Wednesday, August 29, 2012

VoiceOfReason467

No comments:
All posts regarding VoiceOfReason467 on this blog have been reverted to draft.

Edit: I found a couple that were overlooked and they were removed. If there's another, please leave me a comment. 

Atheists Against Atheist Plus. (AAA+)

1 comment:
I touched on this already, but I thought I would make a catalog of the other various blog posts and videos by others who have weighed in against Atheism Plus. If I am missing any or you want to add yours, email jim at jimjesus dot com (Sorry, I don't want more webcrawlers picking it up) or just leave a comment.

Blogs:

CFI's Ronald A. Lindsay:

Videos:

 CobraJones



Haysenberg



TheSkepticalHeretic



Sofiarune


IntegralMath has made lots of videos on the topic, here's one, but see his channel for more.

noelplum99


AussieAtheist


CardinalVirtues


BionicDance

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Just for the record...

No comments:
I will not respond to any blog directed at me who can't grasp very basic grammar and punctuation. It only demonstrates your maturity and investigatory abilities.

- Thank you. 

Sunday, August 26, 2012

I'm an atheist, that means I'm smart.

13 comments:
I've said this on Twitter many times and I thought I would write a post about why I say it. The common theme of Movement Atheism is:

Atheists infinitely rational ubermenches, theists stupid redneck hillbillies. Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennit are infallible and if you disagree with them, even in topics unrelated to the topic of existence of Gods, you must be a theist and thus stupid. 

While even in my hardcore Movement Atheism days I would have never agreed to this, but that sort of superiority complex did consume me briefly but I did snap out of it fairly quickly and since then Atheists have been consuming much more of my patience than the hardcore evangelist Christian crowd.

Let me make my position clear because if I don't I will inevitably get a flood of comments accusing me of being a theist. Even still, I might be accused of being a stealth theist. So for the record:

I do think disregarding religion was one of the best things I've ever done, and I did to it though rational means. However, just because my conversion to atheism was rational, doesn't make everyone else's conversion was done rationally nor does it mean that me or other are rational about other things. The only thing being an atheists is or should ever mean is that you deny the existence of a deity. You made one decision I agree was right on one subject, and nothing else.

With that said I will go over a few reason why I've always said this, then go on to the reason I wrote this entry. The final straw on the camel. Some of these are minor disagreements and some of these are pretty major.


Christopher Hitchens. 

My favorite of the 4 horsemen for sure, however he was an avowed Marxist and supporter of the Iraq War. These are minor disagreements compared to others, but it does illustrate that he was not infallible. 

Sam Harris. 

Seriously, screw this guy. While I thought his book End of Faith was good, and he's a great debator and public speaker on the question of the existence of God, he does advocate racial profiling of Arabs at airports and thinks that the self-incrimination clause of the 5th Amendment should be overturned because it's a quaint relic from religion and that in the future we should use neurological lie detectors.

BionicDance

A YouTuber who's known for making the same 5 videos over and over and over and over again. They are poorly argued, repetitive, poorly made, and just serves as a front for her to sell useless crap on Zazzle and to get people to buy her stuff on her Amazon Wish List. Her line is "Don't just run on automatic; think!" and it seems like all of her videos are running on automatic. They say the same things, argue the same lame points over and over and over and over and over...

Rebecca Watson and P.Z. Myers 

If anyone deserves my full disdain, it's Watson and Myers. While Watson is perfectly fine objectifying herself in sexy pictures in her Skepchick calendar she's not OK with you asking her for coffee in an elevator. If you tell her that it's trivial protest like Dawkins did, then she will announce how evil you are and write you off a "rich old heterosexual white guy." P.Z. Myers has gone to ridiculous lengths to white knight for her, including banning Thunderf00t from FreeThoughtBlogs for daring to question Elevtorgate and their proposals for having 'anti-sexist' rules for further conferences.  They're also now pimping this A+ Atheism snake oil I will talk about later in this post.

Cult of Dusty

A YouTuber who make obnoxiously shouting videos about how religion is the source of all evil and has even tried to make the point that the world would be a near utopia if religion were abolished.

