Atheism and equality do not go hand in hand.

Required reading for this post:

Rebecca Watson
Greta Christina
Jason Thibault
Greta again

To summarize: Rebecca Watson notices that assholes on reddit use a 15 year old girl as a sex object, and makes the note that atheists aren't necessarily in favour of equality. Jason points out that it's good that Rebecca shows off how idiotic the atheist movement can still be, reminds us that we are obviously not infallible, and that we should use her ability to really push the assholes out of the woodwork to fix our problems. Greta points out that by minimizing what is going on you're really part of the problem, and then another random asshole threatens her and tells her to shut up.

See, this is a problem, from start to finish, and it's a clear reminder of one simple fact: not believing in a god doesn't equal not being part of the fucking problem. I can't pretend to be perfect, but I try to follow the advice of people like Greta, and Jen, and Rebecca, and make sure that I think about what I say. These sorts of people who sexualize an utterly unsexual and totally inappropriate situation for cheap thrills are pretty low.

But what scares me more is that when attention is called to it by a man, they don't say anything (like when Jason called them out) - but when a woman speaks up (in this case, Greta Christina), they tell her to shove a knife inside of her and shut up. Call our behaviour bad? Shut the fuck up woman, have some genital mutilation, and get back in the kitchen.

How do you fight that sort of idiocy, aggression, misogyny? You call it out, even if you're a blogger who has no following. You remind the people who are at the front lines of the fight that they're not alone. And if you see it...you call it out. Don't give people a pass just because they figured out there's no god. Sometimes that's just the first epiphany people have to have before they sort shit out.