Message to a Fellow Atheist About Atheism, Veganism and Feminism

Okay. I'm going to try to explain to you -- AGAIN -- why I sometimes get annoyed with you on the subject of religion.

This post may be annoying to you, too -- but suck it up, it'll be good for you, if you let it. If you freaking LISTEN.

It's not because you're an atheist. I'm an atheist too. I hope you realize that. I really hope you do. And I hope you also realize that other atheists probably have the same problem with you. And, for example, with Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher and Sam Harris and Stephen Fry.

 

 

Except that they're not trying so freaking hard to HELP. They won't go to the excruciating effort to try to explain it to you. They'll just stop talking to you.

This time, I will try to explain by comparing atheists, vegans and feminists.

Probably, most people you meet who are vegans will never mention it to you. But there are a few who who are a huge pain in the ass about it. Even if you agree with them that veganism could solve the climate crisis and wipe out human poverty if every human became vegan.

 

You might agree with them about that. You might agree with them about many more benefits of veganism. You could BE a vegan, and still find them to be a huge pain in the ass the same way you and I do, and for the very same reason: over and over again, whether the subject is politics or history or technology or whatever, as soon as they see a connection to veganism, they make the entire conversation about veganism.

The same thing can happen with feminism. You could be a huge, committed feminist. You could believe that feminism is the most important topic that humans could possibly discuss. And I might just completely agree. And still, it could be between extremely difficult and impossible to stand talking to you sometimes, if you made conversations grind to a halt by making them all about feminism. 

Some conversations ARE all about feminism. But some aren't. Some conversations are all about veganism, but others aren't. Until they're highjacked by some pain in the ass who is incapable of discussing anything else. Then the conversations grind to a halt, unless two or more such pains in the ass happen to be present. Everyone else will leave and find something much, much, much more interesting to do.

This brings us back to you, and the subject of religion. Religion, which has permeated human life for most of the time that there have been humans. So that it's fairly hard to discuss history, archaeology, anthropology, politics, economics or sociology while entirely avoiding the subject of religion. But some people will try anyway, if you're around. Because the conversation was interesting and they wanted it to continue.

Okay. I tried. Again. I guess I'll try again. Even though it's exhausting and a huge pain in the ass. Because the odds are very slim that, this, time, you got it.

Is it so Important that the Dixie Chicks are Now the Chicks?

I'm not asking rhetorically. It's more like I'm asking for people's opinions, because I don't know what to make of the name change. One way or another, their new video, "March March,"



is badass.

Did they need to drop "Dixie" from the name of the band? Are Klansmen very pleased by this change, shouting, "Yes! Finally!" ?

Another thing that it makes me think of is that some people at some times in history would still greatly object to the name Chicks and call it degrading to women. "I'm not a chick -- I'm a WOMAN!" I say "at some times in history" because I don't know whether and/or how much these things have changed. I know that in 1989 and 1990, when I was 28 and 29, I was friends with a 19- and 20-year-old woman who got mad whenever I called her a girl instead of a woman, and the last time she got so angry that for 30 years I've been very careful not to refer to a grown-ass woman as a girl. Well, maybe I've loosened up about that a little bit in the past couple of years.

Anyway, in 1989 and 1990, this 19- and 20-year-old woman was a huge fan of Sinead O'Conner, so big a fan that she was seriously considering shaving her head, which was somewhat more unusual for women to do in 1990 than it is now.

And then in 1992, Sinead O'Conner released her 3rd album, and its title was Am I Not Your Girl? and I laughed and laughed and laughed, although I was still so scared of the white-hot anger of that women whom I had not seen for 2 years that I was still very careful to use the term "woman." In fact, by then it had become ingrained habit. Even though by then the Riot Grrrrl punk rock movement was underway, and then a little later there came the Dixie Chicks, now the Chicks,

and it seemed as if the term "girl" and other similar terms, like "chick," might have changed a bit in their usage. But I haven't actually talked with any feminists about this.

Hey, I could do that now!

We could all do a lot of talking to each other now about language and respect and preferences and whether I should have laughed so much when I heard the title of Sinead O'Conner's third album, and all sorts of stuff.

Be sure and watch that new video by The Chicks.

Jordan Peterson Is a Climate-Change Denier --

I'm trying to find something Jordan Peterson has said or written which isn't both erroneous and right-wing -- including his claim that he's not right wing. You see all those wingnuts praising him? Me too. You see any Leftists claiming him as one of our own? Me neither.

