Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for to .
![[A bar chart showing 2008-2016 domestic terrorism incidents by type in the US. Right wing: around 115 incidents, around 75 carried out (the rest foiled); Islamist: around 62 incidents, around 15 carried out; Left wing: around 19 incidents, around 15 carried out.]](https://www.canadianatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017-investigative-fund-study-2008-2016-domestic-terrorism-incidents-by-type-200x102.png)
This is American data, but it paints a wildly different picture than what most people think about terrorism.
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[] “Does the Left Hate Free Speech? (Part 1) | ContraPoints” (Video: 16:52)
“Regressive left” is practically a mantra in some circles, pushing the idea that there’s a sizable group on the left that is stifling free speech with their trigger warnings, their safe spaces, their deplatforming, and so on. While there are some dumbasses on the left, the idea of the “regressive left” actually being a thing is mostly bullshit, and plainly hypocritical to anyone who takes the time to dig into it a bit, but so few people do. ContraPoints does a wonderful job of picking apart the reality of free speech, and getting deep into the weeds of the difficulties in applying it in practice. Part 2 has just been uploaded.
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[] Believing In God And Believing Survivors Of Sexual Violence Are Very Different Things
Matthew Facciani debunks a silly equivocation about taking someone’s word at face value by default.
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The article’s focus is on Trump and America, but the attitude – that Islamist terrorism is somehow uniquely problematic – is widespread here in Canada. The reality, as evidenced by all the data cited in the article, is quite different from what most people think.
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[] Why do public atheists have to behave like such jerks?
We do have a serious image problem.
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[] Kindness is the enemy of extremism
It’s such a simple idea, but it’s surprisingly effective.
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[] Anti-Islam rally in Calgary meets with counter-protest but remains peaceful
Bigots and decent human beings exchanged protests in Calgary, but there was no violence, thankfully.
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[] Media portrays Indigenous and Muslim youth as ‘savages’ and ‘barbarians’
The Conversation has come to Canada, and they’re coming out swinging. In this piece, Concordia University Professor of Communication Studies Yasmin Jiwani reveals that there’s a lot of implicit bigotry hidden in Canadian media.
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[] How Canadian Media Normalizes Islamophobia
It’s all to easy to point the finger at the usual culprits, like The Rebel Media, but it turns out that the problem is more mainstream than you’d think.
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There have been a number of court cases recently about getting exemptions from religious classes in publicly-funded Ontario’s Catholic schools, and a lot of misinformation has been going around. This piece clarifies that not every student can get exemptions – only non-Catholic students can – but those who can are allowed to get them unconditionally.
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[] Whooping cough outbreak in southern Alberta grows to 92 cases
CBC doesn’t point any fingers in this article, but previous articles have pointed out the alarmingly low immunization rate in the particular communities involved… and even pointed fingers at a suspect: religion.
Canadian Atheist’s Weekly Update depends on the submissions of readers like you. If you see anything on the Internet that you think might be of interest to CA readers, please take a minute to make a submission.
“Regressive left” is practically a mantra in some circles, pushing the idea that there’s a sizable group on the left that is stifling free speech with their trigger warnings, their safe spaces, their deplatforming, and so on”
If you don’t like that term, you could use “authoritarian left”, “establishment left”, or my favorite “assholes who hijacked my movement to enrich themselves”.
They’re currently running Canada, most universities in North America, and most media including notably Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.
“a silly equivocation”
Nope. When a particular category of claim is known to be frequently hoaxed for a wide variety of reasons including political and revenge, and when the key evidence almost entirely amounts to words, and when supposedly serious people are actually recommending people be able to retroactively reconstrue something then legal as a crime by a mere change of words, you had better be skeptical.
There is a cloud of lying around sex generally, and in particular around sexual “harassment”, assault, abuse, and “violence” (a perfectly good word rendered meaningless by postmodernists).
We must not be distracted by the fact that some people are assaulted, and do need access to competent care afterward. Compassionate response needs to happen, but that’s never in dispute. It is nevertheless also true that the overwhelming majority of people will never be sexually harassed or assaulted in their lifetimes, even if the spend their lives in the riskiest places we have for sex assault. And it is always true that when claims of criminal wrongdoing are alleged, the accused have rights, and are presumed innocent.
“Islamist terrorism is somehow uniquely problematic”
It’s as if you don’t have access to Wikipedia’s list of terror attacks over the years. By failing to use the facts, you’re only making yourself stupider.
“We do have a serious image problem”
If I knew how to fix Mr. Street, perhaps I could help you as well. But the disease appears to be chronic and without treatment beyond hopeful waiting.
“there’s a lot of implicit bigotry hidden in Canadian media”
This is a one-sided view. If you observe conversation in aboriginal or Muslim circles, you’ll discover this is something they engage in as well, except not only are they not ashamed of it like we are, but they promote it.
If we’re going to have a “Conversation” (how come these always seem like they should be named “Inquisition”?) then we need to be honest about all sides.