Esp when you’re walking by the court minding your own business, and they keep throwing it at you, insisting you play for your good, put statues of Jordan in courthouses, make you swear on your favorite team in school and courts and try to pass laws to make the rest of life just like basketball.
To say that some basketball players are belligerent about their sport doesn’t mean that nobody is belligerent about not playing the sport.
So there are people on the court trying to force you to wear their jerseys and the ball at you.
And there are people who try to take the jerseys off players, puncture the ball, and protest outside courts.
I absolutely agree there are more belligerent religious people than there are belligerent atheists, what I’m saying is that belligerent people on both sides share a lot in common.
Pretty sure those protests are inspired by basketball fans who try to shove their fandom down our throats. Please go away. You’re winning no supporters.
You mean the tired sports metaphor that I’ve been absolutely shitting on all over this section and nobody has yet produced a single reasonable response to, because it is clearly a silly metaphor that nobody was ever meant to take as seriously as y’all are taking it?
I’m trying to have a reasonable discussion with y’all but all you can say is
bUt SpOrTs 😭😭😭
Like… I agree with his assessment.
But you are too fucking blinded by your holy conviction to even consider that they can both be true at the same time
You’re making a false dichotomy, those aren’t the only two options.
I fully agree that there are some absolutely unhinged religious people, and religious people are far far more likely to take extreme action than atheist are.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any passionate and loud atheist who try to take away religion from others.
I am absolutely not trying to say “both sides are equal in their absurdity/extremism/authoritarianism”, I’m saying that the identity politics involved makes passionate people on both sides behave in similar ways.
The religious have far more people who are passionate about their religion than atheists have people passionate about their atheism; but when you look at people who are similarly passionate on both sides, their identity as religious/atheist can often make them behave in similar ways when interacting with the public (or each other, at least).
I’m trying to make a far more nuanced point than you’re representing.
When did my dismissing your silly beliefs count as me actively trying to rob you of them? If your faith is strong, you shouldn’t pay any mind to what others think of it.
It doesn’t.
And that’s also clearly not what I was talking about.
To be clear, I count myself as atheist. I’m talking about how both religion and atheism play into identity politics, and how identity politics informs modern discourse.
Not everyone is like you, refusing to engage in discussions about the beliefs of others; some people take an active role trying to tear down the beliefs of others.
And also to be clear, I don’t disagree with the people who tear down the beliefs of the religious, I simply also acknowledge that the identity politics at play has significant overlap with the identity politics of religion.
Sure.
But routinely trying to take the basketball away from the basketball players shares a lot of similarities with a sport
Esp when you’re walking by the court minding your own business, and they keep throwing it at you, insisting you play for your good, put statues of Jordan in courthouses, make you swear on your favorite team in school and courts and try to pass laws to make the rest of life just like basketball.
Right.
To say that some basketball players are belligerent about their sport doesn’t mean that nobody is belligerent about not playing the sport.
So there are people on the court trying to force you to wear their jerseys and the ball at you.
And there are people who try to take the jerseys off players, puncture the ball, and protest outside courts.
I absolutely agree there are more belligerent religious people than there are belligerent atheists, what I’m saying is that belligerent people on both sides share a lot in common.
Pretty sure those protests are inspired by basketball fans who try to shove their fandom down our throats. Please go away. You’re winning no supporters.
Oh, so you’re explicitly saying you were seeking an echo chamber.
Is that a whiff of belligerence I smell? Why yes, it is.
You absolute pigeon.
You mean the tired sports metaphor that I’ve been absolutely shitting on all over this section and nobody has yet produced a single reasonable response to, because it is clearly a silly metaphor that nobody was ever meant to take as seriously as y’all are taking it?
I’m trying to have a reasonable discussion with y’all but all you can say is
Like… I agree with his assessment.
But you are too fucking blinded by your holy conviction to even consider that they can both be true at the same time
I swear y’all are Republicans.
“Please don’t base our laws on the rules of basketball, because some of us choose not to play.”
“wHY ArE YOu TRyiNg tO TaKE aWAy mY BAsKeTBaLl?!?!”
You’re making a false dichotomy, those aren’t the only two options.
I fully agree that there are some absolutely unhinged religious people, and religious people are far far more likely to take extreme action than atheist are.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any passionate and loud atheist who try to take away religion from others.
I am absolutely not trying to say “both sides are equal in their absurdity/extremism/authoritarianism”, I’m saying that the identity politics involved makes passionate people on both sides behave in similar ways.
The religious have far more people who are passionate about their religion than atheists have people passionate about their atheism; but when you look at people who are similarly passionate on both sides, their identity as religious/atheist can often make them behave in similar ways when interacting with the public (or each other, at least).
I’m trying to make a far more nuanced point than you’re representing.
When did my dismissing your silly beliefs count as me actively trying to rob you of them? If your faith is strong, you shouldn’t pay any mind to what others think of it.
It doesn’t.
And that’s also clearly not what I was talking about.
To be clear, I count myself as atheist. I’m talking about how both religion and atheism play into identity politics, and how identity politics informs modern discourse.
Not everyone is like you, refusing to engage in discussions about the beliefs of others; some people take an active role trying to tear down the beliefs of others.
And also to be clear, I don’t disagree with the people who tear down the beliefs of the religious, I simply also acknowledge that the identity politics at play has significant overlap with the identity politics of religion.