Pat Condell

Pat Condell broke into the atheist community like a bolt of lightning with his Atheist Challenge video he did for the Rational Response Squad. Then his other videos came out where he started expressing Islamaphobia, citing World Net Daily, Jordan Maxwell and Zeitgeists' Christ Myth theory giving misleading and often downright bogus information, and promoting the infamous "Jihad Prevention Act" which would have blocked people immigrating to this country and removed citizenship from Americans who ever expressed support for Sharia Law.This guy goes without saying, he's one of the rare people who was cast out of Movement Atheism for being to fringe. But he is an exception, not the rule. 

You're Either A Plus Good or Thought Criminal. 

Now this was the final straw for me. Trying to institute a "new wave" of Atheism, (See this horrible  Manifesto) because the second wave was just a bunch of rich old white guys according to Rebecca Watson. This new wave of Atheism is Atheism Plus or 'A+.' Apparently this all stemmed from a conversation on one of the blogs at FreeThoughtBlogs, and more importatly one particular comment from Jen McCreight.

Atheists plus we care about social justice,
Atheists plus we support women’s rights,
Atheists plus we protest racism,
Atheists plus we fight homophobia and transphobia,
Atheists plus we use critical thinking and skepticism.

 Richard Carrier breaks it down like this:

A. Atheism and skepticism should embrace diversity (and not just be a bunch of white guys reading a bunch of white guys). In fact, we should be really keen on expanding our experience and horizons in that regard, aiming to learn as much as possible, and provide resources to help all our comrades in arms.

 While I agree, this kind of goes against the protest against racism bit. If you're going to fight racism, you can stop using "white guys" as a negativism. You should embrace it and hope to expand across ethnic lines. Sure being non-diverse of a group isn't always great, but it's not bad to be any ethnicity, white included.

B. Atheist and skeptic communities should encourage everyone to apply skeptical analysis not just to religion, pseudoscience, and woo, but to social, moral, and political policies, theories and activists.

 No. The skeptical and atheist communities should keep their views open to people of all views except that of religion, pseudoscience, and woo. If you want to be a staunch right wing conservative, Marxist, or a moderate but still oppose religion and homeopathy you should be included. If you don't buy the feminist's theory or thing Obama is not be best of presidents, you should be free to disagree and still be allowed to discuss the unrelated topic of atheism and skepticism. This is just shrinking the tent, and it's not to anyone's benefit.

C. Considering the history of religion and how it has even warped secular life and thought in countries around the world, atheists and skeptics should spend as much time and energy deconstructing illogical and/or inhumane secular policies and claims as they do actively fighting religiously-based interference. We have to be as critical of ourselves and each other as we would expect anyone to be of religion, so we can be sure we don’t make the same mistakes. We must police the rot within, if we are to stand strong against our foes without.
This I can agree with the message that underlies this, but it makes it more malleable and extend it to non-religious issues. Yes, things like female (and male to a lesser extent) genital mutilation is not the greatest bi-products of religion and should be opposed by the skeptical community on the science grounds, and by the atheist community on religious grounds. Opposing the secular stance against, say, the death penalty should not be an official stance of the community if the goal is to broaden the base.

D. In the field of education, atheists and skeptics should help promote courses and curricula that include logic and abstract thought rather than focusing all efforts on science. We need to train kids with a universal toolkit of skeptical and critical thinking about all issues in their lives, not just the scientific, but the social, political, and ideological as well. And we need to take seriously the effort to push for that and make it happen at the fundamental and national level.

Ever hear the story of the family who's great lovable dog was hit by a car, so they cooked and ate him? That's how it was reading this. It was a good read and then they just ruined it. Yes, the skeptic, and to an extent atheist groups should promote skeptic and rational thinking in school. But political and ideological opinions? No. People should use reasoning and logic to deduce what political ideology is best, not given on a silver platter. That's not teaching logic, that's an ideological agenda for manipulating the youth to your brand of politics.  But see, it's bad when right-wing conservatives or evangelical Christians do it, but OK if progressive atheists do it.

