Here’s a little one-question quiz to see how much you know about Reddit’s Atheism subreddit.
QUESTION ONE: A woman describes being raped by a “friend” while both were intoxicated (though she doesn’t call it rape). Do the r/atheism regulars:
a) Respond with sympathy and support
b) Attack her and furiously downvote her posts, with the assistance of one of the moderators of r/mensrights, then return to posting and upvoting rape jokes
BONUS QUESTION: True or False: Someone on r/menrights links to her comment as “an example of how and why many people believe that rape is everywhere… because their definition of rape includes every sexual misadventure.” The most heavily upvoted comment in the r/mensrights thread declares that the woman who was raped “sounds like a delusional sheltered teen.”
Yes, the correct answers here are the ones you assumed were correct.
Here’s the woman’s post describing what happened to her.
She gives more details on what happened in other, also-highly-downvoted comments.
One highly upvoted rape joke from elsewhere in the thread:
Hilarious!
Amazingly, despite all the jokes and the victim blaming/attacking going on, the thread also contains some highly upvoted comments lamenting the tendency of people to blame the victim in rape cases. Apparently, when a rape victim is drunk, it’s not rape, even when she repeatedly says “no” and gives in because she’s scared, so it’s fine to attack away, and even to accuse the victim of being a rapist too.
This enables Reddit Atheists not only to blame the victim of rape without feeling guilty, or admitting that this is what they’re doing, while simultaneously feeling self-righteous in their condemnation of religious people doing the exact same thing.
And because their rape jokes are also couched as jokes about religious people’s views on rape, they can feel self-righteous while making them too.
Sometimes the actions of Reddit Atheists cause me to begin to doubt just a teensy weensey bit that “atheists are a community that’s pre-selected for clear thinking and empiricism,” as one commenter in r/mensrights put it not that long ago.
EDITED TO ADD: Thanks again to ShitRedditSays for highlighting this awful thread.
EDITED TO ADD 2: More SRS discussion, courtesy of Holly.
A little over half a year ago, I would have thought that the atheist, agnostic, and skeptic communities were pretty much full of decent people, you know?*
I don’t think that anymore.
*Is an atheist, for whatever that’s worth.
Was just listening to a podcast where a woman had to explain to her male co-host that “some people actually believe it’s not rape” when you have sex with a semi-conscious woman. He couldn’t believe it, because to him it was obviously rape. I have to believe that there are more men in the world like him than the trolls on Reddit, because otherwise I would never leave my house.
I have seen recent research that indicates that a small percent of men perpetuate a large percent of rapes. And that predators who go after women who are incapacitated with drugs or alcohol are doing it very consciously. It isn’t a “gray area” or a “mistake.” They are targeting women who are vulnerable, and they do it over and over again.
As a member of a prominent local atheist community, and a blogger on Freethoughtblogs.com, I see a very big divergence in views when it comes to the way atheists in general treat women. It’s very important to me and most of the people I come in contact with that women in the atheist movement are treated with respect and not made to feel like lesser members; and also that we pay serious attention to prominent female members like Rebecca Watson, Greta Christina, and Jessica Ahlquist.
Unfortunately, this is often the subject of some very big, messy online arguments, from men who are used to invoking casual sexism and angrily defend their “right” to continue doing it. Somehow, these arguments always manage to confuse the notion that there are standards of common courtesy and social ethics, with the belief that someone is trying to take away their freedom away. All I can say is that a lot of us are aware of the problem, and are willing to stand up and be called names like “manginas” for it by idiots.
Please do check out “Godless Bitches,” an atheist feminist podcast that features my wife and several other very smart women I know. http://godlessbitches.podbean.com/
If that subreddit is trying to prove that there is no god, their complete lack of compassion and decency does make a pretty good case for them.
I should probably add to the above comment that I’m an atheist myself.
Why must every subculture be tainted with idiocy?
The theoological term for discussions of the “if there’s a God, why is there evil” question is “theodicy.” So what would be the term for “if there’s a God why is there Reddit” question?
(Also, I just corrected typos in the post title and the graphic. I blame migraine.)
Okay. She said NO. If she said no, it is rape. Period.
What do you mean you don’t want to have sex? Why are you being so subtle?! So many shades of grey.
Ugh
I suggest “Idiodicy.”
Douchedicy?
I don’t even have anything to add right now. I’m just sick.
*gives David her overpriced cupcake* Sorry your head hurts.
and then those same MRAs accuses us for not taking female on male rape seriously.
you know how I know they don’t give a shit about male rape victims? because they call female victims liars and often imply they’re asking for it. Bringing up female on male rape is all part of their not so subtle agenda of making women look bad.
