Wednesday, October 31, 2018

IDW Halloween Cards

Happy Halloween Folks! 

(I'll add the rest below the blogpost)

I thought I’d have some fun with IDW/Classical Liberal Halloween cards. There's so many more I could have done, but alas...I didn't have that much time. If you want to join in the fun...make one and tweet it to me @nicemangos :) 

Anyway - a clarification for the pedants: I use the terms IDW/Classical Lib to describe them, their dogmatic fans and the figures who hover around them....the Quillette, 'But what about anti-white racism' types...

...So it's not limited to the amazing bigbrained peeps mentioned in Bari Weiss' LOL-worthy article (featuring pictures of them jerking off trees or hiding in bushes) know the one i'm talking about. 

Why is it important to mock this pretentious circle-jerk as often as possible, you ask? I'll give you a quick rundown, even though I could write a bit on each central figure here, I just don't have the time to delve in that deep at the moment. 

Simply put though, its because they're pushing some dangerous ideas and providing cover for dangerous people. In a new, repackaged & polished format this isn't immediately recognizable to some.

They're driven by a strongly anti-left agenda, while often simultaneously claiming they are on the left ...or at least ‘not right wing’ (though they do have their more open RW types like Ben Shapiro/JBP, but I believe even Peterson has denied being a conservative), 

It's this dishonesty and attempt to mask what they're really pushing for that concerns me. 

I find it's almost better to deal with an open right wing, anti-immigrant type than to deal with a sophist covering their tracks every step of the way, leaving room for plausible deniability, while being an apologist for similar issues. 

In this era of a resurgent far-right and rising hate crimes.... this 'totally-not-right-wing' crew still focus their energies on the left while downplaying the dangers of the far right. 

Anything random campus SJWs do will be an outrage and indicative of the 'rot on the left'... but when it comes down to calling out Milo Yiannopolous, even after he's exposed for being a pedophilia apologist...there will be excuses.... deflections - even if it means pointing the finger at fictional plays and then realizing that your example is ridiculous. 

There will be reminders that Milo was smart and charismatic (they'll say they are no fans, of course!)...but even in the face of him defending sex with minors there will be 'he doesn't deserve this... let's wish him well and hope he can leverage his charm into a new life' type apologetics.   

Or at best, they'll say Milo can't be far right because he's gay and flamboyant, Jewish and has a black boyfriend . They'll dismiss him as a mere troll...justify his outrage at the 'liberal media bias'...and complain about his Twitter Ban. Or defend him using Breitbart articles. 

They'll be happy to threaten to quit Patreon over banning White identitarian Lauren Southern...meanwhile portraying her to their massive audiences as a mere 'conservative journalist'. 

When it comes time to call her out, or state a solid opinion on an obvious extremist like Robert Spencer or... Tommy Robinson - if it's not blatant apologetics (like Rubin's where he literally positions Tommy as *Extremely Moderate*,

...the best you'll get is a shrug and a claim that they 'just don't know enough' to make a judgement on him (while they retweet flawed defences of him).

Even in the wake of serious incidents like more than a dozen pipe bombs being mailed to Trump’s critics their priorities do not shift from the dangers of sjws and The Left. 

They will minimize RW terror threats even, referring to them as "minor events"/a few malicious jerks...

But compare that with the wording you often see about The Left, 'Devouring it's Children' .. oh nooo: 

If not that, there's a general AllLivesMatter-ification, that really endears them and makes them very useful to the far right

I did a more detailed thread on Pinker here

Another Amazing take in response to the Pipe bombs was telling people we shouldn't make it 'costly to consider conspiracy' FFS

Only the most Rational takes from the IDW, I tell ya. And while we're on the topic of conspiracies...who can forget the classic Rubin moment, when he claimed there's a necessary space for Infowars:


Those that follow this cheerful group closely, know full well how often they whitewash troubling views/figures ...or delete criticism of them if it happens to come up. 

It’s about joining hands with those radicalizing young men, with those who fear monger about immigrants, and the whiteness levels of London being too low (aka the far right conspiracy of 'white genocide') - its about giving these things more credibility in the mainstream, and helping to justify and rationalize people’s bigotries while making big bucks. 