So now on the the planks of the new Atheist Plus Manifesto.

1. We believe in being reasonable.
This is that all atheists should be rational and follow lines of logic and evidence. If someone isn't doing this, then call them out. No complaints here.

2. We believe in being compassionate. 
Again, this is the family's dog story all over again. It starts off by saying that we should have empathy and care for people, we shouldn't be harsh or insulting unless it's justified. Then it leaps right into comparing people who "attack" feminism in the same ballpark as racism and sexism.  Whether you agree with them or not, people who oppose feminism aren't advocating things on the same level as sexism or racism. Then it tries to equate the plight of a woman who was apparently doxed and threatened to the guy who asked Watson for some coffee. Mind if I call you, Dick? I thought you believed in being reasonable, Dick.

 3. We believe in personal integrity
Nothing out of the ordinary here. Be honest, don't be a hypocrite...etc. Now with that said, no, you don't have personal integrity, Dick. Go though the comment section here and just see why I say this. People have legitimate concerns and issues with the post and he just attacks and belittles them and offers no acknowledgement to their arguments. Makes irrational comparisons to the Nazis and the KKK. Even just saying "So, one vote for douchery. Got it." to someone who said simply "I'll stick to the original atheism, thank you." Someone did point out how much of a hypocrite you were and now you had to eat your shoe and retract a lot of those comments, however it does illustrate a "Do as I say, not as I do" mentality

Now here's the bad part. If you disagree with he narrative of FreeThoughtBlogs, (which is pro-feminism, left wing populism, and for indoctrinating children with these values) then you're a Goldstien. A an ungood thought criminal. As they put it "Atheist Minus" or "A-" minus. And you are not one of "us" but one of "them."

Let me make this clear; Atheism is not political, it's a-political. You can make a group of political groups what cater to atheism. Like even the term "Progressive Atheist" which you use in the blog would be perfectly fine. Have a group that appeals and spreads the ideas of progressive politics and atheism.  Just like there can be "The Skeptical Libertarian" which aim isn't to make the skeptical movement a streamlined libertarian group, but to promote both skepticism and libertarianism. Or like "Log Cabin Republicans" which is to promote conservatism and gay rights, not to make all conservatives gay rights activists. Don't try and mold a non-belief into a series of beliefs. Atheism is a lack of beliefs; nothing more.

(For a further and more in depth dicection of this A+ blog post and the comments Richard makes, see the video below.)

Stupid Atheists and Smart Christians Exist, Believe It or Not! 

There's a long history of great thinkers coming from judeo-christian beliefs. Not jsut the usual dead scientists but people like Kenneth Miller, a catholic biologist who argued for evolution in the Dover Trial. Francis Collins from the Human Genome Project who is an avowed Evangelical Christian. And the neurosurgeon Ben Carson just to name a few. I don't think anyone worth responding to will deny that that there are brilliant Christians who make contributions to the skeptic community. 

There are stupid atheists. I mean just terribly irrational. There are atheist conspiracy theorists, 9/11 Truthers, New Agers, UFO enthusiasts, utopian ideologues, MLM cultists, and the like. The Raelians is an atheist group and tries to sell itself to atheists. Brett Keene the lying, wife beating, e-begging, welfare king is an avowed atheist. And while I disagree with these women and don't think they're idiots, many leftists do. S.E. Cupp and Ayn Rand are an atheists and atheism is included in Rand's Objectivist philosophy.  There's a host of unpalatable, idiotic or downright morally repugnant people who self apply the atheist label and should never be used as an identifier of a good or rational person because people can reject god for irrational reasons.

In conclusion. 


So in short, don't think for a second that just because you rejected God, you're automatically correct about everything else because you're a rational person. Don't think that just because someone hasn't made that leap that they are stupid or at least dumber than you. Just because you're an atheist AND of a flavor of political thought that your flavor of political thought is the best for all.  Don't make stupid and absurd claims that a world without religion is a utopia or even "better." People have rational beliefs and irrational sacred cows where they believe in a god or not.

