Just Peter being Peter…
Trigger warning: This entry contains an enormous amount of harsh language, stirring debate, brutal honesty and common sense.
We live in a world where hypocrisy is a word that I find myself using far, far too much these days. I don’t like to use the word, to the point where I’m going to have to break my my thesaurus in an attempt to cut back on the word because I don’t want it to lose meaning when expressing my self on all forums of social media.
For, example… most people who challenge authority, injustice and discrimination are usually called courageous. They are applauded for standing up to bigotry and oppression, and told how amazing the are. Yet when someone challenges an authority that people support, like say… the church, then you are no longer courageous. No, you’re being a dick and an asshole for standing up for yourself.
This is the kind of hypocrisy atheists have to put up with every damn day. Whenever I write something on social media to protest what are obvious examples of religious bigotry and discrimination, I am often being accused of being a dick, and an asshole for pointing that stuff out. Forget the bloggers who are being lashed for trying to exercise free speech, or the men being pitched off high buildings for being gay. Let’s not talk about the 300 school girls who were kidnapped over two years ago by Boko Haram and have not been returned to their families. Never mind that they are being forced into rape marriages or just shipped off and sold for profit to human traffickers. The real victims in this world are snowflakes I hear from who are tired of seeing mean atheist memes on tumblr and twitter that hurt their feelings and offend them.
Yet to anonymous (aka cowardly) boggers, the above examples are just “bullshit excuses” in their infallible opinion, and that I should just shut the fuck up and not say anything about it. I’ve heard this before, and I’ll tell him/her the same thing I tell every other ignorant asshat that tries to tell me what I should and should not post on the internet: travel far away, find a private place, and self fornicate.
In layman terms:
There’s a little thing we have in our countries called free speech and freedom of expression. I don’t remember seeing anything in either of our constitutions that says unless some butt-hurt moron on the internet thinks you’re being a dick. Nope, not there. Being a dick while annoying to some people is still perfectly legal.
How people’s words and attitude is received is also very subjective. Yes, I could be a more polite person, even deliver my rants and lectures with milk and cookies, but people will still be offended because I’m still challenging the existence of their sky daddy and their bullshit fairy tales. With most people I discuss this with, it’s the material most find offensive rather than how it’s being delivered to them. They’re going to be offended anyway, so why the fuck should I walk on eggshells around those butt-hurt idiots?
But hey, I’m being a dick… right?
Like I said before, viewing someone as a dick is completely subjective. One person’s zealot is another person’s freedom fighter. It’s all about perspective. I honestly don’t think exposing the truth about someone else’s bullshit is being a dick. I prefer to think of it as being honest with someone, and calling things as you see it. Sometimes the truth hurts, but calling someone a dick or an asshole is not a valid counter, nor does it change or discredit the facts being presented.
Would you like to know what I consider being a dick?
– Protesting or picketing the funeral of a child that was killed in a school shooting is being a dick.
– Petitioning politicians to defund or close down planned parenthood, an organization that helps women with many health care needs, far beyond abortions is a serious dick move.
– Shooting cartoonists in broad daylight for drawing satirical pictures of religious figures is being a dick.
– Being in a position of power and using that power to tell countries stricken with an AIDS epidemic that using a condom is a sin, total dick move that could result in ten of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
– Only a person being a total dick would honestly suggest that a teenage girl who was molested and raped by her father should be forced to carry her incestuous child to term.
– Strapping a bomb to your chest and detonating it to kill yourself and other people, including young children when they’re trying to leave an Ariana Grande concert is being an extreme dick.
– Shooting people with automatic weapons while they’re eating in a restaurant while screaming “god is great’ in Arabic is my idea of someone being a dick.
– People are being dicks if they honestly believe that their religions should allow them to be exempt from laws like statutory rape, so that they can marry kids when they’re 9 or 10 years old, like Mohammad did.
– If your Imam issues a 3 million dollar fatwa on a writer for doing nothing more than write a work of fiction, then you and your Imam are being total dicks.
– When people are denying basic medical services to children that could save their lives because of your religious beliefs, they are being a dick and endangering life.
– When you repeatedly cover up and transfer pedophile priests around the world rather than turning them over to the police, knowing full well about all the rapes and molestation inflicted on helpless children, than you are being a total dick and are harboring criminals.
Now here’s the kicker, if you think an Atheist being an asshole on social media is more upsetting than the specific examples I just listed, then you are being a far bigger dick and asshole than I could ever be. If how I present myself in a blog is more offensive than that laundry list of outrageous shit, then you need to give yourself a serious realty check because your priorities are seriously fucked up!
Let’s use a more basic metaphor: if you don’t like or enjoy watching a certain television show, then change the channel and don’t watch it. But calling for that show to be banned or censored because you don’t like it it total bullshit. There are many people out there who do like this show and enjoy watching it every week. Should their fun be ruined just because you’re being a wet blanket? The same can be said for the idiots who protest and whine about my online rants, because I get far more positive responses than I do negative. Why would I ruin a good thing for my numerous followers for a small handful of butt-hurt wankers?
In conclusion, I’m not going to apologize for being passionate about how I feel and putting that passion into my work and on social medias like Open Diary. Like the great picture at the top of the entry also states, I’m not going to censor myself to comfort your ignorance. If you don’t like that, then don’t read my blogs. It’s really that simple. That was my original response to any butt hurt whiner when he or she sends me a private message; if you don’t like my blog or how I present things, move on and find someone else who writes the way you would prefer. I am sure there are many blogs out there that present things the way you want, so go find that blog and be merry.
In the meantime, I’m going to stay right here and just let Peter be Peter.
Regards,
Peter
OK, but you still have to stand during the National Anthem.
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No offense taken here.
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Something I’ve found to be true is that too often, the side that thinks you are being a dick, they are because they have forgotten the basic fundamental right you have to have a belief system, and that there is a chance, just a chance, that you might be right.
I wonder, when you post and people think you are being a dick, that perhaps it’s perceived that you have forgotten that they too have a basic fundamental right to their belief system, and that there is a chance, just a chance, that they might be right?
Religion is not my thing, and on FB and other places , where people express their religious beliefs, I just ignore it. It doesn’t matter to me what they believe, they can post it, even if I think it’s ridiculous. What I’ve found though, is that those posts aren’t ever designed to convince me that I’m wrong…They are just expressing their faith.
Some of the atheists that I know, their posts focus on why religious people are wrong, or why it’s ridiculous…And well.. That just isn’t cool, in my opinion.
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Great entry, btw
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