This post is a long time coming, as years ago, I've systematically unsubscribed from every atheist Youtube channel I used to follow the minute Thunderf00t switched from lampooning Creationism to ranting about feminists and "social justice warriors."
Every single atheist intellectual that I followed--up to and including Michael Shermer, by whom I have read two books--has been revealed to be a complete and utter fraud. Sam Harris, who is possibly the worst of these, has revealed himself to be a total bigot and a crybaby after he publicized an email exchange he had with Ezra Klein.
Retrospectively, it's not hard to see where atheism went off the rails. It's certainly not the first time that science has provided the justification for bigotry, but it is extremely ironic, given what was atheism's mission in the climate from which it had arisen.
What could be described as "Movement Atheism" or "A"theism (with a capital A) arose as a response to the ascent of religious extremism--particularly Christian and Muslim varieties following 9/11 in the early 2000s. Michael Shermer's The Science of Good & Evil, which I read in my senior year of high school, was published in 2004. Sam Harris's The End of Faith was published, according to the copyright date in my paperback copy, "2004, 2005". The point is that Atheism's mission had been one of global enlightenment, an alternative to the right wing religious zealotry that had been sweeping both the United States and the Middle East in the aftermath of the WTC attack.
Something else happened instead. An anti-dogmatic movement became relentlessly dogmatic. Atheism became, instead of a viable, liberating alternative ideology, an equally oppressive and, later, extremely misogynistic, ideology. It became the monster it had hated, and participated in the propping up of voices antithetical to its enlightenment aspirations. It has descended into Scientism.
Scientism only allows for what is measurable through physical science, and, as demonstrated in the Sam Harris/Ezra Klein Debate, does not allow for historical experiences or political realities to get in its way; seeking biological justifications which can be measured through a microscope in the place of of sociological and political evidence of long-existing discrimination. Science was supposed to take us forward, but here we are reliving debates from the 19th century. The severity of this crime is hard to exaggerate, as the Neo-Nazis have latched on to this new form of scientism as justification for their policies.
Atheism's callous treatment of political and historical evidence of discrimination against minorities bleeds into its horrific treatment of women both inside and outside its own movement. Atheism has bled into RedPill and MRA cultures, and, if you've read Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, this is where fascism begins.
Atheism has failed. It has failed so horribly in its original mission that it is categorically no better than the religious ideologies it had originally intended to combat. It has failed so horribly and so completely that it has become the threat to the very thing it had originally promised to defend and uphold. While Evangelical Christianity is paying for the Faustian bargain of electing Donald Trump, Atheism has provided fuel for the resurgence of Nazism in the United States. I would be more than glad to see it go away.
