Paul Elam has apparently become something of a comedian – though not on purpose. In his latest post on A Voice for Men, he takes on the atheist community for being too in thrall to (wait for it) feminism.
I’ll let him explain:
[T]hey are too religious. Yes, I mean that literally. For when you wipe away all the bombastic bellowing about empiricism and the strident mocking of those who choose a life of faith, what you are left with is a population of people that surrender their reason and cognition as though they were at gunpoint; that hit their knees as fast as any Catholic…to worship at the altar of feminism.
His proof? Several years ago someone at Atheist Nexus posted a link to a Men’s News Daily column of his, and – get this! – some feminists responded!
You can go here to see all the horrible things these evil cultish feminist atheists said. Like, for example:
I guess I’m a feminist, but I really like men and these are some of the things I love about them:
Protectiveness is a positive trait in men that women who want to have babies look for. We also like passion and some recklessness, but you won’t get me to admit that to my daredevil husband…..
Confidence; men usually have more of it and it is mostly a postive trait.
The ability to make decisions quickly.
Physical strength and endurance are helpful in many family situations. Ahem.
Penises. You have them, lots of us like them. I know it’s not technically a “trait”, but I had to put that in.
You can practically taste the man-hate there!
Elam, I should note, ignores that comment. No, what’s got his underpants in a wad is this comment:
The whole web site mensnewsdaily.com is a sad overreaction to the growing equality of women in society.
Evidently he’s been stewing about this remark for more than two years.
In fact, if you go and take a look at it, the discussion on Atheist Nexus wasn’t … really … all that feminist. Yes, several people criticized Elam and mensnewsdaily as “extreme,” but one of those people also criticized radical feminists as similarly “extreme.” Some of the commenters explicitly identified themselves as feminist; others explicitly criticized feminism. Nonetheless, the discussion somehow managed to be the politest conversation about gender I’ve run across online in a long, long time.
Seriously. Go take a look at it. Then consider how Elam sums it all up:
Apparently they can’t even handle 50 years of loud mouthed arts majors without drinking the Kool-aide and going brain dead. There was scarcely a voice among them that did not wallow in the ersatz enlightenment so common to feminist ideologues.
And then he moves on to whatever this is:
Feminism, as far as ideology goes, has been very effective at using human reproductive realities to co-opt other movements. In fact, from the American Civil Rights Movement to Occupy Wall Street, feminism has progressed without paying its own way, but rather by sending women in to other social arenas and wheedling men into supporting them. The Borg would be proud if they had emotions. Resistance is Futrelle.
Ho ho! Futrelle rhymes with futile! Sort of! Lest Elam and co. become too overwhelmed with pride for this clever wordplay, I should note that some junior high schoolers beat him to the punch back in the late 70s. Or maybe it was grade schoolers. I really don’t remember.
I’m less clear about the rest of his argument about “human reproductive realities.” Apparently it’s a fancy way of saying that dudes only support feminism so they can get laid. Another highly original notion.
Elam’s other piece of evidence that feminism has taken over the atheist community? PZ Myers.
He quotes this evil athio-feminazi ideologue arguing that if male atheists want to get more women involved in the atheist community, they should:
Learn to shut up and listen. Seriously. You want women to find your organization pleasant and interesting and worth contributing to? Then don’t form panels full of men trying to figure out what women want, talking over women who try to get a word in edgewise, belittling women’s suggestions with jokes, and trying to determine how We Well-Meaning Men can give Those Women what we think they want. You are assuming an authority and presuming that it is in your power to give it to the minority, when what you should be doing is deferring to that minority and giving them your attention, letting them speak and shape your organization.
God – or, if you prefer, Imaginary Entity – forbid that male atheists actually listen to women explain why they might feel unwelcome in the mostly male (and not particularly feminist friendly) atheist community.
You really think feminism has taken over the atheist community? Take a look at Reddit’s Atheism subreddit, where, recently, a woman who recently described how she had been raped was attacked as a liar and a slut in a thread filled with rape jokes. Or go back a little further to the Elevatorgate brouhaha, where an atheist blogger who politely mentioned in a podcast that she doesn’t really like being hit on by strange men in elevators at 4 AM drew the ire of countless angry atheist dudes, including Richard Fucking Dawkins himself? (In case you want to revisit that bit of nastiness, I wrote about “Elevatorgate” in several blog posts; here are some reactions from decidedly non-feminist atheists.)
This is a movement that “worship[s] at the altar of feminism[?]” Not really seeing it, dude.
But again, congrats on the whole Futrelle/futile thing. Genius!
@Kirby: So you’re saying Bud’s schtick wasn’t intentional?
Eh, OK, but that doesn’t make me change my evaluation, and I’m not wedded to purity based version of troll (“says things they don’t believe to get omg reaction.”). So he’s not a troll, and not a conscious misogynist, but that doesn’t mean much. I went and read his Elevatorgate post quoted above, and its reeking with male privilege and misogyny, and his post about his encounter here and his flounce, ditto.
He was mansplaining feminism to feminists, and that’s a dickbiscuit move in my book. And if he’s such a freethinker, why such stale, cliche rhetoric?
Oh… Bud thinks he’s tough.
It’s one thing to claim that you’re a freethinker: it’s another thing altogether to live it out.
Talk vs. Walk.
@kirbywarp – My comments were directed toward Xanthe’s comments, not David’s. Pay closer attention next time, and hopefully this confusion will be avoided.
The Part where you quoted Dave? That was directed at Xanthe? Perhaps the problem isn’t in whom you think you are talking to, as much as what you are attributing to whom. If you want to say something about the content of a post/comment it behooves you to respond to the actual words of the person you are speaking of.
@kirbywarp – Nice to see I didn’t escape judgmentalism when I left religion.
Nope. You carried it with you. The faults usually lie with us, not our stars.
assuming we all consider ourselves freethinkers here
This assumes that “freethinker” is some sort of club, where everyone is, “on the same side.”
It also assumes that your intent somehow makes up for your actions.
Neither of those is actually true, and this, “I didn’t come here to argue or debate, but to converse, is a cop-out. Conversation doesn’t mean no one gets to disagree with you. Conversation allows that people who disagree with you get to speak their minds. If you want a soapbox, use your own place.
And, being of the sort who thinks for myself, I formed some opinions about the Skepchick mess, and all in all I think, apart from your point number five, that you are all wet.
Seven months after Elevatorgate, after hundred of thousands of words spilled by misogynist trolls being rebutted, it’s almost a certain bet that someone who leaves a drive-by posting decrying Rebecca Watson is a douchebag. At this point it really is a litmus test.
Bud went on to prove it.
Bud made a big deal (on his blog) about how he was abused for merely having a different opinion, and that no one was willing to even talk to him because we are all knee-jerk reactionaries without an independent thought in our heads.
And how he’d gone and turned off the e-mail replies because it was pointless. He made this post quite some time after a number of detailed responses to his points.
So he’s intellectually dishonest, as well as a poser.
*sigh*
Apparently I, a knee-jerk reactionary without an independent thought in my head, was still able to make him turn on a fucking dime with his opinion of Rebecca Watson just by asking him to justify it. =_=
No one is a freethinker though-not truly. Our thoughts are the end results of thousands of inputs from the world without, within and Kirby.
So to claim one is a freethinker is basically saying to the world “I am a pretentious tool.”
@PFKAE: So to claim one is a freethinker is basically saying to the world “I am a pretentious tool.”
ESPECIALLY in the context of lecturing parts of the rest of the world about how much they fail as being a “freethinker” themselves (mostly because, shock and surprise, they don’t agree with Mr. Bud, er, Mr. Freethinker)!