An Atheist Educator

I’d avoided feeding the troll over at the Billings Gazette for a while but yesterday through a few tidbits on the floor.  As predicted, he jumped right on them with the same summer reruns about bigotry and pointing out that someone else doesn’t like my comments.  I also challenged him to show up here where there is no moderator, but, as the bully/coward he is, it’s a no show.  He likes the safety of moderation.

I was criticized by an occasional commenter with a rant about what she sees as too much negativity.  She even gives the warning

“…being disrespectful of OTHERS beliefs all the time, day after day, and that sooner or later all those bitter feelings and resentments you carry in your heart WILL end up affecting you both physically as well as emotionally.”

She also said

“…you have a “belief”, whether you want to admit it or not.”

I challenged that notion and she comes back with

“…, I am just telling you that you DO believe in something…”

This is a common tact by the believers we encounter online.  They try to convince us that we believe in something with the goal of convincing us that we shouldn’t criticize beliefs.

Regular commenter, linderlu, didn’t like my statement

“I deny God because He doesn’t exist.”

She said

“Yet you can’t allow the same for others–allow that they too have their own beliefs. That’s really what your motivation is, right? You want to superimpose your beliefs onto others? You are right, without doubt–yet they too feel that same conviction and that should not be allowed. That’s what annoys me about your posts, there is no sense of allowing that you might not be right.”

I should just set up a set of canned answers, like StrawDog does, since I’ve had to answer this charge so many times. How can I “superimpose” my beliefs (there’s that word again) on anyone else?  And who doesn’t think they are right?

She continued on with

“I think it’s wrong how you try to refute every aspect of everyone else’s belief system as if you are omnipotent.”

I responded with a lesson about how online forums have worked for the past 30 years.

What we are seeing in all the above comments is a frustration from the believers that they cannot support their assertions and are pretty darn tired being called out for it.  Seeing the taboo against criticizing someone’s beliefs fall away must be terrifying for those who’ve used it for centuries to promote their superstitions unchallenged.

The little WimpyDog is complaining over at the BillingsGazette that I called him names.  Boo-hoo!  Never mind the fact that he rarely misses a chance to call me a “hater” or a “bigot,” but now he’s whimpering about being called “StrawDog” and “RacistDog.”  He is, of course, ignoring that when I used those monikers I also stated clearly how his own words proved him to be racist or guilty of using a straw man argument.  Since he cannot respond with a defense, he does his usual tirade about my military service, a long-ago debunked story he made up and ended up looking the fool over.  To quote Paul Simon:

“Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest”

I am leaving the “man” there even though it barely applies in this situation.

There are many other “names” that could be used to describe this particular troll.  MisogynistDog works since he has made so many negative comments about women, usually focusing on their looks and anatomy.

Then there’s HomophobeDog.  As they have in numerous other instances, even the moderators agreed:

But, that’s how trolls work, dropping their load and never admitting that it stinks up the place.

First, cue the music by clicking here.

Second, start scrolling down.

A not too long ago on a newspaper
online comment thread….

Troll Wars
Episode 1

It is a period of transition in the
universe.  After centuries dominated
by superstition, the world of science
birthed not only a better understanding
of the physical world, but gave way
to a rebellion of rational though, the
casting off of reliance on faith, and
subjugation of the masses by the
alliance of royalties and the
Ministers of Superstition.  They had
maintained their hold under threats
of earthly punishment followed by
an everlasting eternity in a
Lake of Fire.

The Rebellion, known as the
Age of Enlightenment, or the letters AE,
was launched under the leadership of
the masters Spinoza, Locke, Bayle,
and Voltaire.  This coincided with
the formulation of science as a pursuit
guided by The Method and led by
Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo,
Bacon, Descartes, and Newton.

The Rebellion created turmoil in lands
dominated by the Empire.  Many of the
Rebellion were put to death or had to
flee to foreign lands.  But the might
of science, reason, and logic was too
strong and it took hold in parts of the
world, advancing the quality of life and
leaving the lands of the Empire as tribal
fiefdoms fighting over their dwindling
influences.

The lands of the Rebellion continued to
flourish, but there was still strife as
remnants of the Empire within their borders
continued their vain attempts at maintaining
power.  They had established “Superstitious
Privilege” as a cultural norm, which included
prohibitions against criticizing their
irrational notions along with other
conveniences to their cause.  However,
the Rebellion did not use the Empire’s
own viscous tactics, and let the Empire’s
followers have their way for a time.  As
further advances in science proved the
inanity of their ways, their influence began
to wane and the Rebellion launched an
offensive to diminish their remaining
incursions into the rational world.

School children were no longer required to
chant incantations to deities, science
teaching no longer had to compete with
superstition, marriage was no longer
restricted to people of opposite genders
and of the same race, icons to the deities
of the Empire were removed from public
places, and the Empire’s influence over
medicine was taken away.

This did not sit well with the Empire and,
in lands where it still ruled, followers
continued to whip themselves in frenzies
seeing the Rebellion and its influences
as the ultimate evil and set out to stop it.
One sect from the Land of Sands, began
using 21st-century weaponry in their mission,
killing thousands.  This gave rise to a
new movement within the Rebellion who
launched a counter-attack, but not with
weaponry, but with words aimed at showing
the world that superstition is misguided
regardless of its type.  They are known as
the “Enough is Enoughs,” or the EE, are
combating irrational thought wherever
it can be found.

One of the fruits of the Rebellion is a mass-
communication tool known as the Internet.  It
provided a means where even in lands under
Empire control, people can have access to Truth.
In some places the Empire attempts to squash
access to this ‘Net and in other areas they
use it to spew their own irrational
meanderings in hope of looking relevant.

To counter the truth, the Empire launched an
army of Troll soldiers.  Their mission is to
disrupt dissemination of the Truth by creating
a false battle within online forums using
ad hominems, straw men, misstatements, outright
falsehoods, and every other apologetic tactic
to create the appearance of presence and
strength in the face of their falling support.

The Rebellion itself sent its own response to the
Trolls, meeting them head-on with pure logic,
reason, and calls for evidence.  Over time the
Trolls have become comic figures in the online
world.  They still strut and whine for each other,
and the Rebellion still feeds them a crumb or two,
but when measuring their impact, for all the
science we have developed, we are unable to
measure something that small.

However, the Troll War still goes on.  We should
continue to get the occasional dispatch from the
field where our agents describe the results of
pokings with the Stick of Logic.