It’s about amplifying the "#metoo has gone too far" message, about how women have it better and if they don't have power it's because they don't want to have more power,


Support for publications like Quillette who publish garbage that’s indistinguishable from salafist mullahs at times, is not hard to come by in these 'Dark 'intellectual' parts of the web'.

What these IDW-type RationalSkeptic movements are about is pushing back against those who want equality, and those who want to minimize racism and sexism. 

It's about the maintenance of social hierarchies and the status quo. 

They often find a token minority person to champion 'controversial' views, so they can serve as a shield from criticism and accusations of bigotry. 

It’s also about proclaiming ....loudly... how identity politics is bad, but using identity politics at the drop of a hat when it suits you. 

Its about criticizing people who use the word racist, but using it happily yourself whenever it suits you. 

Casually accusing groups of people of having the intellectual and moral integrity of the KKK even, 

It’s about discrediting the media as Rubin does with his Infowars support and CNN/MSM hate, and about discrediting entire educational fields too (Peterson has declared entire fields of study 'corrupt' because of postmodern neo marxism)... all the while, these heroes pat themselves on the back for being the Rational ones ...having 'tough conversations' and tolerating differing views (while tossing out lawsuit threats like halloween candy, of course).

It's about downplaying actual sieg heiling white supremacists while claiming that the term Nazi has lost meaning. 

I mean it's exhausting just pointing out the endless contradictions, holes and dangers of such self-important groups. 

These are the threats we recognized in islamist sanitizers posing as progressive...*immediately* in ‘skeptic circles’ but unfortunately...this crew has managed to convince many 'Rational', atheist-skeptic types that re-energizing conversations around ‘race science’, traditional gender roles, and anti trans sentiment from a ‘respectable, 'this is just science/rationality' angle is indeed ‘real liberalism’. 

So....this, dear readers, is a very quick rundown of why I think it’s incredibly important to mock and expose this group pushing alt lite/right adjacent talking points into the mainstream. Especially in today's political climate. 

This is where the real threat of literal regressiveness lies, currently - and I think we should do our part to push back.

Now that that's out of the are some lighthearted Halloween cards, meant to be viewed with that perspective in mind (all that for 4 illustrations, I know! I've just had a lot I needed to get off my chest about this subject for a while):


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Friday, May 18, 2018

Waking Up to Issues in the Atheist Scene

Not long ago, similar emails to the one I'll share below were only sent to me by Muslims questioning their faith, scripture and double standards, etc. 

I still get those, and power to the people breaking away from religion. 

Such emails still fill my heart with joy because despite the accusations of 'taqqiya' that I get, I am no fan of religion. I just happen to be of muslim background and vocally against anti-muslim sentiment, so you know how it goes. 

I remember how freeing it was to realize you're no longer tied down by an obligation to please a god that never seems satisfied, and one that doesn't seem consistent either. 

Now, in addition to the 'questioning religion' emails, I get quite a lot from people questioning the double standards, the rightward shifting priorities, leaders, shady associations with the alt right/lite, etc. within movement atheism (a movement many deny exists at all, to avoid criticism). 

Of course it's not at all the same as questioning ancient ideology forced upon you since childhood - you can unclench your buttocks, haters...I'm not drawing an equivalence.

BUT...there's still something about it that feels a little regressive and cult-like. The blind faith, dogmatism, tribalismhomophobiasexismsexual abuse and harassmenttransphobia - and often, what boils down to a refusal to question leaders. All these things, that make so many movement atheists smug because they regularly assume and *loudly* declare that they're above it all, are present within their own circles too. 

Read full transcript here 


I mean, there are several atheist accounts dedicated to sharing empty platitudes about how amazing and Rational/Logical being an Atheist is. Here's a sample:

You'll often see people in the atheist scene who are obviously biased to the right declare how 'non-tribal' they are. Or how they are the 'Last Liberal' ...*cringe* I know, I know....


For me personally...after leaving Islam and finding others like myself online, I thought I had finally found a place to belong, a place where people shared my values. 

I could't have been more wrong. 

"Atheism", as many twitter pedants point out when faced with any criticism of the community or leaders, means nothing more than a lack of belief in god. 

So naturally, one would find that people from all over the political spectrum can be atheists. 

