Keep falling for that old, tired assumption that freefromthoughtblogs can no longer surprise me with its stupidity. This is so thoroughly gob-smacking that my bruised and battered mind refused to apprehend it fully on a first pass, probably as a self-preservation auto-response. It really makes the Prune look like a rocket scientist. I am at an absolute loss as to how a mind could become so degenerate and so immune to well documented reality. This is how a relatively new loser on the FfTB block defines Freethought, en route to earning brownie points by engaging in groupthink pissing on the latest witch of the week, Pat Condell –
‘Freethought’ has always been a left tradition – by Alex Gabriel
Objections to Freethought‘s place in our masthead are among the laziest, glibbest soundbites our critics have, but more than that display a failure to grasp even the term’s most basic history. Freethought is not ‘free thought’ or uninhibited inquiry – to think so boasts the same green literalism as thinking a Friends’ Meeting House is a shared beach hut or that Scotch pancakes contain Scotch – though even if it were, it’s silly and inane to assume one’s critics are automatons or say loose collective viewpoints mean dictatorship. Freethought is a specified tradition, European in the main, whose constituents have by and large been countercultural, radical and leftist, everything Condell and cohorts viscerally despise.
Were it posted anywhere other than FfTB, I would at first assume it was a well crafted Poe designed as flame bait. Depressingly, the cretin appears sincere.
“Freethought is not ‘free thought’ or uninhibited inquiry”
Just read that back to yourselves a few times. Savour its exquisite barnyard aroma.
It beggars belief. I have to wonder precisely what kind of education process is responsible for churning out such a brain dead parrot. Or more importantly, who is responsible for embedding this kind of rote learned tape loop in his mind. Freethoughtblogs has more in common with Pol Pot than The Enlightenement. I have vivisected precisely why FfTB is the antithesis of Freethought previously, and no more needs to be said –
Ask PZ Myers: How Is It That You Can Claim To Be A Freethinker?
It is a credit to freeze peach that imbeciles like this exist and have blogs. Dining tables, as Barney Frank would put it. But it is a two edged sword. While dingbats like Alex Gabriel provide an endless source of mirth for the few actual Freethinkers that remain, consider the poor kids out there that are making their first lunges to free themselves from religions and cults. The likelihood is that they will do so online, and there is a high probability they will stumble on FfTB. And thus have their minds poisoned by a fresh brew of snake oil that the likes of Gabriel peddle…
This is where the real damage gets done. Do your duty. Save the kids from these charlatans. If you don’t, no one else will.
September 28, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Their idea of “freethought” has nothing to do with freedom or thinking, or so it seems.
September 29, 2013 at 12:10 am
Totalitarian abuse of language is as old as, well, totalitarianism. Of course they have to redefine the word “freethought”. If they used its actual meaning, they’d have to admit that everything written on their silly blog network is eminently laughable shite.
When your position cannot be supported by reason, rewrite the dictionary.
September 29, 2013 at 12:11 am
Oops, apologies for the tag fail. [fixed]
September 29, 2013 at 12:44 am
Totally agree with this point in particular. This is why these nitty gritty debates over simple issues *need to* remain on the table and argued repeatedly. There is an enormous supply of ignorance in the world and it is in need of constant confrontation with facts and education.
September 29, 2013 at 11:47 am
Wow. Less than a 1000 words…
Yes. These concepts are a line in the sand that can’t be crossed. They are not negotiable. They are not variable. They are not there to engineer for bias confirmation. This guy is a fucking imbecile. He has no idea of The Enlightenment’s origins or its prime movers – who all, without exception, would view freefromthoughtblogs with absolute horror and revulsion.
September 29, 2013 at 11:55 am
I know I’m banging the same drum, but The Enlightenment has more in common with bare-knuckle Cynicism than critical theory, PoMo or marxism and its roots can be traced back to ~350 BCE. Superb study, by a GIRL(!) –
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cynic-Enlightenment-Diogenes-Re-visions/dp/0801893852/
September 29, 2013 at 12:47 am
Off-topic question out of curiosity: Do the YouTube ads at the end of the post provide any substantive income support? (I’m hoping yes.)
September 29, 2013 at 11:33 am
Yeah. I’m rolling in it. A good month can maybe buy me two whole beers… WordPress are business people. They don’t offer me ads because they care about me.
September 29, 2013 at 9:21 am
I just can’t make up anything this pretentious. I think leftists just try to out-pretense each other. He’s proving how leftists have a corner on religious criticism by calling Pat Condell a racist for criticizing religion. Communists did have a soft spot for Islam, apparently.
September 29, 2013 at 11:38 am
The commies LOVED islam. And the relationship of Marxism and islamism is not discussed often enough.
http://www.globalpolitician.com/default.asp?23436-terror-russia/
I no longer differentiate the baboons from radical islamists. I have written about it here since forever.
September 29, 2013 at 11:08 pm
“Scotch pancakes contain Scotch”
What a spiffing idea. It had never occurred to me.
To us it’s just “whisky”. And “scones”.
I shall get cracking on the prototypes right away.
yrs, etc.
A Scotchman on the make
October 1, 2013 at 5:09 am
Reblogged this on liftgate and commented:
Alex Gaaaaaaabriel hungry for crayons
October 1, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Brilliant post, well written, well reasoned, and above all completely true.
October 6, 2013 at 5:53 am
While that post of Gabriel’s is indeed nonsensical gibberish, have a look at his defence of A+ (forum included). It is positively shining with idiocy and blatant newspeak/think: http://freethoughtblogs.com/godlessness/2013/10/05/lessons-from-atheism-plus/
October 6, 2013 at 11:30 am
Oh I did. It is one of those rare posts you can only endure a paragraph at a time or risk brain death. FfTB is really scraping the bottom of the barrel if this is the new talent. I’m dying to hear the peabrain define what “critique” is for us. The ‘pit has some lovely satirical images paying tribute –
http://slymepit.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10&start=375
October 19, 2013 at 1:37 am
Hey Franc,
Long time reader here. Lately I have been comparing feminists and groupthinkers to creationists simply because nothing undermines their ideas better than being shown as what they truly are: dogma.
& I am not looking for clicks, I just want to tank you for your direct style which has, to a degree, influenced mine.
http://nobodygetsoffended.wordpress.com
PS
When are you going to be on the dumbeddown atheist podcast again?
You should have your own podcast, youtube channel. The sad truth is that reading is too “demanding” for lazier young people who prefer video or audio which take the active role of presenting the info to them, if we are to make a dent on the number of young people exposed to dogma free atheism instead of feminist-dogmatic false atheism.
Cheers