There's climate change: Peterson said it isn't happening. He compares people who say that climate change is happening and that humans are making it worse and that it we don't make major changes it will kill us all -- that's most of the people on the planet, right? Most of the people on the face of the Earth, and well over 90% of the experts on climatology, agree that climate change is happening, and that we humans are making it worse, and that if we don't make major changes it will kill us all -- Peterson compares those billions of us to old men walking around in robes with bald heads and long beards, carrying signs proclaiming "THE END IS NEAR!" Peterson's insults, like his take on the climate, are decades out of date.

Peterson claims that smart women want smarter men as mates, and that strong women want stronger men, because they want to be dominated and controlled. ...Eh, res ipsa loquitur. It's hordes of frustrated young men who are flocking to Peterson, not great crowds of women who think that he is stronger and smarter than they are, and therefore find him irresistible.

And by the way: Peterson claims that he's not anti-LGBT+, but this and other positions he has taken, much like a lot of the worst stand-up comedy of the past few decades, fail to account for the existence of non-heterosexuals.

If Peterson is an actual expert in anything, it's mythology: he's studied many myths. He can tell you the stories -- it's when he tries to tell you what they mean that the familiar right-wing gasbag appears again. Peterson, like Jung, insists that myths lead us to universal truths, when the truth is closer to the opposite: myths distract us from uncomfortable truths which we are in danger of learning. Peterson wants the truth? He wants me to tell him the truth?! HE CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

And that's the truth!

Lobsters and dominance and serotonin, anyone? Peterson says we share ancestry with lobsters, the most recent shared ancestors having lived 350 million years ago, and that lobsters get a nice serotonin rush by dominating other lobsters and maintaining the lobster hierarchy.

Our most recent shared ancestors with lobsters lived more like 500 million years ago, or more, than 350 million years ago. Our most recent shared ancestors with chimpanzees and bonobos lived several million years ago. Lobsters and chimpanzees and bonobos, in their natural states, live outside. Chimpanzees throw their poo. Humans and chimps and bonobos and lobsters and bananas and some single-celled organisms all have serotonin, and humans eat lobsters and bananas. The wide range of social structures and hierarchies among chimpanzees and bonobos, who are much more closely related to us than lobsters, would tend to suggest that lobsters having one particular sort of hierarchy is irrelevant to understanding human sociology.

Some leftist critics of Peterson say that he will soon go from revered guru to universal laughingstock, as it becomes understood that his supposedly deep understanding of various branches of knowledge is mud-puddle deep at best. I hope so. The more broadly-dispersed and deep scientific and other academic forms of literacy are, the more quickly will come the time when it is generally understood that Peterson was never more than a charlatan posing as a multi-faceted intellectual. I had at first feared that Peterson might pose a great challenge to my ambitions for Leftist intellectual credibility. Now, after two short posts about him, it feels as if my work on him is just about done. There's no substance there with which to grapple. The man is quite simply a raving loon.

America, This is Our Chance To Elect Just The 3,047th Female Head Of State In The History Of The World!

Am I exaggerrating? Maybe. By much? Maybe not! Take a look:

