history, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on meaning and purpose, decision-making, emotions, and agency. So today we’re gonna talk about his backstory and whether or not science can really give us meaning in our lives.
I also announce a brand new sister podcast I’m doing with Morgan Stringer called The Biskeptical Podcast. Enjoy!
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So last week Maggie Ardiente from the American Humanist Association asked me to write about the latest controversy surrounding Target’s bathroom policy. I didn’t want to rehash the same “This is why the transphobes are wrong” song and dance, so I took a page from Jonathan Swift and wrote a modest proposal. Excerpt:
Now I understand the concern for safety. According to the National Sexual Violence Research Center, one in five women experience some form of sexual assault. It’s obvious we need to do something about it, but is banning trans people from public bathrooms the answer? Not only is there no statistical evidence of trans people assaulting women in bathrooms, but according to the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Center of the University of Michigan, most rapes and sexual assaults are conducted by white males (presumably cisgender men because the stats reveal nothing about trans men).
So here’s a modest proposal that I think will solve this dilemma: ban all cisgender white men from public bathrooms.
Here’s how it would work: any business or organization that provides public bathroom facilities must have a security guard to screen everyone who wants to use the bathroom. If you identify as male, and your ID identifies you as a male, you must go outside the building to a designated area. This area can either be behind a dumpster or in the bushes, which is actually more convenient than it sounds because there are plenty of leaves and garbage around these areas for white cisgender men to wipe themselves. These designated areas will also be surrounded by security cameras to make sure the white cisgender men don’t try to pull off any funny business.
Read the rest here.
As far as the controversy, Maggie sums it up perfectly.
I’m sure you’ve all seen this image floating around on Facebook:
For those that don’t know, that’s The Prophet Jeremiah from the No Religion Required podcast, and today I get to chat with him on my podcast! We had a really good conversation about how to be a good ally. Enjoy!
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[Image credit: @IGotZuckedTees]
[CN: Transphobia, Slurs, Rape Threats]
Oh hello! Apart from my podcast, I haven’t really updated this page in a while. I’ve been HELLA BUSY lately with school and work. In fact, I was hoping to launch a side project podcast a few weeks ago, but life happened so you’ll have to wait a few more weeks for the big reveal.
For now, though, I want to talk about something that’s been happening to my Facebook friends for the past month. There are a lot of people on the Internet who claim that social justice activists like myself are trying to suppress people’s free speech rights. While there may be a few regressives who fit the bill (there are assholes in ALL communities), most activists in my circle believe that you can’t have social justice without free speech. In fact, right now it looks like the best threat to free speech is Facebook.
For starters, my friend Stephanie Guttormson was banned from Facebook for a month after she wrote this (and I’m paraphrasing because the post no longer exists):
Women wear boys’ clothes
Society: “Eh, whatever.”
Trans women exist
Society: “Ugh, faggots!”
Now even if you didn’t know Guttormson is transgender, it’s pretty obvious that she’s saying our society has a double standard when it comes to trans rights and gender nonconformity. It’s a reflection of what our society thinks, not what she thinks. And unfortunately, people do say the Other F-Word. But since her post included that naughty word, she was banned for a month.
Likewise, my friend Damien AtHope was briefly banned from Facebook after, according to him, he posted an atheist meme that contained pictures of the Holocaust, and one picture had a naked man. Apparently Facebook was more disturbed by a penis than mass genocide. Go fig.
Then there was the time Seth Andrews, Sarah Morehead, and JT Eberhard were temporarily blocked from Facebook for “bullying” (a.k.a. criticizing religion).
And then there’s the case of an infamous TERF who is getting posts removed and accounts blocked for simply referring to her as a “fake goth.” Here is a woman who makes a living doxxing trans women (it’s never trans men for some reason) and making life hell for trans people, and she’s mad that people are calling her names on the Internet. The funny part is she claims to be a lawyer, but as far as I know (please fact check me) hurting someone’s feelings isn’t a criminal offense.
Meanwhile, someone made a fake Facebook page impersonating my friend Danielle Muscato, and Facebook hasn’t done shit about it. I also have friends who claim they reported people sending them rape threats on Facebook, but to no avail.
Really, Facebook? Really???
Now anyone who knows me knows I don’t do the whole “PC Culture Is Ruining Everything” bullshit, but you really have to wonder about Facebook’s priorities. In fact, I’d say at this point if the free speech advocates need something to blog about, some random person on the Internet who says the word “stupid” is ableist is the least of their concerns.