Some of you really, REALLY need to stop confidently stating what issues atheists do and don’t face, because it is glaringly obvious that you don’t know what you’re talking about. In the past couple weeks I’ve seen:
“Atheists don’t get called groomers or pedophiles like trans people do” - yes. yes, we absolutely do. And they used the exact same language - we’re preying on children, we’re perverting the wholesome family values of this country, we’re infiltrating schools to push our agenda, children are too young to know about these things so they have to be protected from our ideology until they’re old enough to have already been indoctrinated against it to make their own decisions. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying atheists have it worse and this has largely fallen out of favor in the mainstream conversation but like … it ABSOLUTELY happened and still happens, depending on where you are.
“When Christians clutch their pearls about ‘satanists’ they’re actually talking about religious minorities, not atheists” - have you ever, in your entire life, met a fundamentalist Christian? Like their whole thing is that atheists are devil worshippers sent by Satan to corrupt good Christian souls. Pointing out that atheists by definition don’t believe in Satan doesn’t work. I’ve tried. Like yeah they probably also hate other religions but to think that atheists are somehow exempt from that hatred is wild if you have literally ever seen one of these people talk.
“Fundamentalists don’t hate atheists the way they hate religious minorities because atheists don’t represent a threat to their religious hegemony” - aside from the above re: fundamentalists fucking hate atheists - atheists represent the PRIMARY threat to religious hegemony. Atheists have been fighting tooth and nail for decades to get the church out of governments and schools and mostly, we fucking won! Public schools aren’t allowed to force kids to pray anymore and they are allowed to teach evolution! Christian hegemony is bad now, but it was way, WAY worse a hundred years ago, and you primarily have atheists to thank for changing that. And by the way - most negative stereotypes about atheists come directly from those fights. That we’re “oversensitive” and “evangelical” and “want to force everyone to be atheists” comes from the fact that we keep suing to keep religion out of the government and people hated that, not because some people are shitty online.
Anyway, what with the current rise of Christofascism and the fact that some states seem to be gearing up to reintroduce mandatory prayer in schools, this is your weekly reminder that the fight is far from over and that you need to get over your weird hangups about atheists and start fucking helping us.
Almost everyone I work with, the majority of my family, and most of the people around me in my area sincerely think atheists are less than human because they are controlled by demons and out to ruin the world and indoctrinate children. My family had a larger emotional reaction to me being an atheist than they did me coming out about being severely abused. People have quit speaking to me entirely over it. I could easily lose my job if I am too publicly outspoken about being an atheist. (And yes they can do that, I live in an at will employment state.) People get disowned by their families for it here. Being an atheist where I live is literally hell and does come with a lot of challenges.
Release yourself from the idea that atheism is just whiny people on Reddit. It’s a beautiful and diverse group of people just like anyone else trying their best in a world that doesn’t want them to exist.