Lately (i.e., ever since one of my readers posted one of my blog entries on Reddit), I have become a regular visitor at Reddit. I spend most of my time at r/atheism when I'm there, and, to be honest, it is always an "eat the corn, throw away the cobb" experience. No surprise. There's a lot of good stuff there, but there's also a lot of garbage there as well. Be prepared to wade through the muck in search of gold.
Rebecca Watson had a few comments about r/atheism recently in a post titled Reddit Makes Me Hate Atheists. Rebecca's article focuses on the following photo submission from a 15 year old female Redditor named "Lunam," and the many abusive and sexist comments she received:
(This is Lunam)
I won't post the comments Lunam received. I'll let you read Rebecca's article for that. I'd like to make a few initial observations instead:
1. This is an amazing story. Her "super religious" mom gives her a book by Carl Sagan for Christmas. It's a story of tolerance, understanding and acceptance.
2. Lunam wanted to share this awesome story with the atheist community. And what better place to share it than "the front page of the Internet"? I'm glad she shared her story with us, in spite of the travesty that followed in the form of comments she received.
3. Lunam is 15 years old, and into Carl Sagan. That's impressive. Most teenagers - especially teenagers nowadays in the instant gratification epoch of video games, movies on demand, YouTube and Facebook - are as deep as a puddle after a light rain, and completely ignorant of anything that happened more than 10 years ago. Yet Lunam, who has been alive for about as long as Carl Sagan has been dead, shows signs of sophistication and depth. Here is an intelligent young lady excited about receiving The Demon-Haunted World as a Christmas gift, and also appreciating the significance of the fact that her mother - a devout Christian - gave her this gift.
Rebecca Watson writes:
R/atheism is a huge community of atheists, and here is an example of a young woman attempting to join it, to get more involved, who is sexualized and mocked for being a girl. Why would she ever want to be a part of any atheist community, if that’s how she’s treated? The next time you look around your atheist events and wonder where all the women are, think of this and know that there are at least some of us who aren’t willing to just accept this culture without trying to change it.
Rebecca makes a good point. I have hope that Lunam is wise enough to understand that there are many of us out there who support her, and while even the atheist community still has problems with prejudice and insensitivity like the rest of the world, we're on the right track. We need intelligent and brave women like Lunam to help us get to where we need to be.
To the folks at r/atheism: It's obvious that your moderators don't give a flying fuck about what people post there, and since they won't do their job, it's up to you people. What's troubling about all the sexist and demeaning comments Lunam received is the high number of upvotes they received. That means a lot of people thought being abusive, sexist and belittling was just a fantastic idea. Sorry, folks, but rape and abuse jokes aren't funny. Mocking Lunam because she's young and female isn't funny. Why bother claiming to be "freethinkers," "skeptics" and "humanists" if you refuse to rise above the hateful and oppressive mentalities fostered by the dogmas from which you escaped?
I know, it's the Internet, which means we'll never be completely free of repulsive morons spewing idiocy behind veils of anonymity. I also know Reddit is a pretty wild place. I think Rebecca Watson made a misstep insofar as she didn't mention any of the many positive comments Lunam received, and making the overly dramatic statement that "r/atheism makes me hate atheists" (which I'm sure she phrased that way for effect) paints all atheists in a poor light. Truth is, r/atheism isn't all bad. There are many contributors there who are thoughtful, respectful and rational. Nevertheless, Rebecca's message is an important one, and I encourage all the thoughtful, respectful and rational folks who frequent r/atheism to discourage and downvote the bigots and sexists whenever you can. Let reason and humaneness prevail.
Veritas et Aequitas, Compatior et Libertas.
Dead-Logic.com
