There Is a War Going On At Freethought Blogs! Are they Self-Destructing?

Thunderf00T seems to have gone on a rampage. Ed Brayton wants to completely censor him from speaking at all atheist conventions. Natalie Reed subsequently blisters the atheist community. Atheistlogic even calls for a new atheist movement. There is a war going on! Natalie Reed writes:

This is the last post I will ever write about conflicts internal to the Atheist Movement.

I quit. Consider this my act of serving the movement my divorce papers.

There is a lot I’ve been thinking about lately, and I’ve been doing a great deal of reappraisal of how I relate to Atheism, to Skepticism, how I see myself fitting into it. The truth is that I’ve sort of found myself having lost faith in the faithless, as silly as that sounds, and no longer believing whether this is what I want my fight to be and the people with whom I wish to fight. Link

Atheistlogic says:

What we need is an actually new atheist movement. One that actually cares about the people. While I enjoy many privileges in life (being white, male, cisgendered, able-bodied, etc) I’m tired of a movement that clothes itself in these privileges and then claims that they’re better for it.

I want a new atheist movement that actually cares about people. An atheist movement that will look at the way religion poisons our views on gender, race, or sexuality and actively tries to combat that. I want an atheist movement that will reach out help other people, regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, ability, education, wealth, visibility, or even religion. Yes, religion, we don’t have to agree with them, we don’t even have to be nice about it, but we can still be the goddamn compassionate ones who will reach across and help anyone in need, regardless of whether they can refute Pascal’s Wager or not.

I want a new atheist movement that isn’t going to call women on the internet cunts for having an opinion.

I want a new atheist movement that is open and inviting and accessible to everyone who wants to be there.

And I want a new atheist movement where we can tell the people to fuck off and leave if they have a problem with creating a safe space for the people who want to be there. Because fuck those guys. Link.

This is all so sad to me, really. Given the divisiveness of PZ Myers and company I can't say I didn't see this coming sometime. I didn't expect it so soon though. If you throw enough shit around it will eventually be thrown back at you, that I know. While I most emphatically embrace the values of feminism and the marginalized, the hate that spewed forth from so many Freethought Bloggers in a few cases where there was room for debate, especially the evidence that misogyny is rampant among atheists at atheist conventions, was disheartening. And Thunderf00t needs to give it a rest, seriously!

Like Natalie Reed I too am disgusted. That's why my wife and I started attending church recently.