If female victims get treated like this, just imagine how male victims would be treated. Then again it wouldn’t surprise me if they’d believe the male but not the female. Worthless misogynistic trash would do something like that.
@blitzgal – Oh, I think it’s absolutely true that rapists use all the common ‘asking for it’ myths to get away with it. There were a couple of assaults carried out on the same night by the same guy in my city just before Christmas. He was really brazen about it, as a lot of his activities were caught on CCTV – him obviously prowling around, selecting and targeting women.
Story about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16284160
It really struck me that he was obviously deliberately targeting women coming home from Christmas office parties. They would have been drinking, would be all dressed up in party dresses and high heels and walking alone looking for taxis. He must have thought they were the perfect combination of ‘asking for it’ and so he would be able to get away with it. It just goes to show how damaging and self-perpetuating these myths are.
The irony is that atheism is becoming it’s own religion. I’m an atheist and never has it entered my mind to join a group other atheists. It’s too much like church. Blah.
what is so unclear about “I don’t want to do this while drunk”
and then when women don’t trust or extra cautious, we are labeled misandrists. This was her FRIEND. You’d think she could trust her fucking friend.
Theoidiocy?
I can’t even engage with the actual content of the post. It’s just so evil and repugnant.
Although it is a good illustration of the difference between atheism and skepticism. Just because you don’t believe in god doesn’t mean you have any kind of investment in approaching life using reason or logical thinking.
Theoreddicy?
Wait, so if a drunk guy says ‘no’ to me pegging him with a 12incher but I get really drunk and do it to him anyway, that makes it okay?
You know, this is why guys feel like they can’t win with you feminists. If she’s drunk, but she says no, then it’s rape. If she’s too drunk to say no, then it’s also rape. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. How’s a guy supposed to get laid, anyway?
(*sarcasm* tag, for those who don’t know me)
I like how burgundy puts it, but the first “o” makes it a bit of a mouthful. Take one vowel out and we get the snappy “theidiocy”!
“You cannot make the proper judgement or take proper action due to intoxication, but you require the boy (who is just as intoxicated) to do just that.
You expect him to properly interpret an unclear message and take proper action. His intoxication is no excuse. It feels very contradictory.”
What part of “I told him as soon as he started making moves on me that I didn’t want to do that while I was drunk” do you not understand, shitwit!
What’s more disturbing is how so many people can upvote it without seeing his fallacy right in front of their faces. *facepalm* Never underestimate how cultural/mainstream programming can make people hallucinate, ever! It’s literally as if they can’t think! I’ve almost lost all of hope in humanity.
“As a member of a prominent local atheist community, and a blogger on Freethoughtblogs.com, I see a very big divergence in views when it comes to the way atheists in general treat women. It’s very important to me and most of the people I come in contact with that women in the atheist movement are treated with respect and not made to feel like lesser members; and also that we pay serious attention to prominent female members like Rebecca Watson, Greta Christina, and Jessica Ahlquist.”
Funny. Because there are so many prominent women atheists on YouTube alone. Here are some just from the top of my head:
xxxThePeachxxx
ZOMGitsCris
Bionic Dance
WildWood Claire
Autumn Lauber
Healthy Addict
FactvsReligion
Laci Green
As an atheist, I’m also tired of the arrogant assumption my fellow atheists make that they are automatically more rational just because they are nonreligious. How is that any different than religious people thinking they are more moral just because they believe in God? Atheists are just as intellectually frail as other humans.
Well, well, well. The jackass crew is still vomiting out hatred. I kinda picture feminists and many “modern” women in general as Linda Blair. Their heads spin around and green vomit just comes-a-pourin out. I was readin some of the comments on previous posts, (just tryin ta catch up). And if I didn’t know better, I’d think feminism was just one guy in a room running a random word generator with a whole wack of IPs. No one here will ever be accused of intelligence, that’s for sure.
Anyhoo, I figure since this thread is about alcohol and sex we can let science guide us to a brave new world of equality. Anytime sex occurs and alcohol is involved, the person with the highest alcohol content is the “vicitm.” Since the entire reasoning behind the whole rape aspect is loss of ones faculties. The person with the lowest blood alcohol content would be the responsible party.
Sounds like a pretty equitable solution to me. Somehow I doubt da crew will see it that way. Particularly if women are sent to prison for 10 of 15 years for having sex with an intoxicated man. Unless of course they get to go to a California spa prison. Might be a win-win scenario after all.
Cya losers.
“The jackass crew is still vomiting out hatred”
Man, someone needs to write a heavy metal song with that as a lyric. I don’t even care what the rest of the song is about. You could make it about puppies or rainbows or anything else.
And it should be sung by William Shatner, or at least someone using his inflection.
Let’s hope that last line means you’re going now.