How one Reepo blogger portrayed atheists.
According to a new survey by the Pew Research
Center
Given the absurdly high level of xenophobia in the United States
Why are ‘Muricans so damned scared of
us? Well, I suspect for the same reason they’re terrified of Ed Snowden (61%
see him more as ‘traitor’ than patriot) and also because they lack the cojones
to live their lives as authentic, critically thinking individuals – not merely consumers. So, they
amble through the day scared of their own shadows and anything that smacks of
being a threat in their little consumer toy world. They are also the toddlers who most want the NSA to change their panties for them, and keep them "safe" - probably lest those nasty Muslims and atheists come after them.
Among those polled, atheists received a rating of 33 or
lower (on a scale between 0-100) from 40 percent of respondents and only
20 percent of respondents gave atheists a rating higher than 67. (I warrant that this 20 percent are actually among the upper quintile of I.Q. in the country, that is, roughly 120 on the Wechsler scale. Hence, the vast majority dissing atheists are uniformly DENSAN.)
Interestingly, while many tend to conflate the U.S. with its evangelical
Christian base, Jews and Catholics ranked the highest on the list. Noted Hemant
Mehta on the Friendly Atheist blog:
“[…] When you removed
Evangelicals from the survey, their own approval rating dropped from 61 to 52,
suggesting that Evangelicals think much more highly of themselves than the rest
of us do.”
What makes that so interesting is no other groups in the
poll have that kind of drop if you remove them from the list. Meaning they may
have less political leverage than even they believe. But again, this isn't terribly surprising. As the old cliché goes: "The squeaky wheel always gets the attention" and the evangelicals have received top political attention for so long precisely because they keep so much noise. Jews and Catholics would more likely be favored because together they comprise more of the populace, and are also much less obnoxious than evangelicals.
But dishearteningly, the data also shows that no religious group likes atheists very much, and also atheists and evangelicals both seem to be the archenemies of the
When it comes to the political demographic, Republicans really hate atheists,
which they ranked at 34. The only group Republicans hate more are Muslims,
which they ranked one point lower at 33.
This is not surprising, really, because we all know repukes are the most
intellectually bankrupt, infantile, anti-scientific, and xenophobic bunch there is in the USA
Naturally also, among Republicans the stock of evangelicals
soared, to a ranking 71, a full 4 points over the second spot held by Jews.
This also is not surprising since an anti-scientific, regressive and
knuckle-dragger party would naturally be enamored of a religious group that
most reflects its anti-scientific, knuckle-dragger values. Or as they say in Barbados
Democrats were slightly more favorable to atheists, but not
by much. They ranked them 46, pushing Mormons under at 44, but were slightly
more trusting of Muslims at 47. This also is not too surprising given most Dems
today are nominal and basically unthinking toadies of the corporate state. Since
consumption and making money are what’s most important to them, they would not
trust a group that appears so “anti-American”, i.e. as to refuse belief in a
deity. (Besides still believing that
“most atheists gotta be commies”)
Why is hatred for atheists so universal? This is far from
the first poll to suggest that atheists are the most hated religious group (or
non-religious group) in the US
The 2006 study noted that a significant number of respondents
associated atheism with an array of moral misbehavior, including criminality
and materialist emphasis. In addition, the findings “seemed to rest on a view
of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the
common good.”[2]
This take is nothing short of astounding given
that as a nation and people, Americans are notorious for giving short shrift to
the “common good” as evidenced by consistently voting for no-tax, low tax or tax cutting
candidates. This despite the fact they know the outcome will starve government of the resources
needed to advance the needs of the vulnerable, such as the 17 million kids currently on food stamps - and deprived of enough food because of last December's cuts to food stamps. Seems to me then that these Americans are projecting their own self-interest, miserliness and disrespect for the common good on atheists! We know that this psychological projection is a common device when people feel inferior to, or bested by another group. So they project their own defects onto the hated, perceived superior group.
The truer fact is that Americans (especially the Reeptard crowd who are hardest on atheists) may not like to confront, is
that the U.S. U.S.
As author Richard Hofstadter notes, the acceptance of Social Darwinism in
the U.S.
We know the Rightist-corporate elite (including many of
the ‘robber barons’) latched on to this as a kind of dogma, and then performed
another “miracle” of sorts, by blending this hyper-individualism with Christian
virtue (proto-Calvinism and its work ethic), and a strict, constructionist view
of The Constitution. That Americans
forget this basis for rejecting the common good in the national zeitgeist, while
blaming atheists for it, is nothing short of amazing in terms of hypocritical
acrobatics. Or it perhaps discloses a tragic absence of historical knowledge or
perspective. (Or psychological projection as I already noted.)
In general, the respondents believed they “shared a basic
sense of moral right and wrong” with everyone but atheist fellow citizens.
Difficult to comprehend when the bulk of those actually in prison for major felonies are
members of one religion or the other! And this study emerged after more than 30
years, during which Americans have been led to believe by their media that the
seeds of social tolerance had finally sprouted.
That these "Americans", who pride themselves as being inheritors of the principles of liberty from John Stuart Mill, Franklin, Jefferson and others, could descend to such an abominable level of prejudice was appalling in itself. That it could still manifest in the 21st century is even more outrageous.
Of course, author Morris Berman has noted another, more depressing alternative: that graciousness, tolerance and humanity may no longer be possible in a nation (in the words of Nicholas von Hoffman) rife with a collection of “asses, dolts and blockheads.”[5] A people that choose to live in a self-fabricated consumer and media fantasyland, or a bubble cut off from all reality. The question is why any sane, rational and well-informed atheist should take a cue from such a forlorn lot or allow their prejudices to dictate future behavior.
The only response of a rational atheist is to laugh these demented yokels off and make common cause with the Europeans who at least have grown up enough (most of them) to doff the religious nappies..
[1] University
of Minnesota News, March 31, 2006, “Atheists Identified as America
[2] Ibid.
[3] See,
e.g. ‘The Vogue of Spencer’, Chapter 2, in Richard Hofstadter: Social
Darwinism in American Thought, American Historical Association, 1955.
[4] Op.
cit., pp. 41- 42.
[5] Morris
Berman: Dark Ages America
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