Thread by @steve_shives

And while I'm thinking about it, everyone who was in that group photo with Armoured Skeptic and Shoe at Vidcon a year or two ago should be fucking embarrassed. Maybe they are. I hope so. Some of my favorite people were in that pic, looking very chummy with two absolute shits.

I think it was Hbomb and Lindsay Ellis and Contrapoints and Dan Olson (who was the only one who looked unhappy to be there). And I love all those people to this day and I try not to hold it against them and I've never said anything publicly about it before, but that sucked.

That fucking sucked. Because I'm pretty sure they all knew who Greg and June were and what they were about, that they were bigoted, ignorant, manipulative starfuckers who wanted that pic to make it look like their toxic asses were welcome at the cool kids table.

WHICH THEY WERE.

It takes so little courage to stand up and say "I'm not going to be part of this." And they all sat there and smiled (except for Dan) and took that picture with those two fucking shitbags. And it was incredibly disappointing.

I mean, I've fucked up, too. At the last Reason Rally I took pictures with some people, one of whom turned out to be Lalo Dagach, who is also a piece of shit, and the only reason I let him get a pic with me was because I didn't fucking recognize him.

Believe me, I've wished many times since then that I did recognize him and I had told him to fuck off, that I didn't even want to stand next to him, that I was embarrassed to be breathing the same oxygen as him. But I didn't. I didn't know enough to say it.

Everyone in that pic with Skeptic and Shoe knew enough to say it, but apparently none of them did. And that sucks. And I know it was awhile ago now, and they've all done great things since, and I'm not tagging them in this or trying to shit on them, but it still sucked.

Aron Ra, one of the last prominent YouTube skeptic/atheists who I still admired, has shown his ass in this Rationality Rules/ACA/Essence Of Thought ruckus. He had a beer with RR, took a pic with him, cheekily called him "controversial" in a tweet.

Aron knows enough, or should know enough, to not hang around with people like RR, too, but he does anyway. At BEST that makes him a person who is okay palling around with a transphobe. And that just doesn't cut it with me.

I don't give a fuck what your reasons are. You don't want to start drama? Fuck you, the "drama" started when the guy put out ignorant, bigoted shit about trans people and then threw a tantrum when he got called out on it.

You don't want to divide the community? Fuck you. The bigots need to be divided from the rest of the community, not apologized to and pandered to and soothed and reassured.

You don't want to alienate your audience or lose subs? FUCK YOU. I make a living on YouTube, too. I live or die by my Patreon earnings and ad revenue, and I make a fucking hell of a lot less from either of those than either Aron or RR.

(Or anyone, good person or sack of shit, in that pic with Skeptic and Shoe, either, by the way.)

I'm sick to death of people with bigger platforms than me, who make more money than me, who have a hell of a lot more security than me, being too chickenshit to do EASY, BASIC things that would make things better for everyone in this atheist/skeptic community.

It's not all easy shots, for sure, but for fuck's sake, take the easy ones when you get 'em. Don't pal around with shitty people. Don't make excuses for them. Don't pull this chickenshit "I'm staying out of it" stuff when people ask you about things like this.

EVERY SINGLE TIME you smile in a photo or you sit down for a beer and a meal with a person who has targeted marginalized people, who has spread ignorance and intolerance and caused harm, you're sending a message to those people who've been harmed that they don't matter to you.

You're saying you'd rather be friends with shitty-but-popular people than stand up to them, call them out, set an example to others. You'd rather protect your regular speaking gigs and your relationships with certain orgs than do what's fucking right.

And that sucks. Because I don't get invited to speak at conferences. And when I do occasionally get invited to attend or table, I almost always say no, both because it's too expensive and because I know shitty people will be there that I'd rather not see.

And I don't just mean shitty people will buy tickets. I mean shitty people will be invited speakers and guests.

I've burned too many bridges to ever be that important of a figure in the atheist/skeptic community as it's currently constituted. And that's fine. I do okay. Lots of people with way less than I have do the same thing, for the same reasons, at an ever higher cost.

I don't know what kind of an ally I am to LGBTQ+ people, or to women, or to people of color, or to people with disabilities, or to any other group of people that gets shit on and held back just for being who they are. I know I'm far from the person I should be.

But I try. And when I fuck up, I try to own it and admit it and do better. As long as I can keep doing that, I can still look at myself in the mirror. I don't even know how some of these fucking people can stand to face their own reflections. I'm not sure I want to know. (end)