17.12.1917-09.03.1918 Acting Head of the Government Evheniya Bohdanivna Bosch, Ukraine. 06.04.1940-11.10.1944 Head of State Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, People's Republic of Tannu Tuva. 21.07.1960-27.03.1965, 29.05.1970-23.07.1977, 14.11.1994-10.8.2000 Prime Minister Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka. 19.01.1966-24.03.1977, 14.01.1980-31.10.1984 (†), Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, India. 31.10.1968-24.02.1972 Acting Head of State Song Qingling, China. 17.03.1969-10.04.1974 Minister President Golda Meïr, Israel. 01.07.1974- 24.03.1976 Executive President Maria Estella Martínez de Perón, Argentina. 03.01.1975-07.04.1976 Premierministre Élisabeth Domitién, Central African Republic. 08-1977-09.1977 Minister President Lucinda E. da Costa Gomez-Matheeuws, The Netherlands Antilles. 03.05.1979-22.11.1990 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom of Great Britain. 01.08.1979-3.01.1980 President of the Council of Ministers Dr. Maria de Lourdes Ruivo da Silva Pintasilgo, Portugal. 17.11.1979-18.07.1980 Interim Executive President Lidia Gueiler Tejada, Bolivia. 21.07.1980-14.06.1995 Prime Minister Dame M. Eugenia Charles, Dominica. 01.08.1980-01.08.1996 President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland. 04.02.1981-14.10.1981, 09.05.1986-16.10.1989, 30.11.1990-25.10.1996, Minister of State Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway. 01.04.1981-01.10.1981 Captain Regent Maria Lea Pedini Angelini, San Marino. 21.09.1981-17.011.1993 Governor General Dame Elmira Minita Gordon, Belize. 15.02.1982-15.02.1987 President Agatha Barbara, Malta. 24.03.1982-25.03.1985 President of the Government Lucette Michaux-Chevry, Guadalupe. 15.05.1982-15.05.1986 Chairperson of the Council of Ministers Milka Planinc, Yugoslavia. 01.04.1984-01.10.1984 Captain Regent Gloriana Ranocchini, San Marino. 14.05.1984-29.01.1990 Governor General The Rt. Hon. Jeanne Sauvé, Canada. 14.05-16.05.1984 Acting Head of State Carmen Pereira, Guinea Bissau. 18.09.1984-01.01.1986, 17.051988-25.12.1993 Minister President Maria Ph. Liberia-Peters, Nederlandse Antillen. 25.2.1986-30.06.1992 Executive President Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino, The Philippines. 05.10.1987-30.12.1987 Prime Minister Princess Stella Margaret Nomzamo Sigcau, Transkei. 02.12.1988-06.08.1990, 19.10.1993-05.11.1996 Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan. 13.03.1990-07.02.1991 Acting President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, Haiti. 17.03.1990-10.01.1991 Minister President Kasimiera Prunskienė, Lithuania. 05.04.1990-02.10.1990 Acting Head of State Dr. Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, East-Germany. 25.04.1990-10.01.1997 Executive President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua. 20.11.1990-21.03.1996 Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, New Zealand. 03.12.1990-12.09.1997 President Mary Robinson, Ireland. 20.03.1991-30.03.1996, 01.09.2001-29.10.2006 Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh. 01.10.1991-01.04.1992 Captain Regent Edda Ceccoli, San Marino. 15.05.1991-02.04.1992 Premier Ministre Edith Cresson, France. 08.07.1992-26.10.1993 Minister President Hanna Suchocka, Poland. 25.01.1993-15.09.1994 Premier Marita Petersen, The Faeroe Islands. 01.04.1993-01.10.1993 Captain Regent Patrizia Busignani, San Marino. 25.06.1993-07.03.1996 Minister President Tansu Çiller, Turkey. 25.06.1993-04.11.1993 Prime Minister A. Kim Campbell, Canada. 10.07.1993-11.02.1994 Premier Ministre Sylvie Kinigi, Burundi. 18.07.1993-07.05.1994 (†) Premier Ministre Agathe Uwilingiymana, Rwanda. 25.12.1993-28.12.1993 Minister President Suzanne Camelia-Römer, Nederlandse Antillen. 19.8.1994-14.11.1994 Prime Minister Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Sri Lanka, 14.11.1994-19.11.2005 Executive President. 16.10.1994-25.01.1995 Interim Minister President Reneta Ivanova Indzhova, Bulgaria. 06.06.1990-19.12.1995 (†) Governor General Dame Nita Barrow, Barbados. 07.11.1995-27.02.1996 Premier Minister Claudette Werleigh, Haïti. 23.06.1996-15.7.2001, 06.01.2009- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Bangladesh. 19.07.1996-04.11.1998 President Biljana Plavsic, Republic of Srpska. 03.09.1996-02.08.1997 Chairperson of the Council of State Ruth Sando Perry, Liberia. 09.02.1997-11.02.1997 Acting Executive President Rosalia Arteaga Serrano de Fernández de Córdova, Ecuador. 17.03.1997-22.12.1997 Prime Minister Janet Jagan, Guyana, 19.12.1997-11.08.99 Executive President. 17.09.1997- Governor General Dame C. Pearlette Louisy, St. Lucia. 11.11.1997-11.11.2011 President Mary McAleese, Ireland. 08.12.1997-10.12.1999 Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, New Zealand.

Aaaarggghh! I'm sorry, ladies, I really am, but we're only up to 1997 and I have other things to do. 6 women assumed office as head of state in 1997, 10 did so in 2105, 5 have so far in 2016.

That makes a total of... Let's see... 1, 2 3... every country on Earth except the US and the Vatican.

So it's not just congratulations to Hillary, it's congratulations and about freakin' time! Let's join the human race, America!

What's The Secret To Connie Britton's Hair?