If your goal is to push for greater acceptance of atheism in the mainstream, great. I'm with you, but Movement Atheism has long left that goal and is now on to more extremist positions. While I still loathe the term "militant atheist" (like we fly planes into buildings or bomb abortion clinics) I can understand why that label gets bandied about. You're rational in your questioning of God, but irrational in your approach to win hearts and minds. 




Saturday, August 18, 2012

Yea, I'm Done With TZM/TVP

6 comments:
So I've been doing an inventory of what I care about and guess what failed to make the list? It's been a long road, and I've helped many people leave that pointless group and now I'm done.

The Zeitgeist Media Festival was a total failure. It was an empty house on the main stage in Los Angeles, even more-so than last year. Videos of the other events are non-existent. New (Age) World Fair was equally as fail. VTV can't even keep his electricity on with donations anymore and hasn't collected the monthly amount he needed in months and now resorts to trolling with sockpuppets for attention. People advocating TZM/TVP on YouTube videos have come to an almost grinding halt except for a few people and even they are talking about other things anymore. Peter Joseph is having to reverse his no interview policy and is now begging respected people for interviews and because they all turned him down, he's climbing back up the crank pole hoping for an Alex Jones interview. They've been laughed and shunned out of most Occupy camps and the only media attention they can foster is when one of their members breaks the law or does something stupid. If you ask most people they will roll there eyes when you mention Zeitgeist. Most political talkers have a unspoken rule about not talking about TZM because they know they're not dealing with people with a political view, but a host of religious zealots with a superiority complex so they don't waste their time. People know Merola is a conspiracy nut and Fresco is a senile old man and that's the icing on the "why bother?" cake.


And I noticed that in the last 3 days I have only talked to or heard from 2 I would call "Zeitgeist supporters" and even "Zeitards" have been few and far between. Why? Because The Zeitgeist Movement has been dead for some time now and now the corpse is starting to decompose.

There's no point left in even wasting my time exposing them any more unless one of them starts threatening to blow things up or shoots a congress critter again. I will no longer even aknowledge your argument or your comment if you're a member of TZM/TVP. If you use TZM/TVP material or their advocate's materials I will cease communication. It's not worth anyone's time. It's not worth my subcriber's and reader's time and it's really not worth mine. James Kush, MarioBrotha, Muertos, RonOfTheDead, axe863, JustinTemper, Bob Dobbs/AgentMatt, CT2012, TheRealRoxette, Ed Winston, and the rest have does good work exposing them and helping pull membership to critical mass. By critical I mean on life support.

So bad puns aside, I'm done. Leave a comment if you will, I'm on to greener pastures. It's been real.

-Jim Jesus
a.k.a. Machwon
a.k.a. JIMBO THE BLOGGER
a.k.a. paid disinformation agent
a.k.a. Paid Free Market Economist
a.k.a. The propagandist
a.k.a. the fucking faggot
a.k.a. the reason anarchy will never work
a.k.a. the culturally indoctrinated idiot.
a.k.a. hired reputation destroyer
a.k.a. the patriarch
a.k.a. The guy who watches Bill O'Reilly and Jersey shore
a.k.a. the 1%
a.k.a ... fuck I forgot most of the bullshit you idiots call me. Any way you know who I am. 

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Yes, I deleted VTV's comment.

2 comments:
VTV has been using sockpuppets (like he always does) to try and link his sockpuppet's blog post to here. I deleted them just like he deletes and edits many of my comments from his stuff. I told him I'm not interested in debating him or his poverty Muppets anymore but he still persists to push the issue.

His blog isn't worth addressing as anyone who takes 5 seconds to investigate the quotes and sources he uses would find they prove him to be a liar. So I'm not going to waste my time nor will I waste any more time on VTV at all. He's insignificant to the movement, his fan base is depleting, and most of his critics are members of TZM. It would be like debating LaRouche to somehow sway Democrats into leaving the party. A Google search of "vtv v-radio" does more than enough to discredit him I'm just piling more straw on the dead camel.

So yes, I won't be accepting comments that link to that blog because it's a waste of time and energy and anyone who thinks that blog is objective isn't worth my time anyway.