So last night, the Daily Show did a series of bits on the 'Culture War', and amongst the jokes Jon Stewart took a few minutes to take the side of Fox News against ... atheists.
/boggle
Although I disagree with his argument, it's still funny. I know not to take it too seriously. I guess it would be funnier if such remarks about hate were only jokes.
Now, Jon doesn't really have to guess why the American Atheists have filed a lawsuit against the inclusion of this cross in the memorial. Granted, it's more fun to make up a caricature of the case. But I found this explanation readily enough.
The museum is a public building being funded with federal and state money. American Atheists contend that the World Trade Center (WTC) cross is a Christian symbol. Thus, including this Christian representation in the national museum, while excluding representations of other non-Christian viewpoints, violates the civil rights of non-Christians, as well as the separation of church and state guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Not only is this taking the tax dollars of skeptics and believers of all other stripes (does that include you too, Jon?) to fund an exclusively xian memorial, it's leaving out the victims of 9/11 who were unfortunate enough to also be non-xian.
And you know it has to be satire when Jon jokes about hatred directed at atheists. He uses Fox News to quote Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists:
The WTC cross has become a Christian icon. It has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn't be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross.
Cut back to Jon preparing his tsk-tsk moment, and I had to laugh. So often, all he has to do is make a face and say no more. And yet, with that kind of biased setup, one person in his audience dared to clap for that quote. Of course, he can't comment on its content, but instead pokes fun for how it might inspire more hate.
Unfortunately, it's a moot point. People who understand religious freedom, separation of church and state, that sort of thing, aren't liable to be driven to irrational hate by that. The folks who hate atheists are already set in their ways, and more than happy to express it, given the opportunity.
It looks as if Fox News' coverage of the American Atheists' lawsuit inspired all manner of hate speech on Fox's Facebook page.
American Atheists report that moderators on the Fox News Facebook page had been trying diligently to delete the violent threats, but not before they were screen-captured by a diligent American Atheists member named Robert Posey.
(For screen shots of just a few of the death theats that have been preserved, please see the slide show.)
I was pleased to see that the Facebook users spouting death threats against atheists were shown in all their perverse glory, with no blurring or blacking out of names or icons to protect the guilty. I wonder if Fox really cares about such violent threats, or if they cared more about how bad these comments made them look. Meanwhile, Jon can make light of the very idea. It's funny, in a sad sort of way. We're already hated. There is only so much more damage that can possibly be done, in a society where such hate is so easy to find, where tragedies like 9/11 can be twisted to serve an exclusively xian mindset.
I understand that many here would disavow the jerks posting comments about killing atheists or wishing the worst upon them. Maybe they're not 'true' xians at all. How can someone post a thought like 'I love Jesus, and the cross and if you don't, I hope someone rapes you!' How do they make these ideas compatible, I wonder? Is it fake? But when they've screen-shotted that many hateful comments, I have trouble dismissing them all as fake. You've got some low quality believers mixed in there in your 2.2 billion strong collection. I don't know what to tell you about it. Skeptics have their low quality sorts as well.
Anyway. It's not like this will make me mad or get me to stop watching the Daily Show, far from it. How sad would that be, if I can't stand a little satire directed at me? I can chuckle along with this just fine. But as I do, I also chuckle at the actual hate, which is really no joke, and well represented in the source Jon used to make fun. It's the idea that skeptics could make things that much worse -- that's the joke. Yeah, it could be worse. And if it does get worse for skeptics, it'll be Fox News helping to make it so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Atheists note that few politicians have been willing to identify as non-theists, since until recently such revelations would have been "political suicide",[47][48] and welcomed Democratic California Representative Pete Stark's 2007 decision to come out as the first openly nontheistic member of Congress.[30] In 2009, City Councilman Cecil Bothwell of Asheville, North Carolina was called "unworthy of his seat" because of his open atheism.[49] Indeed, several polls have shown that about 50 percent of Americans would not vote for a well-qualified atheist for president.[50][51] A 2006 study found that 40% of respondents characterized atheists as a group that did "not at all agree with my vision of American society", and that 48% would not want their child to marry an atheist. In both studies, percentages of disapproval of atheists were above those for Muslims, African-Americans and homosexuals.[52]