What one would not expect however, is that the online movement that has developed ...would be biased strongly against the left, progressives, feminism - with many of it's prominent leaders signal boosting right leaning talking points or rightwing talking heads much of the time. 

Brain grenade because logic - get it? It's genius...and so so subtle. 

Before moving on, let's just quickly revisit who Douglas Murray and Jordan Peterson are... 

Doug is the sweet guy you see in the clip below, who thinks even if the nicest asylum seekers are taken in...their currently unborn children the future... mayyyyy...some know, become terrorists. 

He's also the lovely fellow who worries about declining whiteness levels of London. 

And who's Jordan Peterson? Well he's the noted intellectual who complained in a chat with Camille Paglia about how men can't control 'crazy' women because they aren't allowed to physically fight them

He's the guy who isn't sure if men and women can work together, and who thinks women who wear makeup/high heels to work but expect not to be harassed are hypocrites. 

(clip via @classiclb3ral)

More recently, Peterson is also the guy who thinks that 'enforced monogamy' is a reasonable and not totally unhinged thing to suggest

But above isn't the only time he's suggested something as fucking horrendous as that. 

So...all around, lovely gentlemen. Who wouldn't want to have multiple events with them and signal boost and promote them...right? 


The Atheist movement (that does not exist) has a distinct culture, distinct talking points, has centred and rallied around the same causes, socialized at the same conferences and supported the same atheist/humanist has clearly appointed top-tier authorities and leaders, who's words are often treated as infallible by the most matter how contradictory. all sounds so familiar.

Its amusing to see people tie themselves into knots trying to defend some of the stuff out there. 

The latest embarrassment was a rather hilarious piece on these self dubbed members of the "Intellectual Dark Web" (IDW) featuring a bunch of anti-left figures with at least two prominent atheists in the group (Rubin/Harris). 

How they agreed to pose for a photoshoot where they were told to stand creepily in the bushes I do not know. But it was incredibly entertaining. 

The term IDW was thoroughly mocked (as any self congratulatory bullshit should be), as were the members. 

(click to enlarge)

Mockery aside though, It's quite depressing that movement Atheism has turned into such a joke. I valued it so much once. 

This unraveling of the movement and it's leaders has been tough to come to terms with. Especially for those of us who have already done this bit before...wrestled our beliefs, questioned respected leaders, lost community for it, and so on.

I had noticed a troubling turn 2-3 years ago. The questions in my mind became harder and harder to ignore when Rubin arrived on scene. He really brought the hypocrisies to the surface. 

My personal, recent last straw was the treatment of the Krauss thing generally among movement leaders....and the Ezra Klein/Harris convo, the utterly obvious flaws in thinking. That was really it for me. No looking back and hoping former heroes come to their senses. 

But anyway, the point of this blog post was to share one of several emails i've received in the past couple of weeks with the same theme.

If you have a story like this to tell, email away! (nicemangosDOTblogATgmailDOTcom)

I'm so glad more and more people are Waking Up and recognizing that something's not right here.

It's starting to feel a bit less lonely on the left side of movement atheism. 


Here's the brief email: 

About two years ago I heard your podcast with Harris and it was a defining moment. 

Harris had taken the place of a hero. Your criticisms made me defensive and dismissive but I couldn't help carry them with me after that and notice Rubin, Saad, and so on. 

Peterson came along and I felt strange. When did dubious messianic preachers become the cool new thing the kids are into? 
I watched Bill Maher have this unremarkable chickenhawk cult leader in the making on his show unquestioned, unchallenged, and that's when you popped into my head for the first time in a long time. 

When I went to see what you were up to, I was really happy to see you were still active, and having conversations about the alt-right in movement atheism. 

I'm really thankful I'm not blind to these problems as they unfold, that I'm not in denial, not falsely convincing myself of my rationality while being a hypocrite. 

That was largely provoked by you and a few lines of criticism.



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Wednesday, January 31, 2018




(clip via TMM)





You'll never believe who Doug is a big fan of: 




screenshot via @classiclib3ral






































Totally normal professor. 

(clip via @cyberharm)








Peterson actually *weeps* in this clip about how some





I cringed when I heard Cathy's point about Free Speech. 









Peterson's tune would be entirely different). 




(click to enlarge)




(click to enlarge)







He is what he hates.





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