Comments on: Is the Skeptic Empire dying? https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/ ... Because I don't watch enough hockey, drink enough beer, or eat enough bacon. Mon, 02 Jun 2014 19:41:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.6 By: Why are YOU here? » Lousy Canuck https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25796 Mon, 02 Jun 2014 19:41:00 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25796 […] asked once before: “is the skeptic empire dying?” It’s still relevant, because we’re still being asked to shut up for the good of […]

]]> By: The perrenial in-fighting of secular factions | Fair Coin Toss https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25795 Fri, 03 Jan 2014 11:34:59 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25795 […] being misrepresented, shamed, harassed, demonized, banned and deleted. Lousy Canuck asks, glumly, “Is the Skeptic Empire dying?” Don’t worry, Canuck, the Cult of Reason has been around for a long, long time. It never dies, […]

]]> By: Jason Thibeault https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25794 Wed, 16 Oct 2013 00:17:05 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25794 What’s hilarious about @45 is, this is one of the last places you’ll find people uncritically parroting anyone.

]]> By: Jason Thibeault https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25793 Wed, 16 Oct 2013 00:16:26 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25793 Well that explains the sudden latecomer troll @45. Thanks Jim. Maybe I should post about people using TITLES of pieces to argue for positions that the posts, themselves, don’t bear out.

Of course, this is Schlafly. Nothing so nuanced could get through to a guy who thought reality had too much liberal bias that he had to correct it by building his own conservative encyclopedia.

]]> By: Jim Phynn https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25792 Wed, 16 Oct 2013 00:04:31 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25792 I hate to point this out to you, Jason, but Andy Schlafly saw the title of this entry and used it as an argument that somehow being an atheist is the wrong position to take. He obviously didn’t read this entry or any of the comments, but you should be aware that you’ve made it onto the radar of that bastion of stupidity and ignorance, conservapedia…

]]> By: Thorgasm https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25791 Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:57:57 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25791 Maybe if you weren’t a bunch of Hitchens-Dawkins parroting basement dwelling megadouchers….

]]> By: theignored https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25790 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 02:31:02 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25790 This is a step…people like you and Myers calling this shit out when it happens, and damned if those responsible are our “leaders” or not!

]]> By: The perrenial in-fighting of secular factions | Chris Winstead https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25789 Mon, 19 Aug 2013 17:55:21 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25789 […] being misrepresented, shamed, harassed, demonized, banned and deleted. Lousy Canuck asks, glumly, “Is the Skeptic Empire dying?” Don’t worry, Canuck, the Cult of Reason has been around for a long, long time. It never dies, […]

]]> By: F [is for failure to emerge] https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25788 Sat, 17 Aug 2013 04:24:26 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25788 @37:

Yeah, you’d think the first rule of skepticism would be don’t follow leaders.

@38:
That generally means people stop paying money to attend cons and stop donating to orgs that just don’t seem to be safe and tend to promote, allow, or excuse sexism (bigotries), and seem entirely incapable of addressing such with any real skepticism at all – rationality and critical thinking have left the building. Speakers, bloggers, commenters, org operators with this faux skepticism (hyperskepticism seems to be the popular term) won’t be joined for fun and games as friends so much. That part of the community who are the vocal apologists and harassers, and the imposition-rapey spectrum types will be fought.

I think that is what people mean when they say they’ve left the movement/community. They’ve cut ties, over time, with many of the old groups they used to think of as the “community” to them. The parts of the wider skeptic or atheist culture that don’t think privilege is worthy of examination (in a similar fashion to skeptics who refuse to consider religion as a target for skeptical thought, only scarier) are on the other side of this rift.

I’m sure some people walked away from any further engagement in any aspect of the community, because they don’t feel safe anywhere. Maybe they still read blogs or something occasionally, maybe not.

(And that’s my theory, which is mine…)

]]> By: left0ver1under https://the-orbit.net/lousycanuck/2013/08/14/is-the-skeptic-empire-dying/comment-page-1/#comment-25787 Fri, 16 Aug 2013 16:06:31 +0000 http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/?p=13165#comment-25787 Tony, The Queer Shoop: Undefeated Pictionary Champion (#26) – Yes, that was what I was getting at but worded it wrong.

To continue the “growing pains” analogy, I’m sure most of us have someone or something in our past that we regret, that we say to ourselves, “What the @#$% was I thinking?” It could be a decision we made, a “friend” we hung around with, someone we dated (read: thinking with the wrong body part), an action we took (smoking, drugs, tattooing, piercing) that we later regret or even something else.

The young make mistakes, it’s inevitable. The smart thing to do is learn from them and not to repeat them.

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