{"id":2354,"date":"2011-07-07T07:24:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T12:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2354"},"modified":"2011-07-07T07:24:26","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T12:24:26","slug":"elevatorgate-belongs-on-tnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2354","title":{"rendered":"Elevatorgate Belongs on TNT"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that the drama around Skepchick<\/a> Rebecca Watson\u2019s elevator encounter has escalated and people are starting to leave the greater community of reason over this. If you don\u2019t know what I am talking about, Rebecca summarizes it HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, this drama is getting a lot of attention and since all publicity is good publicity, it got me thinking. Over the years there have been a few of my fellow atheists that I had some strong differences with and have taken issue with. I usually just let them do their thing and continue to do my thing without doing the whole drama thing. I tend to leave the drama to TNT\u2026 They know it.<\/p>\n

Seriously, should I me more vocal in my feuds with other atheists? Does that help the community? Does that help fight against the Religious Right? It might get some new readers though.<\/p>\n

Okay, I\u2019m not a huge fan of Greg Epstein (the Humanist Chaplin at Harvard). I think he acts like a silver spooned rich kid who is too full of himself. His book reads like he is bragging about how smart he is with quotes that don\u2019t really add to the narrative and I resent his book cover which seems to have been an attempt to latch on to UnitedCoR\u2019s billboard campaign. Plus, he ignored my question in a Q&A and was kind of rude to me afterward. However, I still agree with him on 99.9% of the issues and think that he does a great job creating a community for Humanists. I support his efforts to put a friendlier face on atheism even though I tend to be more the bad cop<\/a> sort. In short, I think he is a giant douche, but I wish him luck and if he needs any help I would be more than happy to support his efforts.<\/p>\n

I also have an issue with BionicDance on YouTube. Awhile back, I disagreed with her in the comments section of a video she did on the Westboro Baptist Church court case and she went irrationally ballistic on me and started to call me names. The next day, I attempted to smooth things over on another social media outlet and she again went irrationally ballistic. So I unsubscribed to her channel and left it at that. I didn\u2019t tell everyone else to unsubscribe because I think some of her videos are actually pretty good (and I told her so). While I can never take anything she says seriously again after her super emotional and irrational discussion, I am sure other people might find her stuff interesting and useful and the more voices out there the better it is for our community.<\/p>\n

That is where Rebecca Watson lost me in this whole elevator drama. Yeah, Richard Dawkins was a big douchebag to her and he was wrong. But she was wrong to encourage people to disengage from the community and to Dawkins\u2019s efforts on other fronts. It is fine to take issue with someone\u2019s personality, but don\u2019t drag everyone else into your drama. Leave the drama to TNT<\/a> or your favorite drama television network.
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