NOTE: Just one more day of the Man Boobz Pledge Week! Big thanks to everyone who has donated!
If you haven’t yet, and want to, here’s the button you’re looking for:
UPDATE: Vacula has resigned.
As most of you are no doubt aware, the atheist and skeptic movements have had just a teensy bit of a problem with misogyny in their ranks. You may recall the unholy shitstorm that erupted last year when Rebecca Watson of Skepchick casually mentioned in a YouTube video that it might not be such a good idea for dudes to try to hit on women in elevators at 4 AM. The assholes of the internet still haven’t forgiven Watson for her assault on the sacred right of creepy dudes to creep women out 24 hours a day, every day.
Watson is hardly the only skeptic to face vicious misogynist harassment for the crime of blogging while feminist. Last month, Jen McCreight of Blag Hag announced that near constant harassment from online bullies was wearing her down to such a degree that she felt it necessary to shut down her blog – hopefully only temporarily.
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.
McCreight’s harassers and their enablers were delighted in this “victory,” taking to Twitter to give McCreight some final kicks on the way out the door. “Good riddance, #jennifurret , you simple minded dolt,” wrote @skepticaljoe. “I couldn’t be happier,” added @SUICIDEBOMBS. “Eat shit you rape-faking scum.”
One of the celebrators that day was an atheist activist named Justin Vacula, who joked that “Jen’s allegedly finished blogging…and this time it’s not her boyfriend who kicked her off the internet.”
So here’s the latest twist:
Justin Vacula has just been given a leadership position in the Pennsylvania chapter of the Secular Coalition for America, a lobbying group for secular Americans whose advisory board includes such big names as Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Susan Jacoby, Wendy Kaminer, Steven Pinker, Salman Rushdie and Julia Sweeney.
It’s an astonishing choice. In addition to gloating that bullies had led McCreight to shut down her blog, Vacula has harassed atheist blogger and activist Surly Amy, including writing a post on A Voice for Men (yes, that A Voice for Men) cataloging all the sordid details of his supposed case against her. At one point he even posted her address, and a photo of her apartment building, on a site devoted to hating on feminist atheist bloggers.
Blogger Stephanie Zvan has set up a petition on Change.org urging the Secular Coalition of America to reconsider its choice. You can find further examples of Vacula’s questionable behavior there.
As Watson notes in a post on Skepchick, Vacula’s position with the SCA is likely to “drive progressive women away from the secular cause.” She adds,
I will never, ever get involved with SCA so long as someone like him holds a position of power anywhere, let alone in a state I live in. So Vacula is actively driving people away from SCA. …
It’s all a real shame, because SCA fills an important role in our movement and I’d like to give them my support. … I don’t believe secular organizations should reward bullies and bigots with high-level positions, even if those positions are volunteer-only.
I recommend that everyone here take a look at the petition.
I have also been asked about my religious beliefs by people before, and have been denied housing for that very reason, even though I was honest about my respect for other beliefs even if I do not share them. The thing is, when people ASSUME that I am of the same religious background as they are, I tend not to correct them. However, if it were to “come out” that I am non-religious to the point of atheism, there are a large number of prejudices surrounding that, and it is quite possible that there would be another institutionalized bar in my way from receiving promotions or being treated as an equal to someone who *IS* of mainstream religious belief.
Just like it can be hard to “prove” that you were passed by for a job or promotion because of your sex or gender, it can also be hard to “prove” that you were discriminated against because of your atheism unless they’re REALLY overt about it (and most companies and individuals are tactful enough and fearful of being sued to make sure that they leave the underlying reason as vague as possible, even if you KNOW in your heart of hearts that they passed you by for some bullshit discriminatory reason).
How are the Boy Scouts on non-Christian religions? If they have a hate-on for anyone who’s not a Christian then that’s not really discrimination against atheists. If it’s only atheists who they have an issue with, that’s a different issue.
I’m not quite sure what to describe the “anyone who doesn’t follow my really specific religious doctrine is evil” way of thinking as. I guess you could call it discrimination, but I kind of feel like it needs its own specific description, and that psychologically it works in a different way to most things that we think of as discrimination. Though maybe not in the case of racism, which does often work in an either you’re just like me or you’re evil and inferior way.
Cassandra: The Boy Scouts are cool with non-Christians (including Wiccans, “spiritual but not religious,” etc.); only atheists and agnostics are banned.
I think Christian privilege is a thing, and the lack of Christian privilege affects different groups differently (although it certainly affects, say, Muslims more than atheists).
Wikipedia indicates that the Boy Scouts specifically exclude atheists and agnostics. Practicing members of basically any religion are welcome (at least in theory, though I wouldn’t be surprised if non-Christians faced greater scrutiny).
Amy works out of her home, therefore her business address IS her home address. Just because to legally be a business her address needs to be on record doesn’t mean posting it and pictures of her home wasn’t meant to be intimidating and threatening.
PG, I don’t like to shout, lie!lie! As there is always the possibility that someone is mistaken. But repeating this one about bluharmony when it is well known she was mistaken (lied?) about the address is daft.
“Greg Laden tracked down bluharmony’s (Maria Maltseva’s) home address and posted it on his blog. Not her public information business address, but her home address. Of course, when he later realised it was, he removed it, but did not apologise. Not even a notpology on that one.”
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/08/22/maria-maltsevas-big-laden-lie/#comment-112241
Greg did not track it down – someone else posted it. He did take it down when he saw it. Maria apologised for the misunderstanding… Not Greg!
Further, just because her address is easy to find online doesn’t make it alright to go and find it and then post it, together with a picture of said address, on a forum that’s infamous for harassment and other kinds of unethical behaviour. How anyone can honestly argue that this is not threatening behaviour meant to shut Amy up is beyond me.
Oh wait. “Honestly”. My bad.
Oh shit, that was Vacula, too?
I didn’t even retain his name,
and yet I knew—
I knew he was a douchecanoe.
@oolon, is that the same episode that is supposed to be Greg Laden’s alleged threats of violence against someone that gets brought up so often?
Huh, that is weird about the Boy Scouts. I’m British so I’m still occasionally surprised by how non-secular the US is.
Tugley, Greg’s threats of violence are actual threats and he got booted from FtB for them. You can see it here:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/rockbeyondbelief/2012/07/04/greg-ladens-sometimes-the-bad-guys-win/
Is the Slymepit devoted to hating Skepchick?
I’d never heard of the Slyme Pit before, but I just went over there, and you’re right. It’s not devoted to hating Skepchick. It’s devoted to hating Skepchick and Freethought Blogs.
It seems to consist mostly of guys gossiping and complaining about the same small group of atheist bloggers, almost all of whom–I’m sure this is a coincidence–are women. Well, and PZ Myers, of course.
And, oh my gosh, there’s a pro-MRA thread! Ha!
Yeah, this all pretty much sums up why I’m not part of the online atheist “movement.”
Huh. I was in the Cub Scouts despite my completely secular upbringing; the topic never came up, as far as I remember, but that was a looooong time ago and I was, you know, 8 years old or whatever Cub Scouts are. But it’s ridiculous that the Boy Scouts have some sort of official position against atheists/agnostics.
This sort of thing is why it would be great to have some sort of secular lobbying group working on these issues. Provided, you know, that it didn’t align itself with the worst people in the atheist movement.
That’s exactly what I got from it – and the whole ‘faith is a cognitive failure and bad and nothing good ever comes from it’ bollocks just made me think “hello, here’s another person who thinks they know better than I do what my experiences and interpretations of them and inner life are, better than I do.”
Fuck that!
I think there is discrimination against atheists, it just isn’t as apparent as other discrimination because even a lot of out atheists pass in most situations, even places where, for example, GLBT people would out themselves. But look what happened to Jessica Alquist when she tried to get her school to take down an unconstitutional banner–the banner is bad enough (I’d call it a case of Christian privilege rather than direct discrimination) but the community reaction was… scary. My sister and I have both received negative comments about our atheism when people find out, and I often keep my mouth shut about it in places where religious people, especially Christians, wouldn’t.
And polls say that atheists are less trusted even than Muslims (not that anti-muslim bigotry is okay), the boyscouts officially won’t let us in (enforcement at the local level is likely spotty), and good luck getting elected to office in the US as an atheist. Also, I don’t think we can deny that Christian* privilege is everywhere, like on money and the pledge of allegiance as well as how people use “Christian” as shorthand for “a good person” even when they obviously have nothing to do with each other, and that has the same kinds of psychological effects that constant reminders of white, straight, or male privilege has.
TLDR: No oppression is equal, but anti-atheist oppression can certainly lead to violence, depending on where you live and how loudly you talk. It also has really strong manifestations of privilege and microagressions.
*A lot of it at least sounds not specifically Christian, but the vehement defenders of God in government generally all have a specific God in mind.
@CassandraSays
You know, I don’t get the anti-God thing. I mean, I don’t think that God exists – how can you be anti something that you don’t believe in the existence of?
There’s a difference between being anti-God and anti-Religion. Though, I’m not surprised that you don’t get it.
You’re not really in a position to be trying to talk down to anyone, sweetie.
What Thomas could have said: Well, actually, I distinguish between anti-god and anti-religion. Though I don’t believe in god, what really irks me is how organized religion deters free thinking and spurs violent action and I think it’s worth my time to advocate against that. What Thomas did say: I am an adolescent with an incredibly tenuous grasp on my ideology so I just say nasty sarcastic things to strangers on the internet rather than engage them in constructive dialogue.
Dawkins is actually largely alright as a pop-science writer if you pretend he slipped into retirement in the late ’90s.
@CassandraSays
There’s probably an argument for anti-atheist discrimination in the US. Aren’t you Californian? The states are a big place.
@Everyone again
Internet atheists and my largely non-shitty but caught up on Logic and Reason (philosophy BA, got big into logical positivism) Dad actually made Dawkins-spouting proto-neckbeard teen me find religion, so there’s something.
Two years ago I would’ve argued that no-one ever found religion, though :
The more defensive, angry little atheist boys who post here, the more the existence of Atheism+ starts to make sense. Seriously, guys, how do you expect to have any impact on mainstream culture when even other atheists dislike being around you so much that they decided to split off and form a sub-movement just to get away from you?
@David Futrelle
So you are paddling back now? Maybe he’s not a stalker and harasser, but you don’t like him therefore you are entitled to make unfounded accusations?
Wait, there’s something wrong with that now? That’s been my entire schtick here and I feel made pretty welcome.
@ lowquacks
Yeah, I think I may have failed to take into account just how unlike the rest of the US the Bay Area is in a lot of ways. Here, people who act shocked and appalled by the fact that atheists exist are a minority and generally mocked. It’s one of the reasons we’re willing to tolerate the ridiculous cost of living.
@Thomas
Posting personal details of someone and identifying them as being one of those awful feminists at AVfM of all places is pretty harassing.