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Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
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6 Oct, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Surely, not a single very online capital-A Atheist will use these statistics to argue that movement atheism doesn't have serious problems with sexism and racism and that they don't still have to take those issues seriously.
This is a very odd assumption to make about the FFRF--that the only commonality among its members is "a disbelief in God." FFRF is an organization with a clearly defined political purpose; it's not just a club for non-theists. They're gonna have stuff in common.
Precisely because it has a clear mandate, FFRF has remained relatively free from the more reactionary New Atheist tendencies, compared to other groups like American Atheists or Center for Inquiry. It's not surprising that its members would express these positions.
Oh look! It's USEFUL DATA:

The data clearly shows that secular* Americans tend toward more progressive attitudes, but you still have 30% willing to vote for Trump! It's not a magic shield against fascism!

(*I don't love this umbrella term, but I don't have a better one to describe this diverse group.)

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Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
6 Oct
A SCOTUS decision in a religious freedom case that goes against the petitioner is not "anti-religion," any more than one that upholds a claim to religious freedom is "pro-religion."

This phrasing feeds the idea that civil secularism is anti-religion.

thehill.com/opinion/judici… Image
I don't know if you've heard, but the line on the right for quite some time has been that the liberal courts are attacking religion every chance they get, and anything short of "do what thou wilt, evangelicals" is evidence of an atheistic hatred of all religion.
Which is why the primary goal of the right over the past four years has been to pack the federal bench with the most conservative judges they can find--it's to SAVE JESUS FROM THE HORRIBLE, GODLESS SECULARISTS.
Read 4 tweets
Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
6 Oct
This is so true--Gen-Xers grew up with casual racism and sexism EVERYWHERE in our world, but because it wasn't wearing a hood, we* could ignore it.

It was so bad that when we all become "enlightened" in the 90s, Friends seemed like an IMPROVEMENT.

(*those of us with privilege)
The Clinton years gave white liberals a sense of extreme smugness, a dust-off-your-hands, stand-back-and-look-at-the-completed-work feeling of having fixed the country, and maybe even the world!

Gen-Xers coming of age in this era became complacent if they could afford to be.
The Boomers did the same thing--many a 70-year-old will tell you that the civil rights movement fixed racism, so what do "they" have to complain about now? (70yo in question likely spent 1968 in a crewcut wondering why "they" were rioting.)
Read 6 tweets
Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
6 Oct
Years ago when I was still on Facebook, I hated to see so many of my gen-x classmates from my suburban Seattle high school ossifying into a simulacrum of their parents' boomer lifestyle and attitudes.
Thinking of all Gen-Xers as ironic, cooly detached, and disaffected authority-questioners is about as useful and accurate as thinking of all Boomers as hippies, war protestors, and civil rights marchers.
It's not the Gen-X "mentality" that leads them to support Trump more than other generations; it's the relative privilege and financial security of a large proportion of the cohort.
Read 4 tweets
Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
5 Oct
How, in 2020, does Pew use "belief in God" across all religious traditions?

Capital-G "God" is *quite* the term to use when describing the object of belief in both the United States and, say, India.

And no, the report does not address this.
You're going to have a hard time convincing me that the 79% of people in India who answered yes to this question think of the word "God" in a significantly similar way to folks in Sweden, Turkey, or the US.

But that doesn't even occur to Pew???
The really irritating thing is that underneath this clumsy terminology is an important question: whether a society assumes that morality is tied to an essential, transcendent source. That's a serious question with real-world effects. But don't conflate it all with Christianity.
Read 4 tweets
Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
4 Oct
I watched Lindsey Fitzharris's "Curious Life and Death of" on the Smithsonian Channel, and oh wow is there some irresponsible "history" being done here.

Her "verdict" on Lizzie Borden was that she did it, evidenced by living as she wanted once she controlled her own finances.
Setting aside the "science lab" nonsense and other THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE HISTORY UNCOVERED foofraw, Fitzharris's argument for Borden's guilt was fundamentally misogynist and rooted in 19th century assumptions about women's ability to manage their own lives.
See, Lizzie Borden was known to be dissatisfied with the rather humble appointments of her father's house, given his substantial wealth. So, Fitzharris argues, the fact that when she inherited her share of his estate she moved to a fancier part of town proves she murdered him.
Read 9 tweets
Charles Louis Richter Profile picture
26 Mar
The Triscuit saga is enormously frustrating for me because the electricity biscuit thesis is not well supported by available documents, but Nabisco--which has already said it has no documentation as to the name's origin--is now "confirming" the thesis with no evidence.
This may seem like a trivial thing (AND IT IS, WITH RESPECT TO [GESTURES BROADLY]), but it also blurs the line between historical research and the declaration by fiat from a corporation more concerned with how its brand is perceived *now* than what may have happened in 1903.
I was skeptical of the elecTRIcity biSCUIT origin from the start because it the early ads don't make the link clear at all. Portmanteaus in brand names were very common at the time, but they were also highlighted so there would be no confusion.
Read 13 tweets

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