Not that there’s anything good about this, but hearing that both Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins “resigned” from whatever honorary positions they had with the FFRF rather made my heart sink.

I was a linguistics student for a time, and Pinker’s books always had a sociolinguistic aspect to them, but I never saw transphobia. It was admittedly a while back, so it really wasn’t yet settling into the national consciousness.

I also admired Dawkins’ writing style; again, I saw nothing transphobic.

So for both of these guys to be like “nope, you should have totally kept a piece up that says transwomen should have fewer rights and options” is, maybe, the final insult of 2024.

  • Don Piano
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    14 months ago

    Oh hey these three (Dawk, Coyne, Pinker) were disappointments/shitty back when the atheism movement of the Aughties split into those who combine it with social justice sentiments and those who just wanna be bigots without also going to church. That tracks.

  • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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    14 months ago

    There is no transphobia in Atheism.

    There are some individuals who ascribe to being Atheists, and who are also transphobic.

    But “Not believing in a god” says nothing about transphobia.

  • @yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    24 months ago

    As an atheist, I don’t follow a single famous atheist because then it feels like preaching and that just reminds me of religion

  • @Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
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    34 months ago

    This is not a part of atheism. These are old ass narcissistic bigots who needed a new grift as their old one wore thin.

    • Pete HahnloserOP
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      24 months ago

      That is a weird bit to me as well. I’m used to atheists being the group most likely to follow Jesus’ teachings.

      • metaStatic
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        14 months ago

        I think the purpose of religious teachings is to cast off the shackles of religion

  • @within_epsilon@beehaw.org
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    04 months ago

    “No gods, no masters” also applies to demagogues like Pinker or Dawkins. Disconnecting an idea from the people associated with bringing it into your life can be difficult.

  • BlackLaZoR
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    04 months ago

    Atheism was never related to gender politics in the first place. The title makes no sense

    • Given religion is often used as an excuse for misogyny and how much that crowd of atheists emphasis how backwards theists often are, it’s easy to see how people would have expected better from at least that sect of atheists. But then they turn out to be racist and misogynists just like the theists they criticize.

      Of course it has nothing to do with atheism itself just like religion doesn’t really have much to do with why people who use it as an excuse are actually misogynist.

  • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    That’s pretty damn disheartening, considering Richard Dawkins being one of the writers responsible for my world view today. His books really made me understand the questions I had about my beliefs in religion after growing up in a fundamentalist family, and my understanding of the beauty of evolution when all that info was skipped in a private religious schools

    Truly a sad day to read this

    • @jonne@infosec.pub
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      14 months ago

      There’s a section of the atheist movement that went deep into Islamophobia after 9/11, and they came out of that aligned with the Christian Right in the end. Not sure if this is part of a grift or just an age thing.

  • Scary le Poo
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    04 months ago

    Witaf does atheism have to do with transphobia?

    One is a rejection of God beliefs, the other is about identity and people’s bodies. It’s like comparing a parking structure to a grapefruit.