Because of a recent post by a friend of mine, I find myself once again trying to figure out whether a certain splinter group of progressive feminist atheists are worth talking about. I swore to myself that I would not go there once again, but one of the many perks of being godless is that broken oaths don’t bring down the wrath of an unimaginably vengeful Almighty God.
Okay, so here is the deal: I completely agree with the stated goals of A+. I am vocally on the record as such. Of course social justice matters. Of course women should be treated according to their abilities, rather than the by functional nature of their gonads. Of course people of color should not experience systematic discrimination. Of course we should push back against ableism, racism, sexism, etc. Of course we should learn to recognize when we are in possession of privilege that others lack, and continuously avoid taking unfair advantage thereof.
The question, as always, is how best to further these unquestionably noble goals. So far, what I’ve seen A+ do (in practice) is to lead smear campaigns against those who seem to be insufficiently ideologically pure, such as Abbie Smith, DJ Grothe and Justin Vacula. Possibly, the A+ movement had great potential to do more than singling out and tearing down specific members of the skeptical/freethought communities, but I’ve yet to see them do so. Until they do something genuinely positive, I’ve going to file the movement under the category of ‘witch hunt‘ and try to move on.
All that said, maybe I’m just being overly cynical and (with luck) I’ll end up being completely incorrect in my assessment of this aspect of the movement. To quote Principal Skinner, “Prove me wrong, kids! Prove…me